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.

However, am I correct that I should NOT remove the flowers from the jap
plants if I want peppers to form?

Yes, you are correct. The peppers will form at the base of the flowers, and
the flowers will dry and drop off.

Sue



"swimcoach" wrote in message
thlink.net...
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.

However, am I correct that I should NOT remove the flowers from the jap
plants if I want peppers to form?

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
-----
Replace the obvious with Bigfoot

"swimcoach" wrote in message
thlink.net...
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.

However, am I correct that I should NOT remove the flowers from the jap
plants if I want peppers to form?


Duh, we are not growing leaves here. You want fruit

Hi, been growing Jaleps for some time now. I like to prune them REALLY early
on, to help the branchs and roots, then no more.

Make sure to pick the fruit as it becomes ready, or the plant will stop setting
fruit.

also, a shot or two of good manure tea will help, or cheat with some Peter's 20
20 20 a couple of days before the fruit is ripe. It seems that the peppers
require a large boost when they are fruiting.

later
john

"swimcoach" wrote in message rthlink.net...
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.

However, am I correct that I should NOT remove the flowers from the jap
plants if I want peppers to form?


I have some sweet banana pepper plants that were small and spindly,
yet still trying to produce their first set of flowers. On the advice
of the good people here on this newsgroup, I pinched off these first
flower buds to put energy into leafy growth.

As a result, they have put out new sets of leaves and are getting
downright bushy compared to what they were like a few weeks ago.

My advice would be to do the same...there's a lot of growing season
left, and I figure you'll get better yields if you let the plants get
a good head start on their leafiness first.

Mark