Reply with “peppers” in the comments and I will send you where I get my seeds 🌶️ TOPPING PEPPERS — Topping or pruning the main stem of a pepper plant does more than just shape it. It actually changes how the plant grows. When you remove the top of the main stem, the plant redirects energy from vertical growth into lateral branches, giving it more sites for flowers and eventually fruit. At first, this can make the plant look weaker or slower. In my experiment, the unpruned plant grew taller and set fruit earlier because it focused all its energy on growing up. The topped plant seemed delayed at first, but by branching out from the base and middle nodes, it eventually created far more flowering sites. After about four months, the results were clear. The topped jalapeño produced 37 peppers, nearly three times more than the unpruned plant’s 15. This shows how a simple early prune can trade quick vertical growth for a bigger, more productive harvest. ⚠️ Caveat: Don’t prune if you have a short growing season, as topping slows the plant’s development too much. For large varieties like bell peppers, topping is not recommended because the yield increase isn’t significant enough to be worth the effort.