My chili pepper plant didn't produce any fruit this year.

[Intriguedbybonsai]

I grew a chili pepper from seed, and it grew to be very large. I have it in what I believe is a 3 gallon pot. I only water it when I feel the soil losing it's moisture. While this plant grew very big, the only thing is, it didn't bare a single pepper. I saw that some of the blooms had some kind of black substance on them. Thinking it to be some kind of mold, I sprayed them with an organic fungicide. Still no peppers. Maybe it was too late to save those blooms?

Since it's too late in the growing season I guess I'll have to wait until next year to try, and see if it will give me peppers. Do pepper plants normally produce peppers the first year when planted from seed?

[ReptileAddiction]

First, we are practically neighbors! Anyway I am thinking that it had too much nitrogen. Did you fertilize it? If so, with what?

[Intriguedbybonsai]

Hey neighbor! Aside from a few old vegetable scraps, that's all I use to fertilize my plants.

[applestar]

I'm not sure why you think it's too late in the season. I bring Jalapeños inside and they will continue to bloom and set fruit through winter when I tap/shake the flower truss. In fact, now that it's not so hot, I would think they would be more likey to set fruit? I have also begun to continue to grow the Brazilian Lemon pepper inside since last winter and the two varieties have been ripening the loaded green fruits and, as I have harvested them, started to produce flower trusses here and there.

Actualy for me, these flower trusses will be sporadic or taper off altogether while the plants rest a bit, then they will start blooming more profusely

What do you mean by black substance? I'm wondering if some peppers could have black pollen? (I seem to remember that some of the different hot peppers I grew a few years ago did?)

[rainbowgardener]

But just to answer your other question, yes peppers normally produce fruit the first year from seed. In my cold winter climate, I only grow them as annuals, starting each year new from seed and I always get a crop of peppers.


Agree with applestar, I don't see why in Escondido your season should be over. Peppers are tender perennials that can't take frost, but I think you have a frost free climate and should be able to grow them outdoors year round. They would still probably shut down some in the "worst" of winter, but should survive and start producing again.

[mattie g]

I bring Jalapeños inside and they will continue to bloom and set fruit through winter when I tap/shake the flower truss.

Interesting, apple. I what kind of conditions do you keep these indoor jalapenos? Full sun, heated area, etc.? I'm curious to know, since I have a jalapeno and a serrano outside in pots that I could easily bring inside to keep them producing during the colder months.

[applestar]

They are in downstairs SE windows with supplemental daylight fluorescent lights. Probably as low as upper 50's at night, maybe mid-70's with direct sun.
The supplemental lights get turned on when I come downstairs and get turned off along with any other ambient room lights by last person to go upstairs.

I mist them with filtered water until dripping every morning. Don't water until soil surface is dry.

[Intriguedbybonsai]

The thing is, I'm always afraid that I'm over watering so I only try to water when I feel that it is necessary. I don't want to water log the roots. What do you think of using vegetable/fruit scraps as fertilizer? Not just for peppers, but any vegetable/fruit?

[applestar]

Depends on how you are using them, I think. I feed them to the worms or the compost piles (sometimes also Bokashi feermenter) first....

If ou are burying them "fresh" they would be considered a "green" in a compost ingredient -- I.e. highly nitrogenous.

[ReptileAddiction]

I do not consider that stuff as fertilizer. I recommend using fish emulsion. It is my main fertilizer for everything. And yes you will be able to keep it outdoors all year. It might even produce all year.

[applestar]

Kitchen scraps are valuable base / INGREDIENTS for making your own fertilizer and one step closer to a self-sufficient garden. And I think burying them would work perfectly well in the ground in a trench somewhat beyond the existing root zone of the plants you are trying to feed.

But I think it's harder to create a good balance of nutrients this way in a small enclosed environment like a container. They would certainly go through a decomposition phase when nutrients would be locked up, and high nitrogen, heat up phase that may be too "hot" for the tender new roots, etc. And the roots will have no way to grow away from the problem if necessary. Also in the container, they would decompose without the moderating amount of "browns", likely to get smelly and/or attract unwanted attention from pest bugs and animals, ...then there will be significant loss in the soil mix volume once they break down.

[ReptileAddiction]

To me it sounded like they were putting them in the soil while the plant was in there.

[Gary350]

My experience with peppers is the soil needs to be very loose I till in 50% peat moss and the plants grow great. They are always slow to grow I plant them in April and I don't start getting peppers until August or Sept.

It is so easy and cheap to buy peppers at the Mexican Flea Market.

1 lb of extremely mild hot peppers for enchiladas excellent flavor.

1/2 lb mild hot peppers excellent flavor..

1/4 lb medium hot peppers excellent flavor.

1/4 lb of hot chili peppers great in salsa.

1/4 lb or HOT peppers to help spice up the others.

I got their recipes it is so easy to make the sauce recipes in 15 minutes. The online recipes are not the real thing. The sauce makes the food. Food is better than anything you can buy in the grocery store and most restaurants. The trick is flavor use the mild peppers to get all the flavor then add 1 hot pepper to spice it up. Peppers are $5 per lb and they give you lots of free samples. I even got 1 lb of Cumin seed.

[img]https://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e358/gary350/003.jpg[/img]

[mattie g]

They are in downstairs SE windows with supplemental daylight fluorescent lights. Probably as low as upper 50's at night, maybe mid-70's with direct sun.
The supplemental lights get turned on when I come downstairs and get turned off along with any other ambient room lights by last person to go upstairs.

I mist them with filtered water until dripping every morning. Don't water until soil surface is dry.

Gotcha. Thanks!

[dave103069]

Not sure when you started but I always make sure to pick the flowers early on to get a more productive crop. I grow mainly super hots which are not really ready to start being picked until late august. I plant my starter plants in May and pick the flowers off the plants until mid to late june. It helps the plant to become stronger and produce more fruit... I've had plant where I did not do this and had really low number of fruit on the plant...

hope this helps.

[Intriguedbybonsai]

Thanks Dave. I looked at it today, and I see signs of flower buds starting to appear. Is mother nature giving me a second chance I hope?

[FirePlants]

My Chilli pepper plant is quite short and has only produce a couple of peppers in the first year (from seed) here is my video of it:

https://youtu.be/_zr2LUuF50M

When do peppers go yellow?

Thanks

[Intriguedbybonsai]

Why do you line your pot with a plastic bag? Won't that cause molding to occur?

[FirePlants]

I only lined the pot as had bad experiences with transplanting plants, and thought it will be easy to transplant if it was lined like this.
I have not seen any signs of mold yet and its been almost 12 months now.

[prettygurl]

I have had the same success as Applestar. I brought a pepper plant indoors and it is continuing to produce. The production is slower but heck, I won't complain about that.