Pruned my peppers...

[sniffs]

They've been sitting on folded up paper towels that I'm replacing every few hours which become soaked.

Thanks for the advice.. I'll keep an eye on them and keep switching out the paper towels.

[sniffs]

So all my plants survived the heavy rain. The tomato plants look stronger than ever and are all sticking straight up. The peppers all survived really well.

Here's what the Shishito and Jalapeno looks like now,

https://goo.gl/photos/FEWrxMQCu77EvEMJ6

and

https://goo.gl/photos/4ftPZRf4nPFXEW5x8


(and for those interested heres what my tomatos look like. https://goo.gl/photos/coBBMu4cUckEF36W6 )

[Lindsaylew82]

I know we've already been over this buuuuuuuuut.... You are gonna have to uppot these. And, you are gonna have to take the pot of several tomatoes down to just 1 tomato plant. And, you are going to have to give the one remaining plant a very large pot if you're going to keep it potted. The 3 or 4 in there are going to get rootbound VERY quickly, if they're not already.

And they still need more sun. Lots more.


If you don't do these things, you will likely have some issues, sooner than later.

[sniffs]

Bigger pots!! I should just tattoo that on my forearm. The pots I have them in currently are 2.5 gallons but I'll definitely get bigger ones.. I know you mentioned the 5 gallon ones so I'll look into those..

What's the plant size different between the 2.5 gallon ones and the 5 gallon?

Also those tomatoes are waaaay underpotted. There's 7 tomato plants in that one pot.. What I've read though is that Tomato's can be grown from cuttings, so I'm guessing if I cut each one as low as I can to the soil and replant, they'll grow roots from the stems.

[RadRob]

Don't cut the tomato plants, it will take a while for them to start growing roots again before they take off growing. Tomato plants are tough so don't be afraid to hurt them. Take them out of the container and set them in a large container of water and wash the soil off, separate and then replant. They will take about a week before they start putting on new growth. I do this all the time with all plants I have to separate and never had a problem with damaging plants. Make sure you use at least a 5 gallon pot, anything smaller will stunt the plant. Check on building an earthtainer for small spaces, they work really well.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... atoes.html

[sniffs]

ok that thing is freakin crazy. I'm extremely interested in making one now.

[sniffs]

Not to hijack this Pepper thread, but I transplanted the 7 small tomato plants into separate containers. They all look real healthy early in the morning.. thick stalks, nice color on the leaves.. but if I leave them out during the day when it's full sun I notice that the leaves curl up. I take them out of the sun and by the next morning the leaves are back to normal.

I've read a few things that cause this, stress being the major factor and they are in survival mode so they curl up to protect themselves.

Before I transplanted they received full sun all day long and they never curled up.

I'm keeping them nicely watered.. Anything else I can do or is it just a waiting game?

[Lindsaylew82]

They will likely recover in a few days time. While they are tough, 7 plants is a lot of roots to get tangled, and they were pretty big "starts" so, I think there was probably some substantial root damage done, even if you were VERY careful.

The extra watering won't hurt. I would give them a few days to let the roots recover, maybe give them back the dappled shade. Slowly increase to their full sun spots over a week's time. I would NOT feed them or fertilize them until they are showing signs of full recovery. You may not see much growth right now, but they will start growing again once the roots have recovered. Mulching the tops of your pots would help with water retention as well!

Hope they recover quickly!

[Rue Barbie]

I wasn't intending to, but a ground squirrel or bunny pruned a few of my peppers. The side buds are beginning to grow, so we'll see what happens.

It's been about 3 weeks since the tops of my pepper plants were critter pruned. Remaining stems were more than adequate in size with some being 6 inches. The pruned plants, interspersed in the same bed as non pruned plants, all the same variety, are not growing nearly as fast as the unpruned ones. They have small side branches growing, but just have been severely compromised in my opinion. These plants are in full sun, also in SoCal and will take more than a month to catch up to their untrimmed brothers.

There is still much of the season left to go, but from what I have seen thus far... never again will I prune peppers at the start of their lives. Sometimes plants really do know what is best for their own growth and reproduction.

[imafan26]

Sniffs. If the leaves are curling up in the middle of the day it is probably physiologic leaf roll and a normal response to heat.

I keep tomatoes in 18 gallon buckets. It is large enough for them to be watered once a day with minimal issues with BER or midday wilting. The tops are in the sun but the containers are shaded by the plants around them so it keeps the pots from heating up. If you can get burned by your pots in the middle of the day, then you should know what your plants feel like. If you cannot shade the pots or group smaller pots around it, double pot, it helps to insulate if you put your pot inside a larger pot or you put insulation (styrofoam) around the pots. I cut up the old potting soil bag and use it as a weed block and mulch in the pot and it helps retain moisture and prevent splash back on the plants.

If you get scorching 100+ degree weather and your plants are in pots and not too tall yet, I suggest you move them to a spot where they will get afternoon shade or put some kind of shading up.

[Lindsaylew82]

Sniffs. If the leaves are curling up in the middle of the day it is probably physiologic leaf roll and a normal response to heat.

Normally, I would agree, but he seperated 7 biggish plants from 1 pot and transplanted them. I would think it's likely transplant shock, and not PLR.

[sniffs]

So the leaf roll stopped. In the early AM I've been foliar spraying under the tomato leaves and my plants are huge now. Once I separated them into larger pots and shoved in a 6-18-6 Jobe's tomato organic food stick, they sky rocketed in size. Each one is about 3 feet tall now. I've had to get the tomato cages to prevent them from falling over.

And as for my pruned peppers, they are waaay bushier than any of my other peppers and already starting to produce flowers. They aren't as tall as my other peppers because of the pruning but they grew side shoots out and are real healthy.

Coincidentally I've read that since Peppers and Tomato's are in the same family, that you can use these tomato food sticks in peppers. I've shoved a few in the soil and wow.. the 2 pruned peppers are super bushy and already flowering.

[Asica]

When you first posted about cutting your pepper, I did the same thing. But mine are in the raised garden. So the one without the haircut have already fruit, but they are less green and bushy. The haircut pepper is much healthier looking but no peppers yet. This is interesting experiment.

[sniffs]

Here's what they look like as of a few minutes ago.

Shishito
https://goo.gl/photos/tT2ASrrC9Uc1wurH6

Jalapeno - It hasn't started flowering just quite yet but I can see the little flower bulbs appearing.
https://goo.gl/photos/vZTezk4iV8zNrYEu6

[sniffs]

Nearly a month later and both plants look real healthy and are producing fruit.

Shishito
https://goo.gl/photos/1eHUdAeMmDXL1pUdA

Jalapeno
https://goo.gl/photos/rUbxSi3dpd32kA1o8