Topping Pepper Plants – Should You Do It?

Have you been hearing about gardeners topping their pepper plants? While it may seem like a counterproductive thing to do, it can pay off if applied in the correct way (more on this in a bit!).

Topping pepper plants can be a useful strategy to increase pepper yields, achieve bushier growth, and strengthen the plant. However, not all pepper plants should be topped, so don’t pull out your pruners just yet!

In this article, we’ll review the when, why, and how when it comes to topping pepper plants. By the end, you’ll confidently be snipping away (the right way) and achieving your best harvest yet!

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links to products (including Amazon). I’ll earn a small commission if you make a purchase through my link, at no additional cost to you! Regardless, I only link to products that I personally use on our homestead or believe in.

What is Topping?

Topping is a common term used to describe snipping off the growing tip of a young pepper plant. This stimulates side shoots to develop early on in the season, rather than allowing the plant to continue to grow leggy and tall. As a result, you’ll achieve a bushier plant, and that comes with many benefits!

How does it work?

Pepper plants produce a set of hormones called gibberellins and auxin, which are concentrated at the growing tips of the plant. These hormones stimulate upward growth and will continue to do so unless those growing tips are snipped off.

Once the growing tip is removed, gibberellins and auxin begin to accumulate in the next set of nodes below the cut. This results in the plant branching out with new, abundant growth laterally, with future peppers coming from these branches.

Benefits of topping pepper plants

You may be familiar with topping tomato plants to encourage ripening before a frost, but what about pepper plants? Here are the 4 main reasons why gardeners may choose to top their pepper plants at the beginning of the season:

Higher Yields: More side shoots = more flowers = more fruit!
Stable growth: Bushier growth results in a stable plant that’s less likely to snap or blow over when it’s windy
Reduce shading of surrounding plants. If your pepper plant reaches several feet tall with no pruning, it will cast a shadow on its neighboring plants.
Aesthetic: A bushier, well-balanced plant is more appealing to look at than a tall, gangly one that is toppling over.

When to Top Pepper Plants

This is the key part that often gets missed! It’s incredibly important to understand which pepper plants should be topped and when to do it. You can actually hurt the growth and production of your peppers if you don’t do it correctly.

Timing

It’s essential that you are topping your pepper plants early enough. If you wait and top the peppers mid-season, there likely won’t be enough time for the plant to recover, set new fruit, and ripen them before the season is over. A good rule of thumb is to top your pepper plants when they are 6-8” tall.

Varieties

The varieties that respond the best to topping are those that are on the smaller side. Hot peppers like cayenne, jalapeno, or habaneros do especially well with topping. Here are my best picks for topping from my favorite seed company, High Mowing Seeds:

When You Shouldn’t Top Pepper Plants

There are 3 situations where you shouldn’t top your pepper plants, so make sure to review all of these in detail before you start snipping! Otherwise, you may end up disappointed.

#1: Large or Bell Pepper Varieties

Large pepper varieties (like bell peppers) don’t respond well to topping. Instead of increased fruit production, it tends to decrease if they have a branching habitat vs one central leader.

A study 2013 Australian Study found that 3 varieties of bell peppers had smaller fruit and with thinner walls when allowed to have 2 or 4 branches, rather than 1 central leader (see photo).

#2: Short Growing Season

If you’re in zone 4 like me, topping pepper plants can be a bit of a gamble. It may result in a bigger harvest; however, that harvest is delayed a bit by topping. When the growing tip is removed, the plant puts its energy into creating and redirecting new growth rather than immediately getting to work setting fruit.

Therefore, if you’re in a cold climate and are racing against time to get your harvest complete before the fall frost, you may not have this luxury. If you want to give it a try (I love a good experiment!), top half of your pepper plants and compare the results. Monitor their growth and fruit development throughout the season and see which group is the winner by the end.

#3: Late in the Season

As mentioned above, topping your pepper plant will delay your harvest. Therefore, if you are waiting until mid-summer to top your pepper plants, you may not have a harvest at all! It’s best to do this in the spring when your plants are still focused on new growth, rather than ripening fruit.

How to Top Pepper Plants

First, grab a good set of clean shears and the pepper plants that are good candidates for topping. As a reminder, you only want to top small pepper varieties and at the right time (when the plant is 6-8” tall). See sections above for details if you missed it!

Next, run your fingers up the main stem until you locate a section that is right above an upper set of leaves. You will only want to cut off about 1” of upper growth, so don’t cut too far down! Make sure to leave a little “nub” of stem as well because the stem will die back a bit.

In a few weeks, you’ll notice that new branches will grow from these nodes that are located just above each of the remaining leaves. This will result in a busher, more compact growth (with more fruit!). That’s it! Congratulations, you’ve done it! Easy peasy.

FAQ About Topping Pepper Plants

Still not sure about a few things? Here are some of the most common questions I get when talking about topping pepper plants.

Should I Top My Pepper Plants?

This is a hard one to answer because there are many factors to consider! You are a good candidate to top your pepper plants if:

You have a small pepper variety (don’t top your large bell pepper plants!)
Your season is just getting started (the plants are only 6-8” tall)
You live in a warm climate with a longer growing season (zone 5 or warmer)

Personally, I have chosen not to top my pepper plants here in zone 3b/4a because I have a very short growing season. I already have a hard enough time getting my peppers to ripen in time before our first frost in early September, so I can’t afford any setbacks. If I lived further south or had a greenhouse, then I would consider it for my small pepper varieties.

Should I be Pinching Pepper Flowers, too?

In the beginning – Yes! I know it seems crazy for me to recommend that you remove the first few pepper flowers that appear on your plant, but hear me out! If you let your pepper plant continue to develop its first few blooms into fruit, it will stop putting its energy into overall growth and end up stunted.

A stunted plant means fewer peppers overall. So yes, your harvest will be delayed a bit by removing the first few blooms, but you’ll end up with a larger harvest in the end!

When should you do this? Early on in the seed starting process when your peppers are still indoors and waiting to be transplanted. Another rule of thumb is to remove any blooms until your pepper plants are over 8” tall – then, you can allow them to start setting fruit.

What if My Pepper Plant Has Already Divided?

Sometimes, the pepper plants will naturally start dividing (see photo below), rather than having 1 main branch growing up and up. In these cases, you don’t have to do anything! This is honestly the best case scenario where the plant has essentially topped itself, but without any delay in growth or fruiting which can occur by manual pruning.

What Should I Do With the Cuttings?

After topping your pepper plants, you don’t have to toss those clippings away! With a few easy steps, you can actually turn them into another thriving pepper plant!

Simply, place your cuttings into a glass filled with water so that the cut end is submerged. If you have some rooting powder on hand, you can add that, too! Within a week or so, you should see little roots forming. Once the roots are at least an inch long, you can transplant them into a soil-based medium.

Topping Pepper Plants – Should You Do It?