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Old June 30, 2017   #11
ddsack
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Northern Minnesota - zone 3
Posts: 3,218
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I think it all depends on where you live and how short your season is. I just grow more pepper plants and leave those first peppers alone. For short season areas, I would see more benefit in topping the main stem very early in development before peppers or even blossoms are set, so the pepper is forced to branch out while very young and so has time to catch up in growth and produce more blossoms that have a chance of ripening before frost. Even during summer, far north 80F's can drop into the 50F's overnight regularly, so northern peppers have a harder time coming up with the sustained hot temps they like for rapid growth. You may set more peppers if you remove the first, but will they have have a chance to grow to full size and get ripe? Southern folk don't have this problem.
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