How to prune peppers

Emerion

When I first grew sweet peppers I left them unpruned. This worked OK, but the brittle branches were easy to snap. 

A few years ago on “The Beechgrove Garden” TV program, they recommended pruning sweet pepper plants by removing one of each pair of branches so that you end up with one straight stem, closely tied to a cane. Peppers formed close to this stem, and that reduces the risk of breakage of the brittle plant as the fruit grows heavy. I’ve tried that, and it works pretty well.

I’ve just seen a YouTube video in which a gardener recommends nipping out the leading shoot in order to promote a bushy plant and a maximum crop.

If you’ve tried this, how robust is the plant? I’m tempted to try it as I don’t have many plants this year. What do you do for a maximum crop? 

gerrard.kate

I was going to ask a similar question for chillis... I've never pinched out, but have heard that I'll get a bushier plant and better crop if I do. Will be interested in the answers, thank you. 

strelitzia32

gerrard.kate said:

I was going to ask a similar question for chillis... I've never pinched out, but have heard that I'll get a bushier plant and better crop if I do. Will be interested in the answers, thank you. 

I pinched out a cayenne chilli last year (by accident). It resulted in a very bushy plant, but overall significantly smaller leaves and smaller chillies in much higher numbers than the other plants grown in same conditions. I was hoping to end up with a short bushy chilli, but I got a bonsai chilli with shrink ray zapped fruits instead.