Peppers again

[Paul M. Cook]

My peppers are slowly starting to grow, mostly building thicker stems. The weather has been quite cool here in SoCal. Anyway, the one big one has grown about 3 inches. I bought it at about 12 inches. So now the are about

20 tiny little peppers growing on it! They are kind of cute. I know I asked this before but do I let these grow and the plant will risk being stunted or do I remove them now and let the plant build up in size to later produce more peppers?

[Billy]

If you don't stop smokin' that shit, you'll be back in two more weeks to ask the same question.

[Paul M. Cook]

Give a beginner a break, I've only raised tomatoes before. You had the same question once. If you can't do that killfile me. The answer as to leave them on, however that flies in the face of other literature. So I ask again. If it's so obvious, why the difference of opinion?

Paul

[Billy]

Peppers or tomatoes?

Peppers are best if fully ripe (more sweetness, more favor). A ripening pepper will suppress further pepper production. You can pick them off when immature and have many, or leave them and have the best.

While ripening indeterminate tomatoes will, undoubted, slow down the growth of a tomato plant, compared to most of us, you have a very long growing season in southern California. You may want to pinch back the growing stem in the bifurcation of the tomato vine (after it is 4' tall or so) so that more energy goes into ripening tomatoes. If you have determinate tomatoes, picking off the flowers may not be a bad idea, allowing a larger plant to set flowers.

[David Hare-Scott]

Leave them, it will be probably fine. If the overcrowding gets to the point where the bush looks like falling over or there is no room in the cluster thin them then. The thinnings will be edible.

David

[Paul M. Cook]

OK, I'll do that then. It's fun to see all of them. I've never really done any gadening to speak of, just some tomatoes in hanging planters. I so want to have a good harvest.

Paul

[Paul M. Cook]

Peppers

Hard choice to make.

My tomatoes are showing yellow buds already so I can certainly use the advice for them. I am told I have determinate varieties. I know we can grow tomatoes into October and even longer what with the fact that we don't see winter but for 2 weeks in January now. Last year we had steady 80F weather all through December.

Paul

[Pat Kiewicz]

What type of pepper is your "big one"? A large fruited sweet pepper variety or, say, a small fruited hot pepper? Twenty peppers would be an overload for the former, and quite typical for the latter.

[Paul M. Cook]

Simple green bell. I counted about 19 baby peppers. I put them on a high phosphorous fertilizer and I'll pick up some bone meal this weekend. Many sites said to avoid this type of seedling as they say they will never recover from early fruiting. So I am just confused.

Paul

[mleblanca]

Hi Paul First, welcome to gardening. Now relax, don't worry, and enjoy the process and the learning from your mistakes and successes! We all started as newbies and we all had disasters and crop failures and good things to eat too.

Do you have more than one pepper plant? If so, why grow them all the same way. Try half by thinning the fruits, try the other half by leaving all the fruit. You can have many smaller ones and some monsters too. Experiment.

Believe it or not, some of us learned to garden without internet sites, garden groups, or even books. Just remember all advice does not fit all parts of the country. Most advice is given for the eastern parts of the US and often does not apply to SoCal, or even NorCal. So don't be afraid to just try it your own way; if some plants die just get some new ones and try again, since you do have a long growing season.

Now have fun Emilie NorCal

[Pat Kiewicz]

Well, then, try some (careful) fruit thinning. No plant that small could pull off 19 full-sized bell peppers.

By "this type of seedling" do you mean one that has been forced into early bloom, or do you mean a particular, named variety?

[Paul M. Cook]

Right it is way too ambitious. I'll pinch off some. Plus we aren't getting very much sun lately and they can't be too happy about that.

One that already has started to flower at a very early stage.

Paul