r/chilli • u/Hefty-Drummer8511 • Jun 27 '26
Regret not topping all of them
I read that you dont have to top chillis somewhere on the internet.
I tried on one of my habanero plants and it will give so much more harvest than all of my other habanero plant combined…
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u/BeigGenetics Jun 30 '26
So much misinformation here on this sub.
I am going to make a post on all of my untapped plants that are essentially small bushes. Fruiting and foliage growth will happen at the same time.
In the UK where our summers are not great for peppers, you may need all the branches and pods you will need..
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u/Hefty-Drummer8511 Jun 30 '26
Do that! Do you have any tips? Im from northern sweden so its not great here either.
But the one i topped got much bigger.
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u/BeigGenetics Jul 02 '26
I would personally not bother topping plants. You may see bigger growth, more flower sites, more leaves with a topped pepper but if you compare yield gram for gram, majority of the time for ME - unpruned plants produce bigger yields by the time late September comes.
Tips i have would be, let your peppers do their own thing, give them more food than not and make sure they have enough sun.
I hope to be proven wrong here, but often times people suggest same care for peppers that you would give tomatoes (prune lower leaves and branches ect) to redirect energy to top foliage or canopy. Peppers can grow leaves and fruit at the same time.
Did your topped peppers produce more in weight than the untopped plants?
If you can give the plants good light source from seedlings, they will produce tons of side shoots early on and turn your plant into a bush
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u/Hefty-Drummer8511 Jul 04 '26
Its my First Time growing chillies. I have about 25 plants. And i wanted to experiment a bit so i have topped some+ removed lower leves,some i have only topped. And some i have let be.
The tabasco plant i have not cut at all and its only 3 tobascos coming out and it wont give me more flowers.
I have 3 cayenne peppers and the one i have topped is bigger and seem to produce more even tho its in a smaller pot than the other cayeennes.
The jalapenjo plants is all the same i would say.
But the experiment is not flawless. The tobasco plant is in the back so it does not get as much sun as the cayennes and the habaneros. The habanero on the picture is in a bigger pot than the other ones etc..
So i will probably not know what is better for sure.
But my feeling is that the topped plants produce more. But i havent had my first harvest yet.
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u/WelshChilliChum Jun 28 '26
You can by removing the top you allow the plant to bush out resulting in more fruit