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Pepper plants growing really tall - should I pinch the top?

Hi again image

I'm attempting to grow peppers for the first time.  They're being grown indoors, on a light windowsill, and have come on really well in the last 2 weeks (so much so that they're now 50-60cm tall each).

Should I pinch out the growing tip to stop them getting any taller, or leave them be?

Also, any ideas on what container size they should be in?  The current pots are approx 8 inches in diameter.   Will this be ok for bearing fruit?

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  • LoganLogan Posts: 2,532
    jonnyw sounds as if they needed more light got leggy, don't pinch them out can you put them somewhere else with more light they should start to flower soon so don't pinch them out or they will just grow more leaves
  • LoganLogan Posts: 2,532
    The pot is fine
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719

    Keep turning the pots round every day, dont need to pinch them out

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719

    Thought you dont start feeding toms, peppers etc TILL you get flowers? Thats what I have always done.

  • jonny_1jonny_1 Posts: 8

    Thanks for the advice.  I won't pinch them then, though will start rotating them daily.   

    It sounds like they may have to go outside though, if it's not light enough for them in the windows!

    I may have been a bit late planting them - which could explain the lack of flowers yet.  I was also a bit slow moving them up to the next size pots (from seedlings) which also probably didn't help.  My chilli plants are still looking quite small too!

  • Zoomer44Zoomer44 Posts: 3,267

    It could be they have become leggy but some varieties do grow tall, I can't recall a couple of mine without going down to the allotment but I'm expecting them to grow to 4-5ft. You could check the varieties you have on the net for expected height. One of my chilli plants is already at least 2ft high and just beginning to flower.   

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719

    I have only ever grown "indoor" varieties, very impressed Zoomer44, can we have pics? Did you grow them from seed?  I have just grown Apache this year, I had so many seeds on the go, they filled  the bedroom windows cills, conservatory, and 3 greenhouses.  One of the guys I work with has an Apache I grow 2 years ago, its not grown huge, but is still producing, he apparently put it outside in the summer. Another friend, Indian I gave her one for the cooking, said it was so pretty, she put it on her dining room table and didnt pick the chillies!

  • Zoomer44Zoomer44 Posts: 3,267

    I'm sorry Nanny don't have any pics and it's not such an impressive story, chillies and peppers were bought as plants, it's a long story but I've had health problems, I'm recovering from viral encephalitis and meningitis, it came on sudden and when I came out of hospital all my seedlings had died, toms and everything, so I started sowing again towards the end of April, beginning of May. 

    Grown Apache 2yrs on the go though, prolific producer and the chillies keep well if dried, I've still loads from last yr. 

  • Katherine WKatherine W Posts: 410

    I was wondering the same weeks ago. The NHS veg book said to pinch the plants (on one page) and not to pinch them (on a different page). Since obviously the experts had confused ideas, I pinched some and left some, as an experiment.

    As I said that was weeks ago. Now they are all planted outside, they are all the same height. The piched ones are bushier at the top, but the unpinched ones are straighter and less apt to flop over with heavy rain, they are slowly bushing out too, but from further down. Both are blooming.

    So I think, either way is fine, does not change all that much, and there are pros and cons to both systems. In doubt, let the plants beimage

  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719

    Zoomer44, hope you are better now, I grew lots of different chillies last year, I froze them whole and used them in my chutney and pickled onions.   I work on a Hyper-acute Stroke Unit, we have folk come in with similar symptoms and sometimes turns out to be what you had, very unlucky to get both.  What a shame you didnt have anyone to water your plants.  Of course, I know that was the last thing on your mind.  Incidentally, lots of stuff on TV and paper about gardening as therapy for mental and physical problems, talking about putting it on "prescription like Gym Membership.

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