Do you nip, crop, clip (dont know the right word) for purpose of branching? Somebody make the cut after third floor of leaves, somebody earlier, somebody dont do that at all.

What is your best way how to do this..

tadytomas

There _was_ an "expert" working in the commercial greenhouses who was giving instructions how to cut Aji Cristals to get more yield... gladly, we let him cut only few plants to see if he was knowing what he was doing, and the results were that all plants which were left untreated produced so much more yield.
I'm sure it would have worked well with bell peppers, cayennes or some other annuum with similar way of growing.

The lesson being here that different chiles, again, are so different from each other that it's impossible to tell how to cut them correctly for maximum yield...

Then again, chinenses for example, most of them, their production will easily suffer after pruning, in optimal conditions that is simply because the plants will become "too dense".
Of course, with less light at first, more later and the case is whole a lot different.

No mean to confuse you here, that's the way it is with all these different chiles. :)
You need to learn from the plants to see how they grow and next year (or other cut-down plant individuals) for comparising in similar conditions.

If you have some spesific species or varieties in mind.. perhaps I could help you then?

well, my species are:

Habanero red
Bolivian Rainbow Chilli
Cherry Hot Chilli
Scotch Bonnet Yellow Chilli
Lemon Drop
Serrano

I have all of them in RW cubes, and except Scotch Bonet, they are allready sprouted. Bonet has germinating time 21 days i guess, so as Habanero. It is about 14 days now, habanero is sprouted and bonet doesnt.. hope he will.

I dont want to grow some gigantic plants, or some gigantic yield, i think that some average yield will be far enough. I just want them bushy and maybe than grow some bonchi

Okay, that's detailed enough! :)

Hmm.. in your case I wouldn't prune the plants at all, not yet.

Just provide as much light you need.

You could do some experimenting with Serrano if you want when the plant has grown much bigger!
Cherry hot doesn't grow too large so I wouldn't prune it even it has a typical annuum -type growth style.

If your aim is to have some nice bonchi plants, I suggest to grow your plants as large as possible at first... even the ornamental ones, they will make extremely pretty bonsai chiles next autumn!!
Tall plants will catch wind easily and needs more support for the yield so they will grow thicker stems which will be ideal for bonchi growing!

The largest yields I ever got from by plants were harvested from unpruned plants.
But you have to keep in mind that I'm not a big fan of most commonly grown annuums that could definitely have a great advantage from such pruning.

Ok, i will take your advice to heart and i wouldnt prune them at all. Btw: the scotch bonet sprouted today..:) And i added a small PC fan and aim it on the seedlings.

how old do you think they have to be, until the first adding of fertilizers? 

thanks

You can start adding ferts right away... a bit milder at first when the seedlings are still very small.

I recommend to add a decent desktop fan a little later when the plants grow a little... :)

Just one more thing Fatalii.. dont know the best way how to deal with this (picture).

thanks...

[ylläpito on poistanut liitteen]

I usually wait for it to open by itself.

You can make things easier for the seedling by spraying the seed with water thus making it softer.

In few days, the first leaves should have enough energy to push off rest of the seed.

In some cases, you might have to cut around the seed very carefully, but that's in rare case, just wait for a while at first!

Sometimes it happens that the seeds will stuck with the first leaves and the true leaves will push out in between anyway.
In most circumstances the seedlings will turn out just fine so don't worry!

I have one seedling like this before and I wait.. a the plant died after 10 days  ??? so I will wait few days and than if nothing happen I will try to cut se seed from the plant.

thanks Fatalii

I've had few seedlings like that. Is there any sign of leaves coming out of seed shell? If there is, the leaves will pop off the shell on their own. Just keep that seed shell moist. Good luck!

I've found a thread, on this forum, with advices how to cut branches to achieve and optimal grow and yield when growing indoors.
It's here: http://chilifoorumi.fi/index.php?topic=5280.30 (http://chilifoorumi.fi/index.php?topic=5280.30)

Can smeone could help me/us to deal with it?
What does it mean varkaat/varkaiden? Google translates it to "thieves" ?? :) Maybe there's some truth it this kind of translation 'couse it's needless branch witch only drain power from plant and gives nothing instead? 

I'm using google translator to cope with Finnish Part of forum, but it's not as good as I want it to be. But it's only auto translator not human so sometimes the sentences coming from are ridiculous :D.
But it's the only way to get some intresting info from Finnish side.

This thieves... or varkaat as we call it is new sprouting branches which grow crossections of two main branches

and some remove this to get energy to making crop instead groving
of course there is differenses between plants and there should be use common sence.. if plants doesn't have many branches this removing is not nessecery... t like some rocotos it would be good to remove thieves.. you get much more air between mainbranches

edit picture
(http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t227/herra47_photos/10062009773.jpg)

thieves also start from beginning of leaf stem next to plant stem.

Yeah, and with many varieties there can grow some branches from the bottom which won't have any use. When the plant is flowering it will be very easy to spot these and remove them.

THX guys, very instructive!

This is just one way of cutting chiles to get more pods:

(http://lh4.ggpht.com/_htVh7sYTwi0/ShK1t61CsfI/AAAAAAAAC20/4BcNqAiUMNc/s800/2009_05_19_latvomisohjeet.jpg)

There are four main branches, the green ones, imagine the short ones to be as the long one.
Red line is where you cut.
When a main branch divides in to two, keep one of the branches as the main branch and let the other one grow two or three flower nodes.
Thief is the small branch in the lower part of the picture, growing at the same place as the leaf. These should all be cut away.

