How do you stake your peppers?
I have some bell peppers that are finally living long enough to put on more than 3 fruit, but the fruit is weighing down the branches. I staked the main branch but the side branches are breaking. Usually I put peppers in small tomato cages, but this one is in a pot and is less than 2 ft tall. The hot peppers are not as heavy so they need less staking. They are also a lot taller so they fit in a tomato cage if I need it. How do you stake peppers?
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pepperhead212
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applestar
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I agree with using smaller tomato cages or cages that have been cut shorter, but if I run out —
There are all kinds of supports you can get for flowers that flop over, and I sometimes use one of those because some of them are relatively easy to set up after the fact. But mostly, I make my own version of slender bamboo stakes at 3 or 4 places surrounding the plant, that are either inserted at an angle to support the individual branches, or that are inserted upright, then tie strings like ladder that support the heavy trusses. Sometimes, when doing this after the fact, you have to remove that central stake at some point as you set up the alternative support method in stages.
— I’ll put this image in here as a way of example for now — “inserted at an angle” is the middle example
There is a version meticulously made with slender bamboo uprights and bamboo or wire cross pieces/ladders tied on with string that I saw being made for something ... I’m drawing a blank on what it was and so am unable to search for the photo image among my saved images or on line. Oh, I just remembered I think — it was for a container grown small gourd. Let me go look....
...I seem to remember a page where they had step by step for building this kind of support on this website , but maybe the one photo is enough?
BTW...these are too long for imafan’s 2 foot peppers, but I do find myself reaching for these often, and buy them in bundles. They are useful for various temporary supports as well since they are easy to push the pointed end into and and pull out of the ground as needed, and slender and smooth enough not to needlessly damage the existing roots. (... and when a taller support is needed I can use the holes where the rods had been as pilot-holes for 7 ft x 3/4” bamboo stakes)
There are all kinds of supports you can get for flowers that flop over, and I sometimes use one of those because some of them are relatively easy to set up after the fact. But mostly, I make my own version of slender bamboo stakes at 3 or 4 places surrounding the plant, that are either inserted at an angle to support the individual branches, or that are inserted upright, then tie strings like ladder that support the heavy trusses. Sometimes, when doing this after the fact, you have to remove that central stake at some point as you set up the alternative support method in stages.
— I’ll put this image in here as a way of example for now — “inserted at an angle” is the middle example
There is a version meticulously made with slender bamboo uprights and bamboo or wire cross pieces/ladders tied on with string that I saw being made for something ... I’m drawing a blank on what it was and so am unable to search for the photo image among my saved images or on line. Oh, I just remembered I think — it was for a container grown small gourd. Let me go look....
...I seem to remember a page where they had step by step for building this kind of support on this website , but maybe the one photo is enough?
BTW...these are too long for imafan’s 2 foot peppers, but I do find myself reaching for these often, and buy them in bundles. They are useful for various temporary supports as well since they are easy to push the pointed end into and and pull out of the ground as needed, and slender and smooth enough not to needlessly damage the existing roots. (... and when a taller support is needed I can use the holes where the rods had been as pilot-holes for 7 ft x 3/4” bamboo stakes)
SunGUARD 3/8 in. Fiberglass Rod Post at Tractor Supply Co.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/produ ... s-rod-post
I went to Tractor Supply a few years ago and bought a bunch of those 4 ft. steel rods with a triangular piece of metal welded to the bottom of them to hold them in the ground better than just a straight rod. They were only a couple dollars apiece and look like 3/8 inch reinforcing rod painted with flat red paint.
I've had them for several years and I'll use them for my eggplant and pepper plants since the fruit often pulls the stems over due to weight.
I've had them for several years and I'll use them for my eggplant and pepper plants since the fruit often pulls the stems over due to weight.
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TomatoNut95
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If I had to choose between staking or caging, I prefer caging. My sweet banana is caged. It doesn't get too top heavy. My sweet bells aren't caged however, and because they're so loaded and weighed down, I've got about two or three stakes around each plant. I use 5' plastic Miracle-Gro brand sticks bought from Tractor Supply. One broke while trying to pull it up because ground was so hard. Stupid clay. 
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TomatoNut95
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applestar
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I’ve been binge-watching more Japanese cultivation method videos, and realized a singular important fact — they always prune their fruiting crops.
With solanacea, tomatoes are relatively straight forward and I learned an Europe’s method for how to train cherry tomatoes to 4-vines a few years ago that has been working well, but pepper’s and eggplants had been a mystery to me. I just couldn’t see how topping a pepper plant would be of any benefit since I would have thought that would just immediately initiate mass sucker growths, and just getting eggplants to grow have been difficult to begin with.
I learned a few tricks for eggplants, too, but THIS thread is about how to support bell peppers — Apparently, all solanacea have tendency to grow a strong sucker shoot just below the very first blossom. Now I had been taught a while back that you should ALWAYS remove tomato suckers from below the first floral truss. I had (naturally?) assumed this would apply to peppers and eggplants, too.... This may or may not have created a mental block that prevented me from arriving at the following nifty technique on my own.
The way they train/prune bell peppers in Japan, is to use the natural tendency to grow this strong sucker shoot just below the first blossom to create a strong scaffold branch that will equal the leader shoot, then encourage a 2nd scaffold branch by allowing one more sucker to grow from the first blossom node ... REMOVING all other suckers BELOW.
...According to the video I’ve been watching, you would then stake the 1 main stem/leader with a stake at an angle and support the scaffold branches with greenhouse batten tape strung along a support system, but here is a different method using two stakes at an angle for the branches. I think small/medium tomato cages would probably work for this plant structure as well.
