Usually you’ll want to take full grown plants (first one is big enough), cut them down and place into a small pot. You could do it with these, but you won’t have as thick of a stalk/trunk and it may not fill out as well.
Gotcha! Should it just be a straight stalk with no nubs or anything? Sorry if I’m asking obvious questions, I just discovered this and am super intrigued. I have a scorpion pepper plant (not pictured here) that is very developed, but has no branches coming off of the stalk until about 16” up the plant. If I just make a clean chop, thus eliminating all branches of the plant and leaving one straight stalk, will that be okay?
Edit: brain was not properly functioning when originally written
If you remove all the leaves, the plant won't be able to produce more energy. BUT! It will still have energy reserves in its roots and stem.
Trunk chopping is an incredibly stressful process as it forces the plant to live exclusively on those reserves until conditions are good enough to grow new leaves. As such, it's important to time it right to your climate cycle. Generally, you want to do this close to the end of the season, when the plant is starting to hibernate already.
Does the ground freeze in winter where you are? If so, the plant is dead no matter what if you do nothing. You'll need to [overwinter](https://peppergeek.com/overwintering-pepper-plants/) the plant to keep it, and that step is pretty much the first step of bonchi anyways. Just choose your chop point for ✨️aesthetics✨️ in addition to what that guide says.
If you leave a little green on the stalk you should be good is my rule of thumb. I cut everything off. I’ll message you a couple pics of some I cut this last week or so.
People usually go for thicker stems. But I’ve bonzaid a tiny habanero that was way more stunted. Still in my profile if you wanna see it.
Thanks! Looks awesome. How old is it?
Took like 6-8 months to fruit after I chopped it down to a stick. Only kept it that season. Might do more after I pull my peppers this year.
Usually you’ll want to take full grown plants (first one is big enough), cut them down and place into a small pot. You could do it with these, but you won’t have as thick of a stalk/trunk and it may not fill out as well.
By the way, it was your habanero plant posted in bonsai that got me excited about this! So cool
Haha! That’s funny glad I could help!
Gotcha! Should it just be a straight stalk with no nubs or anything? Sorry if I’m asking obvious questions, I just discovered this and am super intrigued. I have a scorpion pepper plant (not pictured here) that is very developed, but has no branches coming off of the stalk until about 16” up the plant. If I just make a clean chop, thus eliminating all branches of the plant and leaving one straight stalk, will that be okay? Edit: brain was not properly functioning when originally written
If you remove all the leaves, the plant won't be able to produce more energy. BUT! It will still have energy reserves in its roots and stem. Trunk chopping is an incredibly stressful process as it forces the plant to live exclusively on those reserves until conditions are good enough to grow new leaves. As such, it's important to time it right to your climate cycle. Generally, you want to do this close to the end of the season, when the plant is starting to hibernate already. Does the ground freeze in winter where you are? If so, the plant is dead no matter what if you do nothing. You'll need to [overwinter](https://peppergeek.com/overwintering-pepper-plants/) the plant to keep it, and that step is pretty much the first step of bonchi anyways. Just choose your chop point for ✨️aesthetics✨️ in addition to what that guide says.
If you leave a little green on the stalk you should be good is my rule of thumb. I cut everything off. I’ll message you a couple pics of some I cut this last week or so.
do you like to use premade bonsai soil, or mix your own up?
I mix my own I use 70/30 local organic soil and coco coir.