But what are the rules for indoor plants? Gloves can reduce the strain, wear, and tear on your hands from using a pruning tool. % of people told us that this article helped them. This article has been viewed 146,480 times. No! Use your fingers or small scissor cutters when first pruning your pepper plant. Read More: Should I Pinch Off Pepper Flowers? Early on in your pepper plant’s life it may be easier to use your hand, rather than a pruner, to ‘pinch’ off unwanted stems and buds. Damaging it will cause the plant to perform poorly. By taking away certain branches, you allow the plant to focus growth and energy elsewhere. In university studies, this kind of bell peppers pruning actually slightly decreased the number of fruits on the plant. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. This will encourage stockier and fuller growth. Pepper plants are very sensitive to excess moisture. Be careful not to prune out a central stem’s growing point if you want that stem to grow out further. ‘True’ leaves are the leaves that grow after the initial set of ‘seed’ leaves. It is important to be able to identify the nodes on your plant for pruning because we will use them to determine exactly where to trim away foliage. The protein in the milk solution can deactivate viruses and bacteria that might otherwise spread between your different plants. Gloves are especially useful when pruning and harvesting your peppers late in the season, as they can protect your hands against accidental capsaicin exposure. To remove unhealthy portions of your plant, pinch the dead leaf or branch between your fingers and pull it off. Thanks for reading, and happy gardening . It is also possible that certain varieties of pepper plant benefit more from pruning more than others. Do this by gently … Cut back any smaller branches, including any suckers. So, the theory that doing this will increase the number of fruits is false. Cutting too high up a stem leaves a ‘snag’ that dies and can begin to rot. Your pepper plants are nearing the end of their potential, and the risk of frost is growing closer. This can lead to slower growth due to a lack of photosynthesis. Step 1 Prune your hot peppers at the beginning of the season (middle of summer) after the plant is a foot tall and beginning to produce fruit. If you plan to keep your pepper plants alive over the winter (overwintering), you will need to prune away most of the plant for the winter. In trying to pull peppers off the plant by hand, you may inadvertently pull off entire branches as well. X By removing these stems, you will help direct the remaining energy from the plant towards ripening the existing pods. Topping pepper plants means sturdier, stronger, fuller plants often with higher yields. It can also be harmful to prune at the wrong time. If you prune by hand, dip your fingers into a solution of powdered milk and water when moving between plants. If you are leaving very few leaves per node early on in the growing season, try to leave a few more as the season progresses. Pruning pepper plants is easy. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/f\/f9\/Prune-Pepper-Plants-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Prune-Pepper-Plants-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/f\/f9\/Prune-Pepper-Plants-Step-1.jpg\/aid10172569-v4-728px-Prune-Pepper-Plants-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":"728","bigHeight":"546","licensing":"