CAINZ vegetable encyclopedia how to grow bell peppers
The other IMPORTANT fundamental gem that probably doesn’t apply for imafan26 but I will include here anyway for others like me scheduling around last average frost, is that both peppers and eggplants benefit from keeping the soil warm until the plant grows into a strong “tree” — THIS apparently is why my peppers and eggplants fail to thrive and grow into the huge, productive monsters some of you have been talking about.
...this is all in Japanese, and obviously conventional not organic practices... (c.e. several ad breaks) He talks a lot and repeats himself, but also takes time to explain visually as well. He seems to start almost all warm season crops under a low hoop tunnel on raised wide rows covered with plastic mulch, and later uses the eggplant and pepper hoops (not removing them) to string the tape for supporting upper branches/fruits. First half are eggplants — in a later video, he LIMTS those to grow to about 5 feet, then prunes them down to 70 cm/height of the hoops around mid-August to avoid hurricane damage as well as to encourage “fall” eggplants which he said will develop from new shoots by mid-late September. 2nd half of the video is about bell peppers which are basically trained in a similar way (but he doesn’t prune those down since he said peppers start setting fruits again after summer heat abates around mid-August and the worst of the heat is over).
なす ピーマン 夏野菜の栽培 19/5/28
Eggplants and Bell Peppers - cultivation of summer vegetables May 28, 2019
With solanacea, tomatoes are relatively straight forward and I learned an Europe’s method for how to train cherry tomatoes to 4-vines a few years ago that has been working well, but pepper’s and eggplants had been a mystery to me. I just couldn’t see how topping a pepper plant would be of any benefit since I would have thought that would just immediately initiate mass sucker growths, and just getting eggplants to grow have been difficult to begin with.
I learned a few tricks for eggplants, too, but THIS thread is about how to support bell peppers — Apparently, all solanacea have tendency to grow a strong sucker shoot just below the very first blossom. Now I had been taught a while back that you should ALWAYS remove tomato suckers from below the first floral truss. I had (naturally?) assumed this would apply to peppers and eggplants, too.... This may or may not have created a mental block that prevented me from arriving at the following nifty technique on my own.
The way they train/prune bell peppers in Japan, is to use the natural tendency to grow this strong sucker shoot just below the first blossom to create a strong scaffold branch that will equal the leader shoot, then encourage a 2nd scaffold branch by allowing one more sucker to grow from the first blossom node ... REMOVING all other suckers BELOW.
...According to the video I’ve been watching, you would then stake the 1 main stem/leader with a stake at an angle and support the scaffold branches with greenhouse batten tape strung along a support system, but here is a different method using two stakes at an angle for the branches. I think small/medium tomato cages would probably work for this plant structure as well.
https://youtu.be/_icJI9vocK0
- Where to prune
- Staking the pepper plant
CAINZ vegetable encyclopedia how to grow bell peppers
The other IMPORTANT fundamental gem that probably doesn’t apply for imafan26 but I will include here anyway for others like me scheduling around last average frost, is that both peppers and eggplants benefit from keeping the soil warm until the plant grows into a strong “tree” — THIS apparently is why my peppers and eggplants fail to thrive and grow into the huge, productive monsters some of you have been talking about.
...this is all in Japanese, and obviously conventional not organic practices... (c.e. several ad breaks) He talks a lot and repeats himself, but also takes time to explain visually as well. He seems to start almost all warm season crops under a low hoop tunnel on raised wide rows covered with plastic mulch, and later uses the eggplant and pepper hoops (not removing them) to string the tape for supporting upper branches/fruits. First half are eggplants — in a later video, he LIMTS those to grow to about 5 feet, then prunes them down to 70 cm/height of the hoops around mid-August to avoid hurricane damage as well as to encourage “fall” eggplants which he said will develop from new shoots by mid-late September. 2nd half of the video is about bell peppers which are basically trained in a similar way (but he doesn’t prune those down since he said peppers start setting fruits again after summer heat abates around mid-August and the worst of the heat is over).
なす ピーマン 夏野菜の栽培 19/5/28
Eggplants and Bell Peppers - cultivation of summer vegetables May 28, 2019
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pepperhead212
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I realized another way I stake my peppers when I was out there today.
The pvc cage I make, which I first use to put Agribon over certain peppers, to prevent pepper maggots. Around August 1, that is removed, and the peppers grow up, with some of that vinyl tape to hold them in, adding more, as needed.
Overgrown Big Jim and Poblanos 9-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr
The pvc cage I make, which I first use to put Agribon over certain peppers, to prevent pepper maggots. Around August 1, that is removed, and the peppers grow up, with some of that vinyl tape to hold them in, adding more, as needed.
Overgrown Big Jim and Poblanos 9-5 by pepperhead212, on Flickr-
greenstubbs
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TomatoNut95
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Me, I'll always prefer caging. But if something happened I ran out of cages, I wouldn't mind staking.-
Gary350
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I plant my peppers in tomato cages. This is good until them get taller than 4 feet. I have cement rebar 8 feet long in each cage so wind can not blow them over. When plants are 5 feet tall I tie plants to the rebar. When long limbs loaded with 25 peppers and start growing out the sides I put a tomato cage there to hold up each limb so they don't break off. My plants were 6 ft tall but I don't have enough rebar to tie them all up tops are getting heavy and bending down. I wait and watch when I see limbs that need to be tied up I have other metal & wooden stakes I can use to tie limbs too.
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