Should You Pick Early Pepper Flowers?

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In this video, I answer a common question for pepper growers: Should I pick early pepper flower buds? It is typical to see early flowers blooming on young, indoor pepper plants. The plants are entering the fruiting stage, but isn't it a bit early for them to produce peppers?

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In This Video:
0:00 - Intro
0:56 - Should you pick pepper flowers
2:02 - How to prune pepper flowers
2:58 - When to STOP picking pepper flowers
3:51 - When NOT to pick pepper flowers

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Pruning or cutting pepper flowers is a great way to increase pepper yields in the long run. As long as your growing season is long enough, you should cut any early flower buds to encourage the plants to grow more leaves and branches. Once the plants have been outdoors for 2-4 weeks, you can stop cutting off flowers and allow them to produce fruits.

Thanks for watching!

[zachwak]

Do a side by side, one with picking early flowers and one without!

[zeetay]

Just started growing recently. You're one of the most reliable sources of information on peppers. I always look to you when I have a question. Subscribed. Keep up the great work!

[KW]

Always pick off the first flower buds. It allows the plant to grow. I do this and omg I end up with so many peppers and such a strong plant

[UrbanGardeningWithD.A.Hanks]

I was going to give this a thumbs up, but then I saw I already had, so I must have enjoyed it at some earlier point as well, LOL. Keep the info coming!

[unsettld]

I've been training my Carolina reaper for a few years now, plucking the flowers here and there (still got a few pods) but recently I've committed to pruning all flowers and the growth has been phenomenal.
I live in an equatorial climate so no seasons except for hot, cold (18°C) and rain all year round.. at this point my pepper looks more like an ornamental bush with plenty of shoots and constant growth..
Personally I would like to keep my plant in this state as it's definitely happy.

Previously when allowing it to fruit I noticed that the plant really drained and lost a lot of its mass.

[Ira]

I did a comparison with two Red Thai Ornamental plants in the same very large pot. One I didn’t pull the flowers, the other, I pulled the flowers for around a week. They were both mature and had always been outside and hardened in this same pot.

The picked plant not only grew much larger, but twice the pods. So…

I’m a fan, but on one or two of my other varieties, I don’t have the patience and want to see some ripe peppers ASAP!

[JeffHerman-uq]

I live in the northern US and im growing a red ghost pepper plant that is only 1.5 feet tall and 1 ft wide, but it has over 20 fully developed pods and over 10 of them are 2.5 inches long and doing great outside on its own

[ellescott]

Okay, first time pepper grower here. Pulled the tiny blooms today, it was hard. 😳😊

[jonlouis]

Very interesting. I transplanted one of mine into a big pot from the garden and gave it a severe pruning. It has done great and now I want it to grow more leaves, so I will start removing the flowers. Right now it is covered with buds!

[danopine]

Thank you, perfect timing, just repotted 2 weeks ago and have many buds on a 6" plant. Going to top and remove flowers ASAP.

[OSGCourtWatch]

Another good video. We plant out early to mid May here in pdx and generally top at least once and pick off flowers for the first month. Last year we did not prune as vigorously and noticed our peppers were a bit smaller and more spindly than prior years (thoughstill fine). Was especially noticeable on our bells. Also, we try to prune after the first flush of peppers comes on and plants produce a ton more blooms as they try to reproduce before they die...

[chickasawmike]

My peppers are having a hard time due to three weeks of rain and 100% humidity right after I planted them. Now it is 92 with 100% humidity and they are drooping a little bit. So I am going to trim those flowers off for a couple of weeks at least.

[afinecupofcoffee]

I recently purchased a tray of poblanos from a local nursery. Put them directly into five-gallon buckets and this morning I noticed they had buds. But they're still pretty small. They have been outside a month so I plucked them off. I feel the plant needs to at least double in height before it's strong enough for those big fruit.

[chillipepperenthooziest]

Generally if you're topping your pepper plants what you'll find is more often than not the top part of the main stem that your cutting off already has pods coming through... so if you're topping your plants you're cutting off those early flowers anyway...

It's spring over here in Aus now so the growing season is underway here. I've got a ghost pepper plant that I topped about a week ago and It's honestly amazing how the plant has responded... all of the side nodes are suddenly jumping to life. I can't wait till it hits full maturity =P

[eliasromero]

Thank you so much dude. I'm new to growing peppers, always wanted too, but didn't have the space till now. I'm trying a few this season and honestly, your videos help me so much. Just filtering out the useful information, giving direct answers, and expressing your experience is something I am very very grateful for. So thank you, and keep up with the awesome videos!!!

[topixfromthetropix]

I grew outside and noticed the Thai reds, Poblano, and bells did well in slightly acidic soil.

[joanies]

One year I grew a bonsai bell pepper. 😂 The bees enjoyed the blooms and the tiniest bell pepper won last in show before the whole thing went into the compost.

[klubstompers]

You chose to grow a pepper plant in a can, but you didn't get a Dr Pepper can?

[marct]

Exactly. I feed high N and K after it established its root system. In my climate I get most BELL peppers in the fall since they don't like temps above 80F in fruiting.

[dogslobbergardens]

Here's how I try to do it, counting backwards from when cold weather hits (nights under 55F): We get cold nights in end of Sept; count back 90 days for peppers that need 90 days to produce ripe fruit (more for some varieties); start letting flowers develop normally; count back 3-4 weeks, transplant into ground or final container, pick all flowers until then. So basically I remove all flowers until the middle of May or the first of June. It will vary with your climate region and type of peppers.