I live in southeast Michigan. My son has a potted pepper plant that he was taking indoors last fall, and that sounded like a good idea, so I transplanted my wife's habenero from her garden into a pot as well. We got a few more small peppers at the end of the season, and then it stopped making new peppers. I've been putting it outside on warm sunny days this spring, and now it has seven little peppers, and another five flowers.
I feel like that's too many peppers for how large the plant is: 12 inches tall by about 9 inches across, and not particularly bushy. The pepper on the top left is the largest, only 1 1/4 inch long. The second largest pepper is to the right, mostly hiding behind the yellowish leaf. These were the first two peppers to appear, around a month ago (?). On the right is the latest to appear, and it's the smallest. There are another four peppers in between these sizes that aren't visible, and all came in at around the same time.
Should I cull the smallest pepper? Should I cut off the current flowers so they don't make even more peppers? Or do I trust the plant to know what it's doing?
by BaddDadd2010
3 Comments
I would leave them and stake the plant.
I wouldn’t. My jalapeno looked even worse than that when it started flowering this spring after being kept inside all winter. Very few leaves. It’s aborted any flowers it couldn’t support, while still growing. It’s putting on tons of leaves and has almost a dozen fruit, several of which are about ready to harvest. Feed and water your plant right and give it sunlight, and it’ll all be okay.
Never, no