Hi
I'm in uk. Bought chilli seeds from gardening section of grocery store n sow them in april. They germinated n I transferred them in a pot they grew bigger n bigger n I could see fruit. Put them outside under sun and in rainy season or cold days put them in greenhouse. Types were jalapeno and cayennr . Jalapeno plant grew bigger than the other. I can see flowers in both but only two chillies grew in jalapeno one. Some flowers look wilted. In another variety I also saw some tiny insects but I used to spray regularly with insect killer. It has flowers but no chillies. Now its september. Should I hope for fruit . Where I went wrong?
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Gary350
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I planted my peppers in late April the plants got about 5 feet tall then hot summer 95 degree weather came and they just set there all summer doing nothing all summer. Temperatures here are in the upper 50s my pepper plants are loaded with small marble size peppers. I expect to have about 45 to 50 peppers per plant by the end of October. My plants always make a lot of peppers before frost kills them about November 1st. If I cover my peppers to protect them from frost I can have peppers on Christmas day if we don't have a hard freeze.
Pepper plants do not like hot weather if you have them in pots move them so they only get morning sun then shade from mid day to dark. Peppers do best in 40 and 50 degree F weather. Peppers get BER = blossom end rot be sure to give them pellet lime OR wood ash. Wood ash is loaded with lime and minerals.
Pepper plants do not like hot weather if you have them in pots move them so they only get morning sun then shade from mid day to dark. Peppers do best in 40 and 50 degree F weather. Peppers get BER = blossom end rot be sure to give them pellet lime OR wood ash. Wood ash is loaded with lime and minerals.
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rainbowgardener
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Gary's experience is different from the rest of us, who find that peppers thrive with heat. They are one of the things in my garden that keep going and going through the heat of summer, especially hot peppers like the jalapeno and cayenne mentioned.
Been - what size pots are your peppers in? They need enough room. You are in the UK. I don't know much about the UK climate, but I don't think of it as being really sunny. IME peppers need plenty of sunshine. Blossom drop, where plants bloom, but then the blossoms fall off with out setting fruit, is a response to stress. It can be any of a variety of stressors -- over watering, under watering, too cold, etc.
Been - what size pots are your peppers in? They need enough room. You are in the UK. I don't know much about the UK climate, but I don't think of it as being really sunny. IME peppers need plenty of sunshine. Blossom drop, where plants bloom, but then the blossoms fall off with out setting fruit, is a response to stress. It can be any of a variety of stressors -- over watering, under watering, too cold, etc.
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Gary350
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- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Rainbow, under watering, may be the problem with my peppers. I absolutely never water any plants in my garden. If I water plants I am watering weeds and grass too. Sometimes my peppers will make 1 or 2 peppers before it gets hot, then no peppers until weather gets cooler with rain again. TN top soil is only 4" deep below that is clay. When I lived in AZ peppers did the same thing I learned to plant the garden in November and harvest in Feb, it is 70 degrees all winter during the day and 40s and 30s after dark. Mid Feb AZ got down to 21 degrees at night for 3 weeks. Illinois top soil was very rich, very black, and about 12" deep, peppers did good in spring, slowed down in hot weather, then did good again in fall. Only thing these 3 gardens had in common is, I never water the garden plants. I notice if I mix a 3.3 cu ft bag of peat moss in the soil before planting pepper they do many times better, I assumed soil is deeper and softer is helping the plants.rainbowgardener wrote:Gary's experience is different from the rest of us.
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rainbowgardener
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Pepper plants and chillis are challenging. I planted Big Jims and in the hot weather the flowers were falling off. I used shade cloth and that helped keep the flowers on, but then I noticed some red spider mites. They were so small I missed them. I bought lady bugs and they saved the plants. Next I noticed aphids. I sprayed with Neem oil and with persistence they had a burst of growth but all leaves and flowers and no fruit!!!. Then I thought I was possibly giving them too much nitrogen and bought an organic plant food with trace minerals. It contained sea weed. Finally, months after no fruit, they started producing Iike mad in late August. They seemed to respond to evenly moist watering versus floods and then dry. I live in a very hot and dry area. England is not a climate I associate with chili so your location may need to change. Maybe plant them near a sunny wall that soaks up heat.
My point is that I was so ready to pull them all out and forget it. You might try altering the micro climate and make sure you are not killing pollinators. Then the goal is to keep flowers on and attract pollinators. You mentioned you sprayed. At this time of year with the right conditions your plants may try to produce one last blast of fruit before winter, although it is getting rather late. Bees are all over my garden. Very busy before autumn. Next year I will plant earlier (late March) Good luck. I feel for you. Be careful what you spray. We need those bees.
My point is that I was so ready to pull them all out and forget it. You might try altering the micro climate and make sure you are not killing pollinators. Then the goal is to keep flowers on and attract pollinators. You mentioned you sprayed. At this time of year with the right conditions your plants may try to produce one last blast of fruit before winter, although it is getting rather late. Bees are all over my garden. Very busy before autumn. Next year I will plant earlier (late March) Good luck. I feel for you. Be careful what you spray. We need those bees.