I'm trying this method on 11 plants (out of 24). So far the plants seem to do ok...

That definitely works with some varieties but surely not with all.

Cutting off the lowest branches is almost always a good idea as those will be mostly shaded all the time.

informative thread! Thanks!

But as fatalii pointed out, there's a big difference between various species. As I am a newbie growing chilies now for the first time, I was wondering if some of you have experience with cutting the following species:

Criolla Sella
Hungarian Hot Cherry
Inca Red Drop

My plants were transferred into hydroponic systems a couple of days ago and seem to do fine so far. Most of them have ~4 levels of leaves. Should I leave them the way they are right now, or should I prune them?

I'm quite sure the above method works with hungarian hot cherry althought I personally use other methods to get more yield.

Baccatums (most of them) grow in a way that they don't need any cutting for a maximum yield.

Hope it helps!

It does help, yes! Thanks!

Actually I don't need to have really big yields! For me it's more important to get some nice looking bushy plants with enough Chilies for my personal cooking/use :)
Would pruning help me in getting bushier plants? Or is it only useful for getting bigger yield? On the other hand, I guess, that this is somewhat the same, or not? I mean, bushy plants have many branches and leaves and should be able to produce more pods, or am I wrong?

I just don't want to have plants that have thin high stems, without any branches and almost no leaves and look bad. Should I prune them in order to get nice plants, even if that does not result in a big yield (which is not my main goal anyway)?

It does produce bushier plants in anyy case.

Pruning doesn't necessarily mean larger yields, it can cause the plants produce less than without pruning, it's mostly up to circumstances, for example, when you are growing indoors under a lamp, a bushier plant is definitely better for that to get more yield.

So when growing with limited space, pruning is a good idea, even up to bonchi level where you will contantly prune the plants to keep them as a nice little bushes.

OK. I am growing indoors under a compact fluorescent lamp with limited space and don't need to have huge yields but would like to have nice bushy plants.
Seems like I fulfill all the criteria for pruning my plants  ;D  But as I'm a newbie, I don't know when to start pruning my chillies. The one picture in this thread has a plant that has already several branches, but mine don't have any branches yet. I attach two pictures here. I put 2 plants in each pot twisting them around each other, as I saw somewhere on your page that you did that as well, producing one thicker stem and thus a nicer bonchi.
But back to my question: When and where should I start pruning? Thanks for any advice you can give me!

[ylläpito on poistanut liitteen]

[ylläpito on poistanut liitteen]

OK, first of all... the idea to get a nice thick stem is to grow the plant HUGE (or large bush) at first and then to cut it down.

But in your case I assume it's out of question so you can do the following:
Cut down the plant as low as you dare, leaving at least some leaves for photosynthesis.

Just make sure your plants have plenty of light after drastically cutting them down.

One way is to bend the stems, for example with bonsai wire to make the plants bushier.
I think you should experiment both ways to see and compare the results.

Don't worry, the plants will eventually grow more dense foliage when they get older. It's all about the light!
With low light conditions you get spindly and sad looking plants and with plenty of light your plants will be happy looking robust bushes!

Keep on experimenting and feel free to shoot any questions about your experiments.

Pictures are always helpful!

OK, I cut the plants now on the top (see pictures), leaving ~7 leaves for photosynthesis. I hope they'll do fine... I transfered them to the hydroponics only on Tuesday, but already I can see the new roots forming... So I'll keep my fingers crossed  ;)

Let's see how they'll do now. Actually, now as the tip of the stem is cut, should two branches develop now at the place of the fresh cut?

[ylläpito on poistanut liitteen]

[ylläpito on poistanut liitteen]

If you want them as bushy plants, I'd cut way lower....

lower still?!  how low should I cut them then? and how many leaves does the plant need for the photosynthesis? In the ned I would like to create some bonchis and for that I'm not sure, if it would be good to cut too low... I wouldn't have any stems for the bonchis then, or is my idea wrong?

How low would you cut them?

I would cut them just above the first pair of true leaves.

There's still plenty of stem left for a nice bonchi!
Keep in mind that the plant will continue growing.. .the growth will just be bushier...

Also, keep in mind that you will dig the some roots up which will expose more stem also.

Try this first with some plant and see how it goes.

uff, you're asking me to cut 70% of my little chilis  away  :o
well, i guess I can try it with 2 plants and see how it goes  :)  You now better than me how to handle chilis, so i trust your advise! I'll report later how it goes. Thanks for the advice in the meantime!

Well, personally I wouldn't do that for plant of that age, but you wanted to have compact plants without growing them huge at first... :)

Don't worry, it works just fine if there's enought light for them to enjoy.

well, could I actually grow them huge if I grow them indoors with only a compact fluorescent lamp for light and the bucket hydroponic system with airpump and airstones? I don't have much space and cannot invest much more money in these chilis...
Under these circumstances I probably wont manage to grow them huge, or? So I guess I'll just follow your advice and cut them down.

I would cut them now. And I usually cut heavily my chiles anyway because I also have limited space. And they still grow nicely and produce yields.