Hi Tui, do I need to pinch the laterals off capsicum and chilli plants like you do with tomatoes? Thanks.

Hi Deb, while chilli and capsicum are from the same family as tomatoes, they are not grown the same way, you don't need to pinch laterals from plants. You can pinch out growing tips of branches to encourage new growth, but the plants will likely end up producing the same amount of fruit as natural branching (without pinching tips). Pinching growing tips will delay flowering and fruiting by a couple of weeks as the plant generates new growth. For capsicum pinching tips early in the season won't necessarily give more fruit, but will likely encourage larger fruit. The Tui Team.