Pruning Pepper Plants?

[b54red]

I have done all of the above from topping to limiting the number of stems and removing suckers. For small peppers I don't see any advantage so I just let them grow. For bells I have done the topping and the plants do get more bushy but production was similar or even less for me but they did require less support than the taller plants so they are a bit easier to maintain. Now I use a rack above my plants that allows me to drop strings to support heavily loaded limbs so they don't break off. I also try to keep my plants to around four main stems and prune off most of the suckers and it does result in larger fruit. I have to be careful to always leave enough leaves for good fruit protection in the hot sun down here or I will get sun scald on some fruits.

If I were growing in pots I would probably top all of my pepper plants to keep them shorter and easier to support especially something like Giant Marconi because they can get ten feet tall in our long season. I usually have some bell peppers get over six feet tall almost every year and they can be a pain to support because they are so much more brittle than tomatoes.

Bill