By James Odhiambo 

Farmers who pinch their chilli plants at the right time can more than double their harvests, but many, like Fernandez Kariuki, are losing up to half their potential yield by following poor or conflicting advice.

When Fernandez began farming chillies, his exporter told him to pinch the top of each plant three weeks after transplanting. But his agronomist warned him not to pinch them at all. Stuck between two opposing views, Fernandez delayed, unsure what to do.

It wasn’t until FarmBizAfrica shared scientific research with him that the picture became clear.

“After reading the research, I am on the pinching move right now and it will be done by tomorrow,” said Fernandez.

“This was very, very informative and backed by data,” he said.

The research, from Nepal, tested different timings for pinching the tops off chilli plants, once or twice, and compared the results with plants that weren’t pinched at all. 

One study by Khanal et al. (2024) found that pinching once at 15 days and again at 30 days after transplanting more than doubled the chilli yield, increasing it by 118 per cent. It also produced more fruit per plant, and larger fruits.

Another study, by Aryal et al. (2023), found that pinching once at 30 days after transplanting gave the highest yields for a different variety, boosting output by 74 per cent compared to unpinched plants.

In both cases, pinching helped the plants grow more branches and leaves, which led to more flowers and more chillies. While the flowering started later, the bushier plants ended up giving much larger harvests.

For Fernandez, he now knows exactly what to do, and wants other farmers to avoid the same mistake. “Farmers need to be really careful about misinformation and get the real data on what works best.”

“The exporter told me to pinch my chillies at three weeks, while the agronomist said I should leave them, citing his case study of his farm,” he said.

In reality, pinching works, and it works best on different dates for different types of chillies, with the Marshal doing best double-pinched at 15 and 30 days and  the NS-1701 variety, single-pinched at 30 days.

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But both studies confirmed that not pinching at all led to the lowest yields, even though the unpinched plants looked taller.

For farmers given advice by exporters, buyers, neighbours, or extension agents, it is worth checking if it is based on current research or what differences in yields each advisor got before and after they used this method – or the result can be a large loss in income.