Pruning Pepper Plants 101: Is It Even Necessary?

Topping pepper plants is a topic of much debate, with some growers saying it's a fantastic way to boost production, and others saying it's not necessary at all. So, who's right? As with most things in gardening, IT DEPENDS!

Pruning peppers removes top growth to promote more branching and bushiness. By doing this, you sacrifice your earliest peppers in favor of growing more vegetation and a sturdier plant, which can then lend itself to more flower and pepper production later on down the road.

I prefer to top lanky plants to bush them out myself, especially if I'm still early in the season with plenty of time to let those peppers produce. On larger peppers like bells or banana peppers, I let them be - it doesn't seem to do much besides slow down production.

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[epicgardening]

Pepper pruning tip of your own? Lemme know what works for you ⤵️

[ericmurphy]

So I have a dog, and he is a big boy. One day, he was walking past my Fresno chili plant, and his powerful tail literally chopped the top of the plant off. In the days and weeks prior, the plant had been dehydrated, and damaged by harsh winds, so I figured that my dog just put the plant out of its misery. However, this led to a ludicrous explosion of growth. It is now starting to flower and is the most successful looking pepper plant I have ever done

[bigl]

In my experience, topping my peppers is the ONLY way I can get a decent yield. I’ve been doing it for about 4 years, and for many years before that I was lucky to get a few peppers off each plant. Now my plants are at least double the size and I get WAY more peppers. Works with both sweet peppers and jalapeños. Last year I topped 1 jalapeño plant and left 3 others unpruned. The 1 plant I topped grew 2 or 3 times larger than the other 3 plants which were all the same size. I also pinch the flower buds off all my peppers to delay blooming until the plants are large enough with many branches to support the weight of multiple peppers. That’s a critical step because otherwise the plant’s growth slows once it starts fruiting and you won’t get many more branches or new fruit forming after that. The plant should have as many sturdy branches as possible before you allow it to set fruit. Pruning AND pinching buds leads to more branching.

[jakesnake]

Would be nice to see a fast forward of what the pruning actually did.. ✌️

[jessiedwinell]

not only do you consistently deliver quality, useful content but you are straight to the point and so knowledgeable. this is my absolute favorite channel right now.

[tinker]

I'm up in WA zone 8b. Started peppers from seed in February. Topped each one once they had 6 true leaves, down to 4. And I'm having the most flower buds I've ever seen. They should be able to go until the end of September before getting them ready to over winter. This is my first year doing peppers this way.

[justmehere]

I haven’t pruned my pepper in about 2 years now. I just take off a few leaves by hand here and there. It’s really doing well.

[meganmcarthur]

A deer pruned my Jalapeno plant for me. Haha! Bit the top half clear off. It has now been relocated to a safe place, and it's growing leaves like crazy.

[AudreyRobinel]

I like to prune my peppers because everyone recommends it, i never tried a comparison by pruning one and not pruning another. Anyway there is another benefit to pruning for me : i replant the clipped top, and now i have a lot of pepper plants in pots. That way i clone the most vigorous plants, reinforcing the original plant for later on.
However, it must be noted that my growing season is perpetual, since i live in the tropics. I have a pepper plant that has been continuously fruiting for 6-8 months now, it even has bark now.
It is still growing strong, at aproximately 1.5m tall (it should mean something like 5 feet), but this one i never pruned (i didn't know about that back when i planted it), and it has 2-3 strong main branches, and multiple off-shoots from each of those. I have a (also with it's own bark from beeing so old) basil plant nearby that drives pests away, protecting the pepper.

[OSGCourtWatch]

Personally I try to top as a seedling when it gets 3 sets of true leaves and normally only top once. By topping early u don’t let the peppers waste energy growing too tall before u top and no one wants a single stem pepper! Also, I make sure to trim off ALL fruit for the first 6 weeks or so after planting seedlings out into raised beds so all energy goes into building plant infrastructure....fruit production drains a HUGE amount of energy from a plant. Will get much more production over the entire season by doing that.

[lindakershner]

AWESOME delivery...Your detail of showing the plant up close REALLY HELPS...Keep up the Great work and can't wait for your next video

[lvlmrmime]

HOW DID YOU KNOW I NEEDED THIS VIDEO!? Perfect timing Kevin. Thank you.

[xawkwardxkidx]

Just started growing some peppers and they aren't even close to pruning level yet but of course I'll watch again later

[baronw]

I was just looking up if I should prune mine because they are growing great and then I got this notification. Thanks

[mokhtarmoussa]

I just started gardening during the quarantine, My pepper seedling are almost ready to transplant, i am so excited !

[JasFromMars]

So happy! I searched your channel for this exact video and you guys didn't disappoint. I have a hydro garden inside and the flowers are blooming so thank you I will take what works for me from this!

[moganfritz]

I found that topping my peppers in the fall before potting them and bringing them in for the winter is a great way to avoid having to grow them from seed every year. I have three plants that I bring in every winter and I prune them back completely. I even get some small peppers through the winter.

[lastblow]

I almost never top peppers but prune them once an year when they go dormant in winter, that does work!!!

[wisbacks]

I've been growing peppers for 20 years and last year was the first time I ever topped my plants. It worked like a charm! The key to pruning them is to make sure you leave at least 4-6 true leaves on the bottom. And don't wait too long. In my opinion some of the plants in this video are past the pruning stage. No disrespect to Epic Gardening because this guy knows a lot!! Just wanted to add my two cents because pruning worked amazingly well for me and I live in Wisconsin where the growing season is fairly short. Trust me if you prune correctly your plants will explode with leaves and growth. And from what I saw last year it actually speeds up the entire process because you will get a bushier and healthier plants!

[capsulecorpa.t.]

FINALLY a video that shows exactly how to prune peppers! I’ve been looking here and there for the past 2 weeks, no joke. Many other vids show pruning in very early stages, but my plants are already a foot tall and hardly producing (also never pruned before). So it’s great to see it done, just learned the 45 deg angle trick. When I get home from work, I’ll reprune my peppers! Thanks