This past spring I read that it is a good practice to pinch the first few blooms off your pepper plants to encourage prolific production of peppers. This would, of course,  delay the harvest of your first peppers, its said, but you would be rewarded with a much larger production of peppers, so it would be worth it in the end.

I was hesitant to do this. It seemed rather harsh.  I’m always so excited to see those first little blooms, meaning that peppers are on the way.  It didn’t seem right to pinch them off. Could I bring myself to do it? I deliberated on this for a while, and ultimately decided to throw caution to the wind and give it a try.  When it came time to pinch off those little blooms, I hesitated as I moved into the plant to do the deed. I stopped myself several times before finally going through with it, reminding myself that it would be short term pain for long term gain – an abundance of peppers. Out of 4 plants, I did this to only two – not willing to chance royally screwing up all my pepper plants if something went wrong, which I felt was still a very real possibility.

Well here it is, mid October, and the verdict is in. To pinch or not to pinch? That was the question I kept asking myself in the spring. Here’s my response:  Don’t EVER Do That Again!!!!

NO!  Do not pinch the first blooms off your pepper plants!  I did not get any more peppers than I did on the other plants.  I simply gave up those nice, early peppers I would have had if I hadn’t so stupidly pinched off those lovely little blooms!  So, as a result, I ended up with FEWER peppers. Now I am so mad I fell for this stupid advice. It really didn’t seem right to me, but you can never know until you try. In retrospect I shouldn’t have done it. Will never do it again.

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