Peppers Blooming WAY to early..

mansgirl · Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:41 pm

My silly peppers are convinced that they want to make baby peppers already. I'm pretty sure they need to be bigger to do that. I've been picking the blooms off, but this kind of bothers me. It feels wasteful or something. Will this effect their ability to produce in the future?

SPierce · Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:27 pm

Why pick the blooms off? My peppers that produced peppers last year were barely a foot and a half tall, and they still gave me peppers! I'd say let them do their thing

stella1751 · Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:31 pm

It doesn't hurt to pick the flowers off. In fact, I pick the flowers off for the first two weeks after transplanting because it spares necessary resources for root development. Afterwards, I let them produce. Even if it looks like the plant is small and fragile now, it will become bigger and stronger as the pepper grows. By the time the pepper is mature, the branch will be well able to support its weight.

nosta · Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:16 pm

I pick my first set of hots when they are about half size IF the plant is still small. For me it seems to help the plants re-direct the growth to plant, not fruit. I don't usually pull off the flowers early, but if it works for others, go for it.

gardenvt · Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:41 pm

I didn't pick off any flowers and I have some pretty amazing peppers going right now. The plants have grown have really grown in the 2 weeks since they have been planted.

I don't think it is necessary to pick the flower/buds if the plant is well rooted - meaning that it is not a seedling.

mansgirl · Wed Jun 15, 2011 4:54 pm

Thanks guys. The plants have been in the ground for about 3 weeks. They're about a foot tall. Its been a bad year so far for peppers here. They just seem so small, and I remember last year we had a bell produce super early and it seemed like its growth was stunted for the rest of the year. I'll let them go though! I'd be excited to have peppers already when I thought the year was bad.

Halfway · Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:05 pm

I'm in the same boat MG.

I have several already producing 5-6 inch salsa peppers and some giant jalapenos are already 3 inches. We have had too much rain and overcast conditions and they are way early.

The plants seem to be supporting them, but it is somewhat funny looking!!

I'm gonna let mine do their thing as well.

Also, this will be the first year in letting all my determinant tomatoes go without pulling the suckers. Gonna get bushy in there!!

soil · Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:28 pm

small hot peppers I would leave, if its a bell pepper or anything on the large side pick the blooms off until the plant is bigger. you will get a bigger harvest in the long run this way rather than a small plant trying to produce a huge fruit.

Dasi · Sat Jun 18, 2011 6:35 pm

I'm so glad I saw this thread. I have the same thing buds and flowers everywhere even on my small plant. All my peppers have been in the same growing spots for months. They are about one to two feet ( I have five plants) but one is only about 5 inches tall. I don't know what types of pepper they are--my daughter grew several different types of plants in agriculture class in school (6th grade) and they forgot to put the labels on

. She helpfully said the class planted jalapeno, bell, & different types of chilli and sweet peppers so that narrows it down to um.. anything

.

Only one is showing its fruits, a long thin pepper growing outward & slightly upward. Looks like some type of hot or sweet pepper but I don't know for sure. At least I know they're edible

.

I did notice however that it seems peppers grow very slowly, so my other plants have grown taller as the buds I had worried about are opening. I'm going to leave mine on and see how they turn out.

garden5 · Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:03 pm

Here is my experience. Last year, I grew peppers indoors under lights and they started to flower as I planted them out. They were only about 3-4 in. tall and were slightly root bound (I grew them in 72-cell flats).

I picked the flowers off of some when I planted them and left the flowers on others.

The ones that the flowers were picked off of produced later, but grow larger overall. The ones that I left the flowers on produced sooner, but seemed to stay smaller overall.

Now, these plants were only a few in. tall, which I think is smaller than yours.