Ghost pepper plant advice.

[hooked on smoke]

Hi all,
I could use some support.
I have a ghost pepper plant several years old, (photos attached).
The peppers are now very small and there are literally, hundreds of buds on it. Should I cut the plant back to put more energy into producing, "normal" sized peppers.
I could really use some advice from the pepper pro's.

 

[Fueling Around]

I've never had the ability to grow a pepper plant any longer than as an annual.

The plant looks relatively healthy. Something that bushy is a heavy feeder and needs lots of regular fertilizer, water, and no competition from surrounding plants.

 

[JIMSMOKES]

Try trimming back when blooming to only a few.

 

[hooked on smoke]

Try trimming back when blooming to only a few.

When you say trimming back, what do you mean? I don't want to butcher the plant and kill it.
Thanks in advance.

 

[JIMSMOKES]

When you say trimming back, what do you mean? I don't want to butcher the plant and kill it.
Thanks in advance.

As a plant blooms it sets fruit. You can trim and grow larger fruit or not trim and grow smaller fruit.

 

[hooked on smoke]

I really appreciate the advice but I apologize again for being new.
In comparison, I've tried cutting my own hair and it didn't turn out well.
So how do I trim/crop my pepper plants and not kill them??

 

[Chasdev]

In this case Youtube is your friend.
There's literally hundreds of videos, done by expert pepper growers (and all veg really) where you can learn more than you ever thought possible on any pepper subject, and I mean all of them.
I'm planning on wintering a few jalapeno plants indoors this winter myself.
BUT, only the ones that produce mouthflame peppers.

 

[chopsaw]

I agree on the heavy feeder . That's a lot of foliage taking away from production .
Plus , looks like it's planted in a narrow section along a sidewalk , with other flowering plants .
Not a lot of ground surface area to capture natural nutrients , plus the run off of the flat work away from the area takes stuff with it .
Get the correct fertilizer to feed with , and also add a topping that's slow release .

I actually used to use spent coffee grounds . I stopped growing because it gets upper 90's in the summer . That stunts the plants , then when it cools down they go nuts with setting fruits .
I end up with a load of non ripe peppers in the middle of October , then the frost hits them .

I would also pick what you have when they're ripe . Even if small , get 'em off the plant so the other sets have more food .

Pruning would help for sure . I'm not sure at this point where you would even start .
Pepper geek has some good info that might help .

 

[pineywoods]

Time to start cloning it and make more.
Many plants like people slow down as they age. We have some strawberry plants that are about 6 years old they barely produce anything but when we grow the runners they produce we get plants that produce like the mother plant did the first year it was planted.

 

[normanaj]

We do all ours in ground so for us it's an annual planting.The most I do is trim dead or discolored leaves and remove the fruit that just isn't going anywhere.For fertilizer a handful of Osmo every 6 weeks or so.Depending on weather they receive water once a week.That's pretty much it but I've heard the use of coffee grinds from quite a few people and will give that a go this season.

 

[chopsaw]

I've heard the use of coffee grinds from quite a few people and will give that a go this season.

I had 2 spots I planted mine . One got the coffee grounds , the other did not . The section with the grind grew twice as tall , and produced way more peppers .

 

[normanaj]

I had 2 spots I planted mine . One got the coffee grounds , the other did not . The section with the grind grew twice as tall , and produced way more peppers .

How often and how much?

 

[chopsaw]

How often and how much?

I just used what I had from my morning coffee . Usually 6 cups . I let it dry out , then sprinkle it around each pepper plant when I had enough . Once or twice a week was normal for me . I don't think you can over do it .
Not really sure what it does , but I think the biggest benefit from it is attracting worms .

 

[voyager 663rd]

Coffee grounds also help to keep squirrels away (they hate digging through it)

 

[LhornR]

When pepper enter their flowering and fruiting stage you want to back way off any fertilizer with high nitrogen. Nitrogen will keep encouraging leaf growth over producing fruit.

Healthy pepper plant can take a lot of abuse from heavy pruning...but I wouldnt do it during the flowering stage. That's something you want to do before or after that.

No expert here but that's the info I've gathered over the years and follow myself. I had 64 various pepper plants last year and about 42 this year waiting to go outside.

Some of mine (mainly poblano and anaheim's) got quite unruly last year because I didnt prune them early on. They outgrew the tomato cages and started laying over that became a constant fight.

 

[nlife]

I'm not sure what pepper that is, but it certainly doesn't look like a Jolokia. It looks more like a hab of some sort.

 

[philpom]

Here are a few things to check.

Is the soil depleted?

Is it root bound?

An imbalance in fertilizer? Reduce nitrogen and increase phosphorus.

Insufficient sun or crowding?

Pepper plants can decline after 3-5 years, consider rooting some clippings to replace it.