HelpfulGardener.com

Hey everyone,

I have large healthy pepper plants and by this time last year I was knee deep in peppers. This year, I have maybe five to show for the season among 15 plants. Any idea what could be causing this?

It has been an exceptionally dry and hot summer here in central Texas, but I thought peppers were pretty tolerant of heat?

The same problem here. But I know what my prob. is... I gotta take down a %$&&*()_ Mullberry tree... to much shade.

Peppers like alot of water, so if its hot and dry there I would suggest giving them a drink almost everyday.

Here in PA when we had our dry spell I had to water them everyday to keep them from wilting.

Another thing with peppers, 1 week they will do nothing then the next they will take off.

I've had the same problem. From 13 plants I have gotten 5 peppers and a lot of blooms that fall. I want peppers!

Bell peppers like warm weather but not HOT. Some people in Texas have been writing in about the stretches of triple digit temps they've been having. That kind of weather absolutely stops tomatoes and peppers from producing. If you have flowers that drop off without setting fruit, that's called blossom drop. Type that into the search box on the upper left of most pages and you will find lots written about it here, but it is a stress reaction, including heat stress.

Why do my pepper plants often bloom but fail to set fruit?

A. Peppers, like tomatoes, are sensitive to temperature. Most peppers will drop their blooms when daytime temperatures get much above 90 degrees F. in combination with night temperatures above 75 degrees F. They will also drop their blooms in the early spring if temperatures remain cool for extended periods. Hot peppers, such as jalapenos, withstand hot weather fairly well and can often produce fruit through the summer in most areas. Optimum temperatures fall between 70 degrees and 80 degrees F. for bell-type peppers and between 70 degrees and 85 degrees F. for hot varieties. https://plantanswers.tamu.edu/vegetables/pepper.html

If they are in containers, try moving them to where they don't get so much afternoon sun. Otherwise try putting shade cloth (row cover) over them and then misting the shade cloth to create some evaporative cooling.

Our bell peppers are finally starting to produce. It took about 11 weeks from the sowing date. One of the plants has been covered by a large zucchini leave but still is producing its lonely pepper. The other, in full sun, took an extra couple of weeks to produce its first pepper. They are still in baby stage as of week 13. We haven't been as diligent in watering the plants as we should have been- next year will be our second year of gardening and we will do better.

I've got peppers like crazy this year but one problem I can't get any of them to turn red. We've had a very mild summer with a good amount of rain. I try and water mine only when they start to look like they wilt. I have had a few turn red but most of them had funny spots on them. Not sure if they were to wet or if the sun burnt them.

rainbowgardener wrote:Bell peppers like warm weather but not HOT. Some people in Texas have been writing in about the stretches of triple digit temps they've been having. That kind of weather absolutely stops tomatoes and peppers from producing. If you have flowers that drop off without setting fruit, that's called blossom drop. Type that into the search box on the upper left of most pages and you will find lots written about it here, but it is a stress reaction, including heat stress.

I guess that explains it. We have had something like 95 100* days in a row this year. Eeeek. It's cooler now so maybe ill be inluck.

smokensqueal wrote:I've got peppers like crazy this year but one problem I can't get any of them to turn red. ... I have had a few turn red but most of them had funny spots on them. Not sure if they were to wet or if the sun burnt them.

Translucent, brownish spots on the peppers would likely be sunscald.

you need more water, what are you feeding your plants? if texas is as hot as it should be. its over 100 here 80% of the time and the plants are fine given enough water, if I don't they would die in 2 days. I use shallow flood beds for even water soaking and to be sure they get good amount of water. I used to have this same problem, now my only problem is too many peppers.

do your plants have flowers that fall off or none at all?

I agree with you soil. My bell pepper plants stood still after producing their first peppers.
I had read that they don't like wet feet but since nothing was happening I started watering every day to every other day.
They now have many blossoms and small peppers growing.

Same here on watering.

Up until now, we had high heat/humidity for almost 2 months. All of my peppers (hot and bell) are in the raised beds. Some in only 6"-8" of soil (yest, tried the "squarefoot" gardening technique in 1 raised bed) Even those are producing very well. Though in the early spring, there were lots of flower drops...

Watered them every day. I foliar fed them with fish emulsion every 2 weeks, and on the alternate weeks -sprayed with Epsom salt solution (specially with in bloom). Seems to work fine.

Regards,
D