Is cultivating your own vegetable plants still new to you and just when you thought you knew everything you need to know, a new term pops up? First the pinching out, then the royal blossom... are these terms only related to tomatoes or is this also part of the care for the pepper plant? However. Today we are focusing specifically on pepper flowers and how to handle them correctly. Find out in which cases you should remove the flowers from peppers.
The so-called royal blossom – what is it and could it be superfluous?
Of course, when we say to remove the flowers from peppers, we don't mean removing all the flowers that form during the season. After all, without them, fruit formation cannot occur. This refers to the so-called royal blossom of peppers. This is the first flower. It occurs at the top of the plant and more precisely between the main shoot and the first lateral shoot.
You may find it difficult to remove the flowers from the peppers when you are waiting so much to do so. But in some cases this step is necessary to promote growth and we would like to explain to you what these are. One often hears the claim that the emergence of the first flower results in a richer harvest. However, this has not yet been proven and gardening experts do not always agree whether it makes a difference in this regard.
This step is by the wayalso on the tomato plantuseful in some cases.
But what is right now? Are you now staring at your plants and no longer knowing what to do? We'll tell you something: It largely depends on whether you grew the pepper plants yourself indoors in the warm and under what conditions.
If you grow the vegetable plants yourself
... it can definitely make sense if you remove the flowers from the peppers. This often leads to the plants being precocious, so to speak, or producing flowers, even though they are generally not yet strong enough:
- The temperatures inside were optimal and the pepper plant “believes” it is already warm enough for the flowering period.
- The lack of space in the pot can also encourage the plant to form its first flower buds early. When it no longer finds space for new roots, it puts its energy into developing the remaining parts of the plant and thus reaches the next growth phase. So it forms flower buds, which it would actually have waited to do outdoors in order to form a stronger root system and generally grow larger.
In which cases is breaking out the first flower less necessary?
Peppers are actually quite slow-growing plants, especially when you compare them to tomatoes, for example. However, there are varieties, including some chili varieties, that grow particularly slowly. In these cases it is more of an advantage if you use the royal blossom for the peppersnotremove. In this way you achieve what you actually wanted to avoid by breaking out and stimulate faster maturation of the plant.
Remove the flowers from peppers - when is the right time?
If you want to pinch off the royal flowers, do the following:
- If the pepper plant produces its first flowers before you have planted it outdoors, it is worth breaking it out.
- If the buds form within the first two to four weeks after planting, you should also remove the flowers from the peppers.
In this way, you give the vegetable plants the opportunity to develop a stronger root system and stronger above-ground parts of the plant.
Any flower buds that develop after this first month remain on the plant. In this case, she has already had enough time to get used to the new environment in order to produce her delicious fruits.
This is how it's done:
- Allow the buds to grow a bit before breaking them out. This will make it easier for you to reach and remove them without accidentally hurting the rest of the plant.
- It is best to use clean and sharp secateurs to snip off the flower buds.
- If you use your fingers to remove the flowers from the pepper, grab it firmly and pull in an upright direction. Under no circumstances should you pull against the direction of growth, as you would probably tear off part of the stem and damage the plant.
How can you prevent early royal flowers from forming?
Of course, there is no guarantee that the plants will ultimately wait long enough to form flower buds, but you can still influence it to a certain extent. The way you fertilize or with what plays a big role here. As you may know, nitrogen is essential for the growth of thestems and leaves, which is why this substance is so important, especially in the first growth phase of a plant. So if you use a fertilizer that emphasizes nitrogen, you promote the growth of these parts of the plant, while flowers and, as a result, fruits take a back seat.
You can either refrain from fertilizing or continue with another product with less nitrogen once the pepper plant has reached its maximum size. This usually happens in mid-July.
Do you actually have to prune pepper plants?Here we answer the question.
