Jalepeno, what's up with them

[Pineygirl]

Hello all. New to the forum. I've been tooling around the forum trying to find a thread that pertains to my situation, but since I don't see one, here's my question.......
I've got 4 jalepeno plants planted in what I'll guess is a 5 gallon pot. They're probably overcrowded, I have a tendency to do that. I used Miracle Grow potting mix in the pot, & they get roughly 7-8 hours of sunlight a day out on the deck. They're almost a foot tall.
Here's the problem....they bloom, start to grow the pepper, then the stem yellows & falls off. It's happened twice so far & I'd like to nip this problem in the bud (ha!) before it goes too far. I don't know what to make of it but I'm hoping someone here does know.
Thank you all who answer & it's nice to be here!

[albucsfan]

At a guess...no expert here, sounds like it is either too cold for them to set fruit yet, or they are too crowded. Mine dropped the first few blooms after transplant, but once it warmed up more at night, now they are going crazy.

Best of luck!!! (not sure where you are, so really just guessing)

Steph

[gumbo2176]

First off, you're right, they are not going to like all being in that one container. I wouldn't grow but one plant per 5 gallon bucket. I've never really had much success with stuff in large pots and all my vegetables, with the exception of some herbs, are in the ground. The pots, no matter how large, seem to require more attention, especially watering.

Hot peppers can take full sun all day long, and I find the hotter the day is, the hotter the peppers get. My peppers get sun from sun up until dark, which is about 12 hours now in my neck of the woods.

As for your problem, it could be a combination of too many plants in one container, not enough water, not enough sun, or simply just too young to support fruit right now.

[hendi_alex]

My guess is that the plants are still small and it is early in the season. Each year I grow my jalapenos in 3 gallon nursery pots, one plant per pot. While jalapenos grow well in full sun, in containers mine do better with only half day sun. So my pots are placed at the eastern edge of an oak tree canopy. The plants generally make a bountiful harvest, but with lots of water and only half a day sun, the fruit generally doesn't have much spice to it. Of course most of mine are mild cultivars as well. They only tend to give spicy peppers when the fruit is forming under hot, dry fairly stressful conditions.

As far as the blossom drop is concerned, I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point, as long as the plants otherwise look healthy and green. But IMO you should thin the plants to one per bucket.

[Pineygirl]

Thank you both for your advice. Albucsfan, I'm in New Jersey, & the weather here thus far has been quite tempermental. A few weeks ago it was in the upper 80's & humid. Today I'm wearing my sweatshirt again & the low tonight is gonna be in the 50's.

Gumbo, if it were you, would you divide them into several more pots or would you stick them in the ground? I suppose I could make room in my garden for them, where they would get at least an hour or two more sunlight. I just liked seeing all the plants out there. It jazzed the deck up nicely. But I had wondered if they were too young to support fruit. Should I pinch these blooms off that are forming now? There are many more that are ready to bloom.

[hendi_alex]

Leave the blooms. They will set fruit when ready. Growing four plants per bucket probably won't hurt anything. The plants will be stunted, perhaps some of the peppers will be undersized as well. My guess is that under crowded conditions the peppers may tend to be extra warm. Gardening is one big experiment, so it won't hurt to leave a bucket or two just as they are. Maybe consider thinning and keeping a single plant in one or two buckets and place the rest of the plants in the ground. Then you can compare the results of in the ground versus a single plant in a bucket versus four plants in a bucket. Sounds like a good experiment to me!

[Pineygirl]

Ah, hendi_alex. Thank you as well!

I will try that experiment. Tomorrow, since besides weeding I have no other gardening going on & I'm itching to get my hands dirty.

I'm going to stick around here & learn from the pros. Because a pro I am not! But it's fun to learn & everyone has to start somewhere, right?

[gumbo2176]

Thank you both for your advice. Albucsfan, I'm in New Jersey, & the weather here thus far has been quite tempermental. A few weeks ago it was in the upper 80's & humid. Today I'm wearing my sweatshirt again & the low tonight is gonna be in the 50's.

Gumbo, if it were you, would you divide them into several more pots or would you stick them in the ground? I suppose I could make room in my garden for them, where they would get at least an hour or two more sunlight. I just liked seeing all the plants out there. It jazzed the deck up nicely. But I had wondered if they were too young to support fruit. Should I pinch these blooms off that are forming now? There are many more that are ready to bloom.

Like I mentioned in my post, I like my plants in the ground. I also like to stake my pepper plants since we have such a long growing season and they get pretty tall. I even have 3 pepper plants left from spring of 11 that made it through our mild winter this year. Those are the ones I've picked at least 120 peppers off of so far this year. I use them for Pepper Jelly, pickled jalapenos (whole and sliced), and in cooking, so they get used almost as fast as I pick them.


hendi__alex gave some great options for your situation. Nothing I can really add there.

Getting your hands dirty is a good thing. I'm getting ready to plant another batch of okra seeds tomorrow to bring my plant total to about 75 when they all come up.

[albucsfan]

I'm going to stick around here & learn from the pros. Because a pro I am not! But it's fun to learn & everyone has to start somewhere, right?

Heh... if you find a pro, let me know! I know I'm nowhere close!!

[Pineygirl]

Gumbo, the main reason I'm growing these in the first place is for bacon wrapped jalepenos. Mmm, I could eat that on a daily basis!

Wow, my garden seems so small compared to a lot of others here. But I only grow what we'll actually eat, plus a little to blanch & freeze, if I'm lucky.

[hendi_alex]

I think that many of is are similar. We are paranoid of losing plants or crop failure, so over plant almost everything. The when calamity doesn't hit, we have huge amounts to share with others. Of course, there never seems to be an abundance of enthusiastic recipients, and sharing feels really, really good.

[Pineygirl]

Pfft, calamity did hit my garden, in the form of cutworms, slugs, moles, & now from the cursed offspring of the cabbage white. By the time I surrounded my spinach with protective paper cups I had lost 5 young plants. The moles decimated my first crop of sugar snaps until I put a mole chaser awayer in the ground to save the second crop. And now I nightly get the slugs drunk. But there's still damage. I had to resort to using a pesticide spray for most everything else. It's not what I wanted to do but if I wanted anything out of my garden this year I had to.

[cubs204]

Gumbo, the main reason I'm growing these in the first place is for bacon wrapped jalepenos. Mmm, I could eat that on a daily basis!

Wow, my garden seems so small compared to a lot of others here. But I only grow what we'll actually eat, plus a little to blanch & freeze, if I'm lucky.

Might I suggest an Atomic Buffalo Turd. Halve a jalapeno, seed, fill boat with cream cheese mixture (Cream cheese, hot sauce, and I like cajun seasoning), then nestle a lil weenie in the cream cheese and top with a little shredded cheddar and wrap the whole thing in bacon. Throw in the grill and cook till the bacon is done.

[Pineygirl]

Lol, great name! Bacon wrapped jalepenos are similar. You halve them & remove the seeds, then a mix of creme cheese & shredded chedder fills them, wrap in bacon & bake.

[cubs204]

Lol, great name! Bacon wrapped jalepenos are similar. You halve them & remove the seeds, then a mix of creme cheese & shredded chedder fills them, wrap in bacon & bake.

They are about the best thing ever, aren't they? I'm craving them now, thank you . Only bad thing is they are labor intensive if making a decent batch. We cooked them for a BBQ contest last year, made over 1,000 of the things. My wife was very happy when that was over seeing as she was in charge of coring jalapenos for them.

[Pineygirl]

Hope she wore plastic gloves for that chore. I can't imagine making that many. My youngest daughter & I are the only ones who eat them & just doing enough for us always takes longer than I think it will. Totally worth it though.

[jal_ut]

One plant per container is good advice, however at this point I would just let them grow. If you try to move any of those growing in that bucket, you cannot do it without doing serious damage to the root systems of all four. Even if you leave one, the roots are all intertwined and removing a plant with some roots intact will damage the roots of the others, not to mention you will severely damage the root system of the ones you dig out.

Water them daily and feed them once a week. They will make fruit when the time is right. Peppers have such beautiful foliage. Enjoy!