Pruning chillies?

[JBFUK]

Hey all,

My Chilli plants are coming along pretty well on the windowsill. I'm waiting for my greenhouse temps to stay consistently above 10'C overnight before I put them out there and I will repot one final time at that point.

I'm getting quite a lot of flowers coming through - should I be cutting all of these off at this point and is there any other pruning I should do?

Couple of photos. Larger plants are jalapeño (about 12-14" high) and smaller ones are prairie fire at (6-8").

[Scarlet]

They are looking fantastic ! I would pick the flowers off to make the plant put on a bit of growth, the plant needs to be big enough to support the fruit. It's early yet, so you could take them all off?

There will be others posting soon, listen to all the advice before you decide what's the best thing todo.

[Scarlet]

This is worth a read
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ent_89422.html

And this one. There's somegood video links in here showing how to cut the flowers off to encourage new growth.

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ing_88223.html

[JBFUK]

Thanks - will keep cutting off the flowers. I have already pinched out a couple of the serrano and prairie fires for comparison. The jalapeño have all split off and branched out by themselves so I don't think there's any need to do them and there isn't one single main shoot to pinch.

A couple of the prairie fires have disease on some of the leaves should I just cut those leaves off?

Need to work out what to do with the greenhouse at the moment as it's getting too hot in the daytime - up to 40'C already and that's with the roof vents opening themselves. There is a slatted side window vent in there too but it doesn't open itself. Don't always have time to go and open the door in the morning plus I don't want the cats going in there as they want to use the gravel beds as a toilet!

[Scarlet]

What do the Rairie Fire leaves look like?

When the night time temps are warmer, perhaps leave the doors open? Screen off the door with some scaffold netting. It may be worth you chucking something over the roof to cut down some of the sun.
More auto roof vents?

[Ms-T]

Nice looking plants,

[JBFUK]

Sorry for the delay - been on holiday and then quite busy when back.

The diseased leaves are looking 'ok' and not spreading so far as I can see. Here's are example photos I took a few weeks ago but didn't get around to posting:






A new problem is that I've noticed some mould starting to grow on top of the soil in the pots. Is this an issue? Should I try to remove it? What can i do to address the problem? I plan to make a final re-pot within the next few weeks I'm just waiting for the overnight temps to go up a little as with bigger pots I'll have to put them in the greenhouse rather than indoors on the windowsill.




Will have another round of flower snipping tonight - hard to keep on top of as they just keep on coming. I noticed a few of the plans have secondary stalks branching off quite low down which are getting quite big - should I chop these off? In this example photo you can see several branches at the top where I topped the plant (which is OK I think) but the stalk to the right branches off the main stalk close to the bottom of the plant:




Thanks for all the tips and advice so far.

[Tripmeup]

They are looking good JB..
Mould suggests you may be keeping them too wet in a warm environment..Are you watering them from the bottom?

Depending on the number of plants you have, you could let some start flowering now...
I woudl also leave the additional stems and just make sure you support the plant....more stems, more chillis

[JBFUK]

They are looking good JB..
Mould suggests you may be keeping them too wet in a warm environment..Are you watering them from the bottom?

Depending on the number of plants you have, you could let some start flowering now...
I woudl also leave the additional stems and just make sure you support the plant....more stems, more chillis

Thanks

I did get them pretty saturated and left a bit of a puddle in the tray when I went on holiday as I didn't want to come back a week later to find them all dead. Since then I have been waiting until they are dry before watering (in the tray). I will try to scrape the mould off tonight and be very careful not to get them too wet again.

Think I'll take your advice and let a couple of the prairie fires keep flowering as I'll probably keep two of them indoors in small pots on the kitchen windowsill. the serrano and jalapenos I'll trim the flower off until I re-pot and put in the greenhouse. Looks like temps are going to increase next week.

[Tripmeup]

Have you been feeding them with anything?

[4390evans]

I would maybe scrape the top layer of soil off where the mold is, top dress with more compost and then cover with vermiculite.

I get this also as I don't water mine often but when I do I drowned them :0

[Ryez]

Maybe you could put something on the door to block the cats from going in and keep the greenhouse door open, you could also put some shading, like reinforced polythene material to stop some of the harmful radiation coming in. Indeed you can scrap the mould off, and you could also mulch if need be. I always cut diseased leaves. Best to be safe than sorry!

I wish now I have kept my peppers indoors, mine are in the greenhouse and have grown very slowly, don't expect to be seeing flowers any time soon.

[JBFUK]

Will scrape off the mould tomorrow and put a bit of fresh soil on top. If I see a good deal on grow bags this weekend I might buy a few and re-pot / put in the greenhouse. I don't use the grow bags but have found them to be a pretty good value source of decent soil/compost for large pots.

Next week looks like it'll get a fair bit warmer with the wind swinging round to the south.

I haven't been feeding them with anything yet. Was planning to start using tomato feed once I begin to let the flowers set. Should I be feeding them already?

[Ms-T]

Give them a weak feed once a week.

[JBFUK]

Potted up and in the greenhouse now, fingers crossed.