When Will My Pepper Plants Grow Peppers?

[Allied19]

I am a fairly new gardener--I live in Phoenix, AZ, so I was able to get this year's garden started late in March. I planted several herbs that are doing very well, along with a red bell pepper and yellow bell pepper (not from seed, I used the Bonnie plants). They are now approaching 4 months old, quite tall, almost three feet each, but NO peppers on either one...is it just too hot here? Any pepper wizards out there with some answers?

[stella1751]

They should have been producing long ago, so I suspect your soil is too rich. If you have too much nitrogen in particular, peppers will give you all foliage and no fruit. What are you using for fertilizer?

[Allied19]

I haven't used any fertilizer yet; I used the Miracle Gro Organic Garden Soil for the garden, though...

[Gary350]

My parents live in Tempe AZ. Certain things will not grow in that climate. The soil is pretty bad. Tomatoes seem to do good if you plant them early but they stop producing when weather is extremely hot. My parents never plant peppers I'm not sure why. The soil is extremely low in nitrogen and other things plants need. I use to have a friend that taught horticulture at ASU he said the soil is extremely low in everything.

[GardenJester]

you could try pinching the top, or feed it some high P(of NPK) fertilizer to get it flowering. I have never done it, but some people have recommended pinching the top of pepper plant when they are around 18-24", so as to encourage fruiting.

[stella1751]

If they aren't even making blossoms, it's almost certain your soil is too rich, which will change as the season progresses. If they are making blossoms that don't produce fruit, that could be temperatures that are too hot, given your location.

Next year, you might want to try a different variety, like a sweet banana. If you like Jalapenos, you could give those a shot. They can take just about anything!

[garden5]

Are there or have there ever been any flowers? If there have been flowers on it at some point(s) in time, they are probably falling off (blossom drop) due to temperature extremes. If this is the case, some shade cloth may help.

If there have never been any flowers, I think your soil may be too high in N. Since it sounds like it's mostly that Miracle Gro stuff, try adding some more soil (actual dirt) to your garden or, better yet, compost. Does your garden have any compost in it already?

[SECRETGARDEN]

In general, does it take longer for potted plants to blossom? Have had constantly changing temps (frequent thunderstorms in recent wks.) & pots only get full sun about 7 hrs. per day (due to balcony overhead). (Apt. living - yuck!) Tomato-Tone (by Espoma) (tomato food) seems to be helping produce more blossoms but pepper plants quickly losing their blossoms. (Also have earwig infestation due to all the wet weather but they don't seem to be too serious - leaves getting eaten somewhat. Does "Garlic Barrier" (diluted) work to get rid of these pests or since they've been here for several wks. now..is it too late for the garlic juice to work? (It's suppose to be a very concentrated brand.) I've tried putting oil w/soy sauce in tuna cans & pushing it into the soil to trap them...but only caught one with that so far. I don't see any other bugs on the plants. (Yes, I know earwigs eat plants only at night.)
(Soil consists of: Miracle Gro Moisture Control mixed w/older cheaper potting soil + manured compost (from store). Other pots used green bag of regular Miracle Gro potting soil (both kinds have either 3 or 6 mo. fertilizer included in it). Is my soil too rich..and therefore have same problem as other blogger with great foliage but no fruit? (or is it just in this middle stage of still growing its foundational foliage?) I'm only 4 wks. into this so far.

[Ozark Lady]

My tomatoes will completely stop blooming when hot temps hit, and won't start again, until it dips back down in the 80's.

Hey don't feel bad, my peppers are babies, I keep saying..."Grow already!" and I started them 2 weeks before the 7 foot tall tomatoes, and the tomatoes are covered with green ones... The peppers are slowly growing... They aren't large enough to even consider blooming, and some are in beds right beside tomatoes that are going nuts! I just don't get it either.

Tomatoes and peppers have similar requirements, and there are various kinds of peppers, but the little rascals just sit there. They are growing at about 1/5th the correct rate.

[gixxerific]

I"m with Ol my peppers are not going anywhere and my tomatoes have gotten massively huge. It has been super hot here and that could be the problem. Ol and I have about the same weather.

Only pepper really worth talking about is Jalapenos which are still small but producing a lot of peppers. Most of bell peppers look dang near to what I planted month's ago.

[stella1751]

Ditto what Ozark Lady and Gix said. My Big Jims are finally growing and producing, but the Habaneros are uninterested in getting started. I just know that if I can get them to reach a foot in height that they will take off, but they're squeaking out maybe an inch a week. We're running out of time up here!

[pepper4]

I have the opposite going on here. All my plants are in pots, and my bell peppers are doing better then my tomatoes. They are taller and are producing an abudunce of good sized peppers. My mators which are big boys are only about 2 1/2 to 3 feet very few and small green tomatos. Both are in 5 gal pots with a top soil/organic peat mix and lately get watered 2 times a day due to the high temps we've been having. The plant itself looks great but it is trudging along in growing. Any thoughts?

[applestar]

I'm starting to think it's a misconception that peppers like it hot, or sunny. Just yesterday, I uncovered a well grown with lots of tiny peppers on it plant that was buried under a massive bush type tomato plant that must have fallen over at least a week ago. I forgot that the pepper plant was even there!

I hauled the tomato plant upright. If that pepper plant starts to suffer, I might just collapse the Tom right back on top of it....

[lorax]

I don't know if it's a misconception, AS. You know how hot it gets in my garden (heading for the mid 110's again today) and my peppers are going great guns. I have flowers and fruit coming on all of my 4-month-old semisweets (which is as close as I get to bells; they're stronger/more vigorous with a bit of Jalapeno thrown in the gene pool) and my Aji (super-hots) are still too young to flower but growing nice and quick and look quite promising.

I'm not sure whether it's my soil (volcanic) that helps them; they're all in full sun and I neglect them terribly. And even the highest altitudes in AZ get weaker sun than I do here near the equator.

Allied - I'm with Stella. You've got too much N and not enough PK in the soil. I haven't found a temperature ceiling yet for peppers, although bells do seem to like it shadier than hots. In my experience, bells are also tempremental about wild swings in temperature (even your day to night difference is probably enough to make them grumpy). In my experience, for the desert, the hotter peppers are truly the kings.

[Ozark Lady]

I don't have any truly hot peppers, I have Numex Big Jim, Anaheim, Anchos or Poblano whatever you want to call them, Yolo Wonder, Sweet Bananas, Cubanelle, this range, the coolest of the hots, and a few that would be in the bell pepper family. Most of my bell peppers died.

They will soon be maybe that first foot tall. Right beside tomatoes that