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applestar
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Lots of great pointers already. I guess I would add that cayenne tends to grow slower than jalapeños first of all. Too hot and too cold blossom drops as well as insufficient watering definitely. Indoors with less buzzing and jostling, air movement, pepper blossoms benefit from lightly flicking to loosen pollen inside the blossoms or better yet, electric toothbrush to emulate bee buzzing. Otherwise, they might not set fruits.
Good photos would help to diagnose, but one thing I would recommend you check for is aphids. They love pepper blossoms and growing buds, and if you are not familiar with how they look, you may not see the infestation. Before you realize it, they will be all over the flowerbuds and inside the blossoms, which wilts them quickly. If you are seeing ants around an on the plant, definitely sucking insect infestation. Mites would be evident as stunted new leaf buds, brown powdery russeting, and wilted new growths and floral stems.
If you can get them past these issues, both are easy to keep as houseplants during the winter. They will be more productive next year. You can check out my Winter Indoor garden/tomatoes/peppers threads or ask questions and I (and other members) can elaborate.
Good photos would help to diagnose, but one thing I would recommend you check for is aphids. They love pepper blossoms and growing buds, and if you are not familiar with how they look, you may not see the infestation. Before you realize it, they will be all over the flowerbuds and inside the blossoms, which wilts them quickly. If you are seeing ants around an on the plant, definitely sucking insect infestation. Mites would be evident as stunted new leaf buds, brown powdery russeting, and wilted new growths and floral stems.
If you can get them past these issues, both are easy to keep as houseplants during the winter. They will be more productive next year. You can check out my Winter Indoor garden/tomatoes/peppers threads or ask questions and I (and other members) can elaborate.
Peppers like warmth. They will do ok with 50 degrees but they do best 68-80. Too cold, they don't grow much and sometimes they won't germinate without a heat mat. Some peppers do need the potassium nitrate to germinate better. Or feed them to a bird and plant the poop.
Fertilizer- They are like tomatoes, so I use citrus or tomato food. I have started using low numbers below 15 and nitrogen below 10 and found that I get good results without over fertilizing. I use citrus food 6-4-6 or tomato food 9-12-12. I like fertilizers that contain micros. They like a slightly acidic condition in the sun.
I have mine mostly in pots and they get watered every day. To get bigger plants, I keep up potting. They will stunt once the roots fill a small pot so I go from 3.5 inch, to 1 gallon. After the first fruit I go up to 2 gallons, before the roots fill that pot, I will pot up and my ultimate pot can be anywhere from 5-18 gallons. Some peppers like thai hot remain very small, but others like tabasco and ghost will get very large.
Heat, cold, drought will stress plants and cause bud drop. Peppers are sometimes pollinated by insects but they are primarily wind pollinated. A good shake helps.
When the temperatures exceed 90 the flowers will drop.
Water stress, leaves and flowers will both drop.
When the days get shorter peppers will ripen the fruit they have but not produce more flowers unless they get additional light.
Bigger peppers usually put up less fruit Bell peppers only put out 3-5 at a time for me and mine do not get very big. Most are not disease resistant and they will die
Habanero has a pepper load of about 30,. much more than that the plant starts to show signs of stress (yellowing).
Tabasco and small fruited chilies have a pepper load of over 200.
Like most other plants if you leave the chilies on the plant to maturity instead of picking them early, you can slow down production. Remember the plant only produces chilies to reproduce. If the seeds are ripening, there is not a lot of reason for the plant to put up more flowers when it has successfully made seeds to reproduce. So, if you want more peppers, keep picking and don't leave too many till maturity if you want them to keep making flowers, feed and water regularly and keep them in a pot where the roots will have growing room.
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Fertilizer- They are like tomatoes, so I use citrus or tomato food. I have started using low numbers below 15 and nitrogen below 10 and found that I get good results without over fertilizing. I use citrus food 6-4-6 or tomato food 9-12-12. I like fertilizers that contain micros. They like a slightly acidic condition in the sun.
I have mine mostly in pots and they get watered every day. To get bigger plants, I keep up potting. They will stunt once the roots fill a small pot so I go from 3.5 inch, to 1 gallon. After the first fruit I go up to 2 gallons, before the roots fill that pot, I will pot up and my ultimate pot can be anywhere from 5-18 gallons. Some peppers like thai hot remain very small, but others like tabasco and ghost will get very large.
Heat, cold, drought will stress plants and cause bud drop. Peppers are sometimes pollinated by insects but they are primarily wind pollinated. A good shake helps.
When the temperatures exceed 90 the flowers will drop.
Water stress, leaves and flowers will both drop.
When the days get shorter peppers will ripen the fruit they have but not produce more flowers unless they get additional light.
Bigger peppers usually put up less fruit Bell peppers only put out 3-5 at a time for me and mine do not get very big. Most are not disease resistant and they will die
Habanero has a pepper load of about 30,. much more than that the plant starts to show signs of stress (yellowing).
Tabasco and small fruited chilies have a pepper load of over 200.
Like most other plants if you leave the chilies on the plant to maturity instead of picking them early, you can slow down production. Remember the plant only produces chilies to reproduce. If the seeds are ripening, there is not a lot of reason for the plant to put up more flowers when it has successfully made seeds to reproduce. So, if you want more peppers, keep picking and don't leave too many till maturity if you want them to keep making flowers, feed and water regularly and keep them in a pot where the roots will have growing room.
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