Flowering too early?

[chibi]

It's only mid spring and some of my plants (orange habs) are only about 20cm high and are starting to flower already. Should I just let them go or should I nip the flowers off?

[P_Schneider]

It's only mid spring and some of my plants (orange habs) are only about 20cm high and are starting to flower already. Should I just let them go or should I nip the flowers off?

This early in the season I would be pinching off those buds/flowers.

[Pam]

It's only mid spring and some of my plants (orange habs) are only about 20cm high and are starting to flower already. Should I just let them go or should I nip the flowers off?

I always pinch the first few flowers back so the plant will put more energy into leaf and stem growth early in the season.

[imaguitargod]

Ditto.

[DevilDuck]

Screw it...I need peppers! :P

[the666bbq]

as a newbie this is a very interesting topic for me... based on my previous readings (the net, forums,...) the theory wappeared to be : do nothing (don't pinch out shoots - the more shoots the better because they will bearing the fruit, never heard of pinching flowers on peppers)

Maybe there is a difference on the region where you are in, some people seems to have a double season even, I think it is fair to say that my central european climate will make a very short season from growing peppers - so plant energy saving/well-spending might be even more important.

I have very small flower butts on my cayennes, jalapeno and purple tiger; so you think I should pinch them out than (with last years failure in mind it will by psycologically hard to pinch them though ;-) )

[willard3]

I grow in a climate-controlled greenhouse and have experimented with pinching out first buds and my observation is that pinching only delays and reduces fruit production.

The obvious control is the same plant grown under the same conditions that was not touched.

[Pam]

I grow in a climate-controlled greenhouse and have experimented with pinching out first buds and my observation is that pinching only delays and reduces fruit production.

The obvious control is the same plant grown under the same conditions that was not touched.

Ah, but my peppers go in the ground, they aren't in a climate controlled environment. Watering and fertilization is not always even, and they are exposed to temps as low as the mid 40's F to over 100 F over the course of the season. They need to put early growth into root and leaf production or they suffer during extreme heat and dry spells.

Now, I don't advocate pinching out the flowers for weeks, just those first couple of buds after they go into the ground. I put the first wave of peppers in the ground about 3 weeks ago, and all the early season plants are covered in blooms and I'm certainly not pinching them back at this point.

[chibi]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm still undecided, but leaning towards pinching out the first few buds and then letting them do their thing.

[Pepp3rFreak]

Go ahead and Pinch 'em:)

I honestly never have pinched off the flowers but after reading this thread and looking around a bit I pinched off all the flowers that were on my carribean habanerros and I'll see what happens.

[bentalphanerd]

My 2 cents - Grow em & Eat em :D