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  • From: Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Pruning peppers
  • Date: Fri, 20 May 2011 11:06:04 -0400


On May 20, 2011, at 10:49 AM, William H Shoemaker wrote:

there are some who believe that taking out the first fruit set (one pepper usually) is a good practice.

Sometimes, in years when planting has been delayed, I'll find pepper plants with a fruit or two already set at transplanting.

I take those off. because I've found that if I leave them on, I wind up with a very small plant trying to ripen that one (or so) pepper; and the plant will neither grow properly, nor set more fruit, until I get that pepper off it. -- The very small fruited hot peppers seem to be an exception to this; probably because their fruit is so small. The larger fruited hot peppers I also remove any fruit from at planting.

I haven't tried thinning fruit set after transplanting. With the erratic weather we've been having lately, I'd be concerned that, if I removed the first set, we might then have a stretch of hot weather preventing additional set until considerably later in the season. I do, however, selectively remove fruit when I start harvesting green sweet peppers; trying to thin the fruit from each plant, and to remove anything that's set jammed in the middle of the plant.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale







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