"sprocket" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the tips. What do people mean, exactly, when they say pinch the
tips for better bushyness ?? I've seen this said a few times but was never
quite sure exactly what was meant...

The tip of the plant ( where you can see the small new leaves forming ) is
where the growth is concentrated. By pinching the tip you can cut this bit
off. The plant then redirects its efforts to grow branches. If you look at
the base of each of the lower leaves where they join the main stem you can
sometimes see the pair of small leaves ready to start growing. They will
naturally start anyway when the main shoot is too tall and it is hard for
the plant to pump the fluids up that high but by pinching out the tip sooner
you start the branches sooner and you get a bushy plant. You can keep doing
this by pinching out the tips of the branches when they are 4 pairs of
leaves long as well but I wouldn't do this here because each time you do it
you also pinch off potential flowers/chillies. It then takes longer before
new flowers form and if they form too late then they won't have time to form
ripe chillies before the end of the summer.

Martin