Can someone give me a lesson on pinching my vegetables and fruits. I am uncertain on what height and if I should just pinch the new leaves that are growing or pinch back a lot of the leaves to make it branch out? I have peppers that are about 7in, spanish squash 10in , tomatoes but they are just seedlings, and 3 avocados that are from 3in - 10ins. Thanks
I think, If you pinch out the growing tip when the desired height is reached then it makes the plant bushy but wait for more experienced gardners to advise as I don't pinch out any in my garden. I think I was supposed to pinch out my fuchias lol .
Thanks, I'm just not sure at what height plants should be pinched at to create new growth. I don't want to prune to early. :-)
Should all veggie/fruit plants be pinched to promote new growth? I had a red pepper that was store brought, I planted the seeds in my window and they are now about 7in tall. Will using a pepper from the grocery store give peppers?
Hey Florida Girl, interesting question about the pepper plants. I'm no botanist, but I would think that yes they will produce peppers if they are growing now. I understand that some of the biggest commercial seed companies have engineered their seeds so that the resultant fruit seeds are sterile so as to insure that the farmers have no choice but to by more seed the next year. ( I'm not stating that as fact-it's just what I've heard.) So, I would guess that if your seeds sprouted and are growing now, they will produce fruit. Curious though that you got seeds to sprout from a grocery store pepper and Icould not get any of my poblamo pepper seeds saved from last years peppers to sprout. The plants I had last year came from seed purchased at Wal-mart and Ace Hardware. I don't remember the brand names. The seeds sprouted, grew and produced prolifically, However none of the seeds from the peppers produced sprouted this year. I had to go buy more seed of course. Makes one start to think... As to wether all plants should be pruned to promote growth, I would think it just depends on the plant type. I prune the non fruiting branches on my tomato plants and leave the suckers in order to get more fruit. Every time you cut an okra pod, if you cut off the branch directly below the pod thereby only keeping two or three branches at the top of the plant You will end up harvesting more okra than if you let the plants just grow natural. On the other hand...All the peppers I grow, be it poblamos, jalepenos, cayennes, etc, I let grow naturally as they are so prolific. I've got strings of anchos hanging everywhere! Same with tomatillos, if your growing conditions are good and your plants aren't too crowded, you'll have more tomatillos than you'll ever eat. Case in point-I love salsa verde, but I still have 36 jars that I canned last summer off of 8 plants. So I wouldn't prune them in hopes of more production, because there's so much fruit already. Not sure if peppers or tomatillos would react that way anyhow. I'm thinking they tend not to get new growth like a tomato does. Would'nt prune a watermelon either, they're only going to get so many runners and the vines are relatively delicate. You can abuse a tomatillo and it will forgive you, but accidently step on a watermelon vine and thats possibly one less melon you'll get this year! That being said, I think there's alot of plants that benefit from pruning like your tomatoes, okra, fruit trees, and such and a bunch of others that I wouldn't touch for anything. Would be interesting to see if anybody has ever made up a comprehensive list of what to prune and what not to!
Hey Monkey DOG!.....I've be successful in having a few store brought fruits and veggies sprout now if they will give me fruit or veggies not sure yet. I started to do it with my little brother to show him how plants and trees all come from seeds. Now I'm hooked on seeing what I can grow. I have squash, peppers, tomatoes, and I was able to get two mangoes and avocados pits to sprout and grow but I know those will have to be grafted in order to see if it will give fruit unless I wait 10 + years. Next I am going to try starfruit, tamarind, lemon and limes Just to see what I can get to sprout. I would love a list of what to prune and what not to. I want to let it all grow but I was unsure if pruning would help promote growth. I guess I will just wait and see. Do you have pics of your peppers? I have mine in a planter on the porch, I wonder if they need more space or if I need to just wait to see when they will sprout up and place in a larger container. I bet your salsa verde is great esp since it came from your garden. :)
Back to the pruning subject for just a moment- Of course any plant should be pruned of diseased or badly damaged parts. As far as healthy plants though, I think mainly your perrenials are the ones that benifit the most from pruning, such as trees, roses, etc. I was looking about on the web looking for some kind of list, nothing yet that is really comprehensive. A few lists concerning just particular groupings of plants. I think that's cool how your planting all these different seeds to see what all comes up! I hope they all do! I'd love to hear how the tamarind do as I love the flavor. I could drink tamarind nectar every day, and tamarind soda. I normally start my plants from seed in small containers on the porch and then transplant into slightly larger containers when the plants get their first true leaves established. I would set my plants into the ground when they get from 8-12 inches. I don't plant them in the ground prior to that simply because I like to be able to move them under a roof during a bad storm and I can keep them from getting stepped on by the dogs while they're still small if they're in the planters. Should you move yours to a larger container? depends on what size they're in now. You mentioned earlier that your pepper plants were about 7" tall. I usually start mine in cups about the size of a coke can, and at 7" they would be ready to move to the ground or something bigger because by now the roots have probably filled the cup and need more room. If you have your plants in individual containers, simply turn one upside down with the stem of the plant between your fingers so you don't lose all you dirt and look at the roots. If you see lot's of roots around the dirt where the sides of the container was, then it needs something bigger. If however you have all your plants in one big planter then keep in mind the size of the full grown plant. I usually plant my peppers in the ground about 2 1/2- 3 feet apart at the minimum so they don't crowd each other when grown. They will need at least a foot of depth also for good root structure. Something like a watermelon does'nt need as much depth, as the plant lies on the ground, so it has shallow roots. I will try to get some pics of my peppers tomorrow to give you some idea of what to expect. you said the ones that you have planted are red peppers...is that red bell or a different variety?
Red Bell Peppers, I tried green peppers but seeds would not sprout. I put about 10 red bell peppers seeds in a small cups with soil on the window and in about 4-5 days they sprouted. I would like to try a different variety like aji dulce. Same with the squash they sprouted in 3 days every seed sprouted. I have 6 plants, it's spanish squash. Any tips on growing that? It's growing pretty nice and full. About how long does a pepper plant take to give peppers? (in your experience)
Florida Girl, You should be able to pick some of your peppers in about 2 1/2 months from the time they sprout. I usually start mine out in May and have some fruit by the beginning of July. What happens with mine is that I get some fruit around july and then production drops off through August. Around mid september through October is when the peppers really come on. The plants are covered up with them then. If I get 20 peppers in July, I'll have 100 in Late September. The sweet peppers like the bells and piminto don't seem to be as hardy in my experience as the chili types are. They seem to require a bit more care. The pepper plants in general are a bit like the okra in that they don't require a lot of water. The sweet varieties also tend to develope rot more quickly than the chilis. So don't over water and make sure they get full sun as they thrive on the heat.
The tamarind sprouted.. whooot! I was very pleased to see that it, i just threw them in a pot about two weeks ago forgot about it and checked on it today and it was there nice and strong. I will post pics soon!
Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing the little tamarinds. Are the other plants still doing well?
