Another Chilli Question

[PLSteve]

My chilli plants are doing quite well just now - the first flowers are now out. However, the plants are roughly 2'-2'6" high or so, and I'm beginning to think it is about time to nip the growing shoots and get them to bush up rather than grow long and thin.

My question is, which leaves and shoots is it ok to take off? Most of the new leaves seem to have flowers developing. Should I leave the plants to grow to 3' high before worrying about this?

Thanks
Steve.

[onefivenine]

My chilli plants are doing quite well just now - the first flowers are now out. However, the plants are roughly 2'-2'6" high or so, and I'm beginning to think it is about time to nip the growing shoots and get them to bush up rather than grow long and thin.

My question is, which leaves and shoots is it ok to take off? Most of the new leaves seem to have flowers developing. Should I leave the plants to grow to 3' high before worrying about this?

Thanks
Steve.

I wouldn't go chopping off anything with flowers developing are they from side shoots?

What type of chilli are they Steve? They will have a maximum height so no point in cutting them if they are about to hit that limit. My Cayennes are nearing 2.5 feet tall but I know they should top out soon at about 1m.

Have you started feeding them? Moving them on to Tomato food now should encourage fruit development more, and less leaf and root growth, so should limit their size too a bit I reckon.

[PLSteve]

I wouldn't go chopping off anything with flowers developing are they from side shoots?

What type of chilli are they Steve? They will have a maximum height so no point in cutting them if they are about to hit that limit. My Cayennes are nearing 2.5 feet tall but I know they should top out soon at about 1m.

Have you started feeding them? Moving them on to Tomato food now should encourage fruit development more, and less leaf and root growth, so should limit their size too a bit I reckon.

Nope not from side shoots, just the gowing leaves at the top of the plant. I didnt want to start hacking these off without checking first!

I am growing 5 types, chinese pot chillis, which are a bush type and I'm just letting them grow how they please. The others are ring o fire, etna, habanero and a demon red birdseye.

I have fed them a few times using chilli focus. Would I get better results with a tomato feed?

Thanks for your help
Steve.

[onefivenine]

Wow you like them hot then eh!?

I bought some seeds from South Devon Chilli Farm and they also sell Chilli Focus - I dunno if tomato food is better - they're chilli experts so I reckon you're probably fine with that stuff! Might be interesting to compare the NPK values of that stuff with regular tomato food though - just to see what's different.... like are you paying more for the brand name.

If you have enough height on each plant and already have some flowers then taking off the growing shoots should result in more side shoots. At least I think that should happen - my first year growing so hopefully someone more knowledgable will be along with advice!

[HotStuff]

I bought some seeds from South Devon Chilli Farm and they also sell Chilli Focus - I dunno if tomato food is better - they're chilli experts so I reckon you're probably fine with that stuff! Might be interesting to compare the NPK values of that stuff with regular tomato food though - just to see what's different.... like are you paying more for the brand name.

The NPK of Chilli Focus is 2.98 0.4 3.6

The NPK of Wilko's own brand liquid Tomato feed is 4.0 4.0 12.0

The recommended strength for the Wilko's is 15ml per 7 litres.

The recommended strength of Chilli Focus is 10ml per litre (when flowering), so that would be 70ml per 7 litres.

So, in terms of volume, more than 4 times the Chilli Focus is required to make the same amount of diluted solution.

The Chilli Focus does have a longer list of micro nutrients on the bottle

[SarzWix]

I have never pinched out the shoots on chilli or pepper plants, I prefer to control their size by the size of pot they're planted in - a smaller pot usually means a smaller plant, and earlier fruit. A bigger pot means a bigger plant and later fruit but more of it. If they're kept in a smaller pot until they commence flowering and branching out, and then repotted into bigger pots you get the best of both worlds

[PLSteve]

Thanks for the advise guys.

I currently have them in 5" pots and they are beginning to flower now. Have got 8" pots ready and was about to transfer them.

Will not bother about pinching them for now and let them do their own thing. I have heard conflicting reports about whether it was worthwhile doing this.

Cheers
Steve.

[finney]

Are chilli plants like to tomato plants do you have to nip out any shoots or the top to produce more fruit like plsteve said in his first question.

Finney

[teakdesk]

Are chilli plants like to tomato plants do you have to nip out any shoots or the top to produce more fruit like plsteve said in his first question.

Finney

1/ You don't nip out the top of tomatoes plants to get more fruit; this is done to stop any more fruit being produced and allow the existing fruit to ripen.

2/ You remove the side-shoots of cordon type tomatoes to stop extra fruit being produced on these side-shoots and concentrate fruit production onto the main stem.

3/ Chilli plants are the opposite; you can, if you want, pinch out the top shoot which forces side-shoots to be produced. You then leave these side-shoots to produce fruit.

[Two_Sheds]

I don't nip out my chillies, and they get planted on the allotment ... they never get taller than a foot (it's windy up there) and they produce loads of chillies

[finney]

ok thanks for the advice,

[hsthst]

Just let them be. They'll just keep producing chillis until they run out of steam in late sep, oct

[sternyboy]

Mine are only about 6-8" tall but are producing flowers, 1 just says Chilli Peppers and the other says Nasu Chilli's. Do these types not grow that big then or is it because they are in smaller pots? (Although they are 6-7" pots)

[BumbleB]

I have 3 cayenne chillis that have reached 22 inches high and quite healthy looking on a sunny windowsil but no flowers or fruits yet.

Can someone tell me how to get them to produce and how often to feed.

Many thanks