Why do you need to pincher peppers and how to do it correctly

Bright and uplifting, bell peppers are an excellent source of nutrients and nutrition. There is more vitamin C in this vegetable than in lemon! It is not difficult to get a good harvest of sweet peppers on your plot. One of the secrets to increasing productivity is pinching.

What is stepsoning and why is it done?

Stepping, or removing lateral shoots, is an agrotechnical technique aimed at increasing productivity. Stepchildren appear from buds in the axils on the main stem. Removing unnecessary shoots allows you to grow larger fruits of the correct shape and speed up their ripening. The plant does not waste energy on side shoots and provides the formed fruits with adequate nutrition.

What varieties of peppers must be grown?

This procedure must be carried out wisely, since it is not indicated for all varieties of pepper. Tall and medium-sized crop varieties need to remove excess shoots.

Only the strongest and healthiest shoots are leftlocated at the top of the bush. The optimal number of stepsons is 3-5 pieces per bush. The rest are superfluous. Damaged and diseased branches are also removed.

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Stepping helps solve the problem insufficient lighting, especially if the plants are planted densely.

Removing shoots from low-growing pepper varieties makes no sense. Low bushes do not have strong side shoots, therefore, they do not affect the nutrition of the main part of the plant. Low-growing varieties of the crop (up to 65 cm in height) require only the removal of infertile and weak stepsons.

Advice! It is worth carefully examining the packaging of seeds. Manufacturers often indicate on it a pinching scheme suitable specifically for this variety.

Features of removing pepper shoots

Pepper culture is tender and vulnerable, therefore, shoots are removed very carefully, following certain rules.

The main features are as follows:

1. First side shoots appear when the plant has formed 9-10 leaves. At this stage, 2-3 strong and healthy shoots are left.
2. You shouldn’t start stepsoning before the bush reaches a height of 25-30 cm. After this, the upper part is pinched.
3. All stepsons on the bottom plants are removed.
4. All shoots without ovaries, painful branches and yellowed leaves are removed.

It's important not to overdo it. Unlike tomatoes, which tolerate pinching painlessly, pepper bushes do not recover so well. If you remove too many stepsons, the bush will stop growing or drop the fruits that have set.

Important! All actions are carried out with extreme care so as not to damage the fragile stem.

Effect of temperature and humidity

Is it necessary to grow peppers in a greenhouse or greenhouse? Yes need. The same rules apply as for peppers grown in open ground. However Growing a crop in a greenhouse has its own characteristics. This is due to different temperature conditions and high humidity. In greenhouse conditions, side shoots develop better, so all shoots below the branching of the stem are removed.

Otherwise, air circulation will deteriorate in the upper part of the bush, which will lead to the development of diseases (white, bacterial or gray rot).

The shoots are cut with a tool with a well-sharpened blade.. This minimizes injury. The instrument is disinfected after processing each plant. This simple technique prevents the transfer of diseases from one bush to another.

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Stepping technology

Now let’s look step by step at how to properly plant pepper crops. Form a bush in several stages:

1. The crown bud is removed. It is formed on the first branch of the vegetable stem.
2. Form the base of the bush from the 2-3 strongest stems. This is done when the plant has grown and become strong enough (9-11 leaves have formed). Now the bush will grow in width.
3. Remove fruitless shoots and leavesshading the ovaries. In this case, it is important to cut off no more than two shoots or leaves at a time, since the plant may die from the resulting injuries.
4. Pinching the buds on the top of the plant. 15-25 ovaries are left on the bush (depending on the variety), the rest are removed.

Subsequently, pinching is carried out after the appearance of new shoots at branching points. On the removed stepson, one leaf is left to feed the fetal ovary located in front of the stepson. Instead of removal, pinching is allowed to limit the growth of unnecessary shoots.

The procedure is repeated every 3-4 days. The scheme for planting peppers in a polycarbonate greenhouse is similar.The only difference is that polycarbonate allows more light to pass through, so not as many leaves are removed to shade the plant.

Important! The last removal of stepchildren is carried out 45 days before the final harvest. Plants need time to recuperate after pinching. If you carry out the procedure later, the last fruits will not have time to ripen.

Conclusion

Planting pepper crops is an important measure that helps increase productivity. Too many shoots do not allow the plant to concentrate on developing large, juicy fruits. However, the procedure must be carried out carefully and thoughtfully, otherwise the bush may die.