Bounty-California Wonder & Tequila Sunrise Peppers 03/30/18

[Kate]

I noticed this evening that both plants have buds. I’m going to keep them in place. There’s been a significant growth spurt, the main stalks are thick and sturdy. I raised the lights again this evening. Tomorrow is dinner day, so if anything changes in the next several days after feeding, I’ll have time to reassess. I’ll take a pic in the morning and post it. There’s been change/growth since I posted the other day.

[Kate]

Update of these lovely plants. They had their feeding. I'll watch them to see if it looks like they're good to support growing fruit at this stage. Most of the damaged leaves are off, but I'm taking it slowly. The leaves that seem to have repaired themselves well, I'm not so concerned about.

[MaryL]

Wow, they sure did recover nicely. Very resilient.  

Regarding the timing of the buds, I wish I had some sage advice for you, but I’ve never experimented with that. I would guess that you could let the 2nd set of buds grow into fruit after removing the first set.  That buys the plant at least some time to grow further before flowering.

[Kate]

Thanks for giving assistance. I'm surprised none of the serious pepper growers on here have an opinion. Oh well.

[Shawn]

May 12, 2018 18:07:08 GMT -5 Kate said:

Thanks for giving assistance. I'm surprised none of the serious pepper growers on here have an opinion. Oh well.

I am not that educated to give an answer.


All I know is just when I think a plant is done I get more flowers... like my sweets

[Kate]

May 13, 2018 7:57:08 GMT -5 Shawn said:

May 12, 2018 18:07:08 GMT -5 Kate said:

Thanks for giving assistance. I'm surprised none of the serious pepper growers on here have an opinion. Oh well.

I am not that educated to give an answer.


All I know is just when I think a plant is done I get more flowers... like my sweets

I hope they're not done yet. They're only 6 weeks old

My question was that whether I should leave the buds or pinch/cut them off. Both plants have them, and they're 6+ weeks old, now. I've read some people leave them, and others do not. I was hoping people in the group who had grown sweet or hot peppers, (in Aerogardens), would offer some sage advice. I noticed a few people with sweet and hot have left them on, and a few have pinched, but no real followup as to whether there was a detriment to leaving or an advantage to pinching other than allowing growth, but nobody really said what the outcome was on those specific plants.

[Kate]

Okay, so I pinched off all the buds I can see right now. The plants are really dense. I didn't top them, as there is already significant branching going on. I had to raise the lights again today. I guess there was a growth spurt after feeding yesterday.

There are a few REALLY huge leaves on the California Wonder. Do you guys snip them?

[MaryL]

Congrats on the de-budding. Even if I remember that people do that, I never have the courage or patience to try.  Is it supposed to result in a higher yield?

If the large leaves are at or toward the bottom, I snip. Not that I know whether it’s good for the plant, it’s just my guess that it is. 

[Kate]

I guess it's mainly for the plants to mature enough, and although you are delaying a crop, it's likely better for the plants. I'm patient. Really...I am...

[Kate]

I gave up pinching buds. As fast as I pinched, they grew twice as many, twice as fast. The lights have been raised several times, the plants are amazingly fast growers, and are covered in buds...again. The Tequila Sunrise (right) "appears" to have a LOT more buds than the California Wonder (left), which makes sense, as it always has. They're a smaller bud, as well. I must have pinched 30+ buds off the TS, and now I can't begin to count. I cut off the REALLY huge leaves on both plants.

[MaryL]

Sounds like it’s the perfect time to stop pinching then. Not that I know, but since you’ve already taken a good amount and the rate of replacement buds is so fast it sounds like your plants are really vital and raring to go!  Let the bud profusion begin!!

[Shawn]

I never pinch buds maybe I should be.

[Shawn]

I never pinch buds maybe I should be.

[Kate]

May 24, 2018 6:01:27 GMT -5 Shawn said:

I never pinch buds maybe I should be.

I suppose if you have a spindly, thin-stalked, single branched or slow growing plant it makes sense, but honestly, it was an exercise in futility. They were laughing at me the whole time.

[MaryL]

May 24, 2018 6:46:22 GMT -5 Kate said:

May 24, 2018 6:01:27 GMT -5 Shawn said:

They were laughing at me the whole time.

  As usual you make me  

[Kate]

I'm glad someone appreciates my warped, acerbic sense of humor.

[jcosmo]

I grew liebesapfel peppers in a container outside. It grew tall and only produced 2 peppers for the first round. Now there are 3 peppers forming at the very top of the plant, right by the tip of the stake that's holding it up. I started another one indoors, snipped the top off - leaves, buds, and all - at a certain point, and it started branching out, then forming new buds. It's now more of a bush, has a lot more flowers than the one in the container produced, and already has 6 peppers growing.

On the other hand, I planted another pepper variety that I'd never grown before, waited until I saw buds and lengthening between the leaf nodes, then tried the same thing. This one grows up to 3 feet, so I planted it outside in a container. A few weeks later, only one branch has grown above the level of the cut, and I'm only seeing buds on that one branch. So it doesn't work with all peppers, apparently.

[Kate]

Maybe it has more to do with the AG than the method. Maybe soil growing isn't as conducive to the regeneration as hydroponics is.

[Kate]

Here are a couple of the Tequila Sunrise, (Sweet or hot depending on what you read. My packet says hot.), with buds opening, and one of the California Wonder getting ready to open. I wish I could figure out how to show you the massive number of buds on these, especially the TS. There's just not an angle I can find to capture them all, then lighting issues with the leaves etc. Anyway...

[MaryL]