Flowers falling off

[nloberle]

I have a problem!!

I have 2 jalapeno pepper plants and a green bell pepper plant that are planted in my raised bed garden box in my backyard. All of the plants appear very healthy and have put on several white flowers. However, the flowers are falling off!!

From what I have read, it sounds like this is blossom rot, most likely caused by calcium deficiency. However, I have also read that calcium deficiency is rare.

Any suggestions? I read that you can crush sidewalk chalk and water this into the soil around the plant for calcium deficiency...wondering if anyone has tried this.

Thanks so much!:)

[rainbowgardener]

Nope, not blossom rot. Blossom end rot is a condition that occurs in the fruit, more so in tomatoes and other things than peppers, though it can happen in peppers.

what it sounds like you have is blossom drop, which is when the flowers drop off without setting fruit. It is a reaction to stress-- the plant drops the flowers to focus on survival instead of fruiting. It can be any kind of stress. Frequently in the early season, it is a reaction to temps too cool for it to set fruit. What have your temps been like? Otherwise any thing that stress the plant -- too wet, too dry, etc etc.

You need to figure out what the stress is and deal with that.

[nloberle]

Ok-

I live in the Houston area...temps have been in the 80-90s. Hmm...other stresses on the plant? Maybe wind? It has been pretty windy for a while now.

Not sure what else could be stressing the plants...

Let me also throw this out there...I have 2 zucchini plants beside the peppers...one plant looks fantastic, the other plant looks OK but not as good as the other one. The are putting in zucchini but about half of the fruit will drop off/rot before it is big enough to pick. I read that was possibly blossom rot or poor pollination. I have been pollinating by hand but it has still been occurring. That's why I thought maybe the peppers and the zucchini could be having the same problem?

Thanks for any help.

[rainbowgardener]

If the zucchinis shrivel up and drop off when they are still quite small, a couple inches or so, that is lack of pollination. If they get bigger, but then get brown and soggy and rotten at the end, that is blossom end rot. Here's a picture of BER in zucchini:

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_16LFW1YX8OU/TCzPc4XdtkI/AAAAAAAAACU/ZfecDzcvzlI/s1600/blossom+end+rot.jpg

Is that what yours are looking like?

It helps to know what the problem is, to know what to do about it.

Peppers like heat, but 90 could be a lot for young plants and 90 and windy is VERY drying. Takes a lot of water in those circumstances. Are they getting enough water?

[nloberle]

Hopefully this works...

This is a picture of the 2 plants...and then a picture of the fruit that fell off or I cut off b/c it was dying...

maybe it is too small to be blossom rot? If it is from lack of pollination and I am pollination by hand, do you think I should just be pollinating more?

At any rate, it doesn't sound like my pepper problem and zucchini problem are related..

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Thanks so much!

[Tate]

I live in the general Houston area also. I think the pepper issue is related to the wind and probably heat. When it starts to warm up we won't set very many peppers at all. The goal is to get as many as possible in the Spring and let the plants get large for the late Summer/Fall where you will get a lot more peppers. I had a poblano pepper plant get 6 feet tall with a 4 foot spread last year. It yielded A LOT of peppers in the Fall.

The other issue is most likely poor pollination. It seems to happen every year while the garden is getting established. I try to diversify in the garden to always attract bees, but they seem to be a little thin so far this year. I purposely plant annuals and perrenials and let things go to flower in my vegetable garden to keep them around, but despite that I am not seeing as many lately. I am guessing it is the ridiculous wind that has them hiding out for now.

Not to mention the drought certainly isn't helping either with anything.

Good luck!

Tate