When (and if) I should Top My Peppers

[Shawn]

This question is often asked and our resident Pepper King had a great answer when I asked him.

Here is his response....  I hope it helps you as much as it did me (even if I often forget)

Feb 2, 2018 18:28:29 GMT -5 mike said:

Topping them isn't always the right answer. If you know the plant is supposed to be about 18", you need to determine if the plant is a light-seeker, or a chubby-baby.

A light-seeker tens to germinate quickly. Then it grows vertically fairly quick. The problem is, the base of the plant hasn't a chance to develop, and remains quite thin early on. These are plants you definitely want to top off. I usually wait 6 weeks to make that determination. These tend to be more common in milder peppers.

A chubby-baby is a pepper plant that naturally wants to bush out. These plants typically don't grow more than 20" tall, and are very common in ornamental peppers. Ornamental peppers tend to be quite hot. Many of them have a bitter taste to them as well. One nice exception was the Loco Hybrid Peppers I grew three years ago. Very nice flavor, and very hot. But it has a lot of seeds for a 1" long x 3/4" diameter purple pepper. (matures red) You never need to top these.

Super-hots are notoriously slow growers. That gives them plenty of time to grow a sturdy base. However, I usually top these when the get to 9-inches or so. Every super hot I've grown is really too large for an AG. All of them get minimum 4-foot limbs if you leave them alone.

I also usually top off jalapenos, as well.

Just remember, topping them does slow down the pepper production. But, you usually get 50% more peppers overall.

[Sher]

Thank you for making this a sticky, Shawn!

Thanks for this! Very timely for me as I am contemplating it at this time.

[mike]

I would like to make a couple of further comments on this.

When I made the initial statements here, much was based on previous experience with lower-powered light sources. What I called a "Light Seeker" was caused in many cases by insufficient lighting. When I started growing with the AG in 2012, all I had was Classic-7 CFL systems. Plants would grow towards the underpowered CFL lights quickly leaving the plants tall and spindly. They had to be topped just to prevent them from toppling over.

Today, the 60w hoods on the Farms can have them further from the plant without the plant needing to reach for that light. A good example of what I am referring to is Heirloom Tomatoes. I received a Tomato seed pod kit with one of the Farms I bought this past year. I started 4 Heirloom Tomato plants in August. I have never had so many tomatoes grow successfully before. Each plant had massive clusters of tomatoes.

In January, I started two Heirloom and one Golden Harvest tomato plants on an older 30w Ultra. The Golden Harvest plant grew tall then wilted and I had to remove it. The two Heirloom plants look very healthy, but there are few blooms and only a few tomatoes. The plants are more than 4-inches taller as well. These plants were from the same seed pod kit.

Each plant needs to be evaluated individually. Now, you don't need to top a plant as often. If it starts branching off on its own, you don't need to top it.

I will prune a plant to try to keep multiple plants as equal in height as possible. I just took off the top of my taller Mini Belle Pepper plant for that reason. That was only to keep the lighting as equal as possible.

[Shawn]

Mar 7, 2021 7:17:04 GMT -5 mike said:

I would like to make a couple of further comments on this.

When I made the initial statements here, much was based on previous experience with lower-powered light sources. What I called a "Light Seeker" was caused in many cases by insufficient lighting. When I started growing with the AG in 2012, all I had was Classic-7 CFL systems. Plants would grow towards the underpowered CFL lights quickly leaving the plants tall and spindly. They had to be topped just to prevent them from toppling over.

Today, the 60w hoods on the Farms can have them further from the plant without the plant needing to reach for that light. A good example of what I am referring to is Heirloom Tomatoes. I received a Tomato seed pod kit with one of the Farms I bought this past year. I started 4 Heirloom Tomato plants in August. I have never had so many tomatoes grow successfully before. Each plant had massive clusters of tomatoes.

In January, I started two Heirloom and one Golden Harvest tomato plants on an older 30w Ultra. The Golden Harvest plant grew tall then wilted and I had to remove it. The two Heirloom plants look very healthy, but there are few blooms and only a few tomatoes. The plants are more than 4-inches taller as well. These plants were from the same seed pod kit.

Each plant needs to be evaluated individually. Now, you don't need to top a plant as often. If it starts branching off on its own, you don't need to top it.

I will prune a plant to try to keep multiple plants as equal in height as possible. I just took off the top of my taller Mini Belle Pepper plant for that reason. That was only to keep the lighting as equal as possible.

Thanks for the explaination mike. 

[karlapep]

Sorry for stupid question but what is meant by topping peppers?

[scarfguy]

Nov 13, 2023 9:40:12 GMT -5 karlapep said:

Sorry for stupid question but what is meant by topping peppers?

"Topping" just means pruning off the top of the plant. Most people do it selectively but you can also just hack off the top few inches of your plant.  The pepper will respond by growing more branches lower. Generally, if you don't take off too much, you won't hurt it.

[lynnee]

Like scarfguy said, karlapep. When you prune, you take off the topmost growing tips, so the plant won't grow taller, or so the plant will develop branches.