Habaneros Blooming, Won't Set Fruit

[GitarooGarden]

Hello all!

I started a container garden of all sorts of peppers back in May, and have already harvested a few Jalapenos and Cherry Peppers! Have got chilies on the way, some mammoth jalapenos, and more coming along quite nicely, and the plants are getting tall!!

I've got two habanero plants out of the bunch, though, and they've given me the most trouble. Firstly, they're not growing nearly as much as all the other plants. Secondly, they're flowering a good amount, but once the flowers drop off, a few days later (or shorter) the stem with the left-behind ovary (which is the part under the flower that usually grows into the pepper) yellows a bit and senesces. They either drop off on their own, or pop off quite easily when I go to investigate their progress.

My first inclination was that habaneros don't self-pollinate, and the peppers aren't growing because the two plants are not close enough together. I moved the two containers containing them (one in each) next to each other, when before they were the farthest separated. I noticed that most of the blooms on the other plants had ants crawling on them, so I made sure the containers were touching so that the ants could travel betwixt them.

I'm going to double check the habanero self-pollinating theory, but it still doesn't explain why they're so stunted. Maybe they're just slow-growers?

To provide a little more on my garden arrangement: I've got four 20" square growing containers, each with three or four pepper plants in them. I've mixed the varities such that each container has at least three types of plants growing in them at once. I'm not worried about pollination contamination because I don't believe I will be using the seeds for further growing. Size limitations are beginning to worry me, because some of the buggers, especially the jalapenos, are getting huge! That's another thread, though...

Thank you for any help or insight!

[GitarooGarden]

I've done some internet searches and have discovered a bit more information:

Peppers (I've found nothing that excludes Habaneros from this) are all self-pollinated. So, although they can cross pollinate, and my little ants would help this, it isn't necessary for them to set fruit. For non-self-pollinating plants, an absence of any pollinators or an insufficient amount of pollination would cause a dropping of the plant ovaries like I've seen here, but it simply isn't the case with peppers.

A lot of my most helpful information has come from *.edu sites. This one here has lots of great info about peppers.
[url]https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/vegetables/pepper.html[/url]
The author mentions that peppers are sensitive to hot temperatures over 90-or-so degrees during the summer, and may drop flowers if it gets too hot. Our temperatures here in VA haven't broken 90 but once so far this summer, although my planters are about 2' from my garage (brick) so they probably absorb temperatures that are warmer than the air temp.

Also, I've learned that peppers are fairly sensitive to watering schedules. I've been trying to adhere to the 2" dry soil test, but I feel that I'm subscribing to the newbie gardener cliches and may perhaps be overwatering somewhat.

My plan of action is to move the planters away from the side of the house, and water a bit less than I have been. If anyone has additional advice, please inform! I will do my best to get some pictures up soon, as the color of my Habs are a little on the yellow side as well, though not alarmingly so.