Pruning Pepper Plants – How To Prune Pepper Plants Right

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Pruning pepper plants is the simple process of removing part of the plant to invigorate new growth. It is easy, but not always necessary. In this article, I’ll share why you might want to prune your peppers, and how to do it properly.

Before you jump right into cutting your plants back, consider whether pruning is a good idea. Most pepper plants will grow perfectly well without ever pruning. But, there are a few cases where you may want to give it a shot. Let’s get into it!

Skip Ahead:

• Why prune?
• Should you prune your peppers?
• How to prune pepper plants
• Pruning flower buds
• Do I have to prune?

How to prune peppers (video):

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Why Prune Pepper Plants?

Generally speaking, pruning pepper plants is a simple method of reshaping your plants. By cutting away certain branches or leaves, you’ll force the plant to focus growth and energy elsewhere.

Topping pepper plants, or removing the top few inches at the adolescent stage, typically leads to lower-growing plants, at least in the short term. The areas of the plant that you remove quickly recover and fill in with new growth from the lower nodes (more on nodes later).

However, it is important to only prune if it is necessary or beneficial. You wouldn’t want to take away too many of the plant’s leaves or branches. This could cause a setback that may lead to reduce yield, especially if you live in a colder climate.

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Is Pruning Required?

There are four main reasons when pruning might benefit your pepper plants. Carefully consider whether pruning is necessary for your plants. Here are the major growth stages during which pruning may be helpful:

Topping (4-6 weeks after sprouting)

The first time to consider pruning pepper plants is a few weeks after the plants sprout. After 4-6 weeks of growing indoors under grow lights, your plants should be about 6-8 inches tall with a few sets of true leaves.

At this stage, your plant may look slightly tall or ‘leggy.’ Pruning may help protect the plant from strong winds and encourage a lower growth habit. To do this, you can prune away the top 1-2 inches of growth.

This can encourage stockier and fuller plant growth in the long run. Having a stronger, thicker stem with a bushier shape may lead to better pepper yields, though there is no guarantee.

Note: It is worth noting that we no longer top our pepper plants (watch our video to learn why)! If you provide enough light during the early stages of growth, your plants should grow strong and bushy without the need for pruning.

While topping does not cause long-term harm, and the plants do recover, the 1-2 week setback is just not worth it in our climate (zone 6b). If you live in a cold climate, zones 6 or lower, I would not suggest topping at all. However, it can still be fun to experiment for yourself.

Bottom pruning

While topping can be controversial, I highly encourage growers to bottom prune their pepper plants. Bottom pruning is simply cutting off the lower leaves from the plant, keeping foliage up and away from the soil.

Soil can harbor pathogens that can be harmful to your pepper plants. By bottom pruning and keeping the first 6-8 inches of the main stem free of foliage, rain and wind will not splash as much soil onto the plant’s leaves.

When doing this type of pruning, do not remove branches, only the individual leaves. Bottom pruning can be done shortly after moving plants outdoors in the spring, and as-needed throughout the season. Learn more about bottom pruning in our video here.

Dead, dying, or diseased foliage

Throughout the gardening season, it is important to keep an eye out for dead, dying or diseased leaves. Whenever you see a sickly-looking leaf, remove it! If there is a diseased leaf, removing it from the garden can help slow down the spread to the rest of the plant, or to other nearby plants.

Just before frost (overwintering)

If you want to keep your pepper plants alive over the winter (overwintering), you will need to prune away most of the plant for the winter. This is the most dramatic type of pruning that we do, removing all foliage and many of the longer branches.

During overwintering, pepper plants will go from having dozens of stems and hundreds of leaves to having just a few branches.

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How To Prune Pepper Plants

The most common type of pruning peppers is topping. It is done early on, around 4-6 weeks after the plants sprout. These steps will show you where and how to prune pepper plants.

Supplies needed:

• Pruning shears

1. Identify plant nodes

Nodes are like a crossroads along a pepper plant’s stem. They are important points from which new leaves and branches can grow. The long stems between nodes are simply called “internodes.”

As a plant grows larger, the stems develop more and more nodes, shooting off more leaves, flowers and stems along the way.

It is important to be able to identify the nodes on your plant for pruning because we use them to determine exactly where to cut.

2. The cutting point

For topping, you’ll just need to make a single cut. Ideally, do this while the plant has a single central stem, before there is a fork (or Y shape). I recommend pruning young peppers just above the 3rd or 4th node, counting up from the bottom.

This will trigger new growth from lower on the plant. Many pepper varieties have a tendency to grow tall and a bit lanky, especially under poor lighting conditions. Pruning can also help keep your plants a manageable size while they are still growing indoors.

3. Cut with sharp scissors, just above a node

Once you have chosen which part of your plant to prune, it’s time to make the cut. Make sure you use a pair of clean, sharp scissors or pruning shears. Do not use your fingers to break or pinch the stems. This can cause damage to the plant.

4. Propagate the cutting (optional)

If you don’t want to see your cutting go to waste, you can easily propagate it in water. Simply submerge the cut side of the cutting in a few inches of fresh water.

After 6-8 weeks in a warm, bright location indoors, you should start to see roots forming from the bottom of the cutting. Change out the water every week or so for the best results. Once the roots are a few inches long, transplant it into soil.

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Should I Pick Early Flowers Off Pepper Plants?

Flowers indicate that your plants are beginning the fruiting stage. If the plants are still in small pots, then I suggest removing the flowers until the plants are up-potted into their final planting location. After 2-3 weeks or establishing, you can stop removing the flowers and let the plants form their peppers.

Read more: Should I pinnch off pepper flowers?

Pruning flowers will postpone pepper production and encourage more foliage and branching. The goal is to grow your plants large and strong before allowing them to set fruit. Again, pruning off flowers should only be done early in the growing season (March-May in cooler Northern Hemisphere climates).

If you got a late start for your plants, or have a shorter growing season, you may want to allow your pepper plant to flower naturally. Focus on transplanting your peppers at the right time to avoid pre-mature fruiting.

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To summarize, pruning peppers is not required! All pepper plants will produce a healthy harvest without any pruning whatsoever. This is why we no longer top our plants. Instead, we just bottom prune leaves and pick early flowers.

Feel free to experiment with pruning your plants and let us know your results. Some varieties may benefit more than others, so it may be worth testing for yourself.

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I hope this guide helped you learn about pruning pepper plants. If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to reach out or comment below!