On Mon, 09 Jun 2003 23:33:34 GMT, "swimcoach"
wrote:
I've got several small jalapeno plants that I started this spring. A couple
have started to produce flowers buds.

I've grown basil for years and know that pinching off the flowers forces the
plant to keep putting on new leaves - the object of my desire.

Yes - when growing Basil, you want the plant to produce as many leaves
as possible and postpone the point when it finally flowers.

For any fruiting plant like Peppers, leaves are necessary to support
overall growth, but pinching out all the flowers would prevent you
ever getting any Peppers!

One thing worth trying is pinching out excessive flower growth AFTER
you have got a nice lot of fruit on your plants. People do this with
other plants like grapes, tomatoes etc to ensure that the plants'
energies are directed to producing a moderate amount of good-sized,
ripe fruit. The alternative can often be a large number of piddly,
under developed fruit.

Other people will also advise you to pinch out the growing tips after
a certain point, to stimulate "bushing out", sometimes giving you more
growing points.

Hope that helps.


Colin
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Replace the obvious with Bigfoot