I found through my own experimentation that removing at least the first pepper as soon as it appears will in the long run give you more fruit. If the plant is still very small and has set some peppers I will remove them also. I found that if you allow a small plant to produce a large pepper it will seriously stunt the plant for a long time and reduce overall production. My conclusion is that the small plant just uses too much energy that should go into growing larger to make that first or first few peppers and can't recover easily from the strain. However every year I allow a couple of my peppers to produce those early peppers just so I can have them to eat much sooner. Almost every year the results are the same. Those peppers that I allow to make early are smaller and less productive as the season moves along and they tend to have more foliage and disease problems. I know this is purely anecdotal but it is what I have observed for years.
Bill
|