Don't keep a few first blooms just to try to get the earliest pepper, as the plants will put more energy into developing the fruit (reproducing) rather than growing to their lushy potential. Pinching off any blooms that appear before transplanting will encourage them to put all their energy into growing, resulting in larger plants with more peppers later in the season. These two pepper plants pictured above should be divided when transplanting. Peppers should be planted 18-24' apart for maximum growth and yield. Peppers won't be as productive if crowded. Sometimes we'll gently 'pluck' out the extra seedlings when very young and transplant them into their own pot or pod. We also recommend one pepper plant per pot when in the seedling stage. This is especially good to do prior to transplanting, as the plants will put more energy into their roots and growing rather than producing fruit. This also works on tomatoes, eggplants, and many other vegetables.

We always pinch our pepper plants' first blooms to get the plants to put more energy into growing rather than into a few first pods.

(This is not always an easy thing to do when you have extra seedlings and limited space, we know! We've done it. Of course, don't plant them too close to begin with. You may also want to prune peppers if they are planted too closely and are inhibiting air circulation. Sometimes it's nice to prune away lower leaves that may be getting in the dirt or, if you're in a windy area sometimes pruning pepper plants help keep the plants more compact and wind-resistant. We've tried it both ways for several years, and the plants, when planted in full sun, seemed to do equally well whether they were topped or not. We've tried multiple ways of pruning such as topping pepper plants, but we haven't found that topped plants have necessarily produced more peppers than their un-topped counterparts. There are many theories on how to prune peppers for the highest yield. When growing peppers from seed, you want to make sure you get the maximum yield from your plants. How to Prune Pepper Plants for Maximum Yield

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