Prune Those Peppers

Do you prune your peppers? I do, and you should probably give it a try, too.

Peppers, tomatoes and eggplants are all members of the nightshade family of plants, also known as Solanaceae.

They share some common growing traits. These plants tend to grow “suckers” at the point where a leaf stalk meets the main stem of the plant. Many gardeners pinch off the suckers of tomato plants. This encourages the plant to grow a single main vine. In tomato plants, this conserves energy and focuses it into fruit production. Otherwise, tomato plants can become unwieldy and difficult to manage with stems growing in all directions.

I take the opposite approach when it comes to peppers. Instead of a vine, I want a bushy pepper plant. For pepper plants, more stems produce more flowers and fruit. I want to encourage the plant to grow suckers, especially during the early stages of growth. I do this by pruning the terminal bud of each stem. This is the tip of a stem where new leaves grow.

I always grow peppers from transplants. It doesn’t matter whether you start your own transplants from seed or buy them from a nursery. The young transplant will usually be a single stem with a few leaves on it.

Look at the tip of the stem and find the terminal bud. You may see suckers beginning to form just below the bud where the more mature leaves are attached to the main stem. I be-gin to prune the young transplants as soon as they have three to four leaves on the main stem below the terminal bud. Using a pair of scissors, snip off the terminal bud. Be sure to leave any suckers attached to the plant. These suckers will grow into new terminal buds.

After the first pruning, the pepper plant will usually grow three or four new buds. In a few weeks, I prune them again by snipping away the terminal bud from each of the new stems that grew. Each of these stems will grow three or four new stems from the spot where I pruned it, resulting in multiple buds. This way, I train the plant to grow into a bush. Without pruning, pepper plants tend to grow tall and top-heavy. Bushier plants tend to bloom more often, which results in more fruit.

Should you prune eggplants like this as well? I have pruned them before and I’m not sure whether I got any better production. I think it’s more important to support eggplants by growing them in a tomato cage or tying them to a pole, especially when growing varieties of large eggplants. The heavy fruits can sometimes break the stems.

By ANDY BEHLEN

The Fayette County Record