Just Beat It!

After weeding and picking string beans, I asked Ralph what to do about my peppers that keep growing taller but aren't putting on fruit. He paused, then said, "Shock it. Cut it back. Make it think it's gotta put out fruit or it won't live." My natural inclination is to speak words of encouragement to my plants. But perhaps "nip it in the bud" comes from this school of thought and children are a bit like plants, I thought. Then Ralph said he had an apple tree that hadn't put on fruit after many years. So a friend of him told him to take a hammer to it and beat the base of the trunk in the Fall. He said it worked. Then another regular Saturday gardener said, "I use a baseball bat." I thought he was kidding, but he insisted this method worked with his fruit trees. So maybe kids and plants don't both fit this philosophy, but I did cut back half my peppers. Still, my apple tree deserves a little investigation on my part before I just beat it.