Prune Plants To Kickstart Ripening (In Sheffield)
If you want your fruits to ripen quickly, there are a couple of tricks you can try.
One of them is pruning. A little trim goes a long way- snipping away part of your plant lets them focus their energy on pushing out fruit and flowers. So - let's start clipping!
What We Did
These ‘Bishops Hat’ chilli plants we had in Origin 8 System were itching for a good chop.
It had some lovely green pods, but they were buried in the canopy. Time to grab the Greenblade Trimming Scissors!
Before
After
What a difference!
We really went to town here. Most lower stems (without fruit only) were chopped back. The upper stems were cut back to the nearest pods.
The upper stems are also now supported in an upright position using Yo-Yo’s, allowing the pods and leaves to bask in sunlight.
We were a bit ruthless, but all that hacking:
- Increased air flow & light coverage
- Removed immature pods that wouldn't have time to ripen
- Prevented fungal problems
- Shocked and stressed plants, signalling the ripening response
Results
Plants are no longer in an overcrowded environment where they shaded each other out.
Now, they're in more of an open set up where pods and leaves have better access to light.
One week later and you can see the effect that the pruning has had! Lots of pods are now fully ripe and ready for harvest, with many more on their way!
We did something similar with a monster Yellow Rocoto plant growing in an NFT Gro-Tank.
Warning
Finally, just a word of warning – don’t be tempted to take off too much foliage.
Stripping away too many leaves can leave you in a worse situation, where the plant is unable to photosynthesise and create the sugars it needs to ripen pods.
Besides, if you’re in an unheated greenhouse and only relying on sunlight, you can fit a grow lights and a KlimaHeat Heater to mimic the best conditions for ripening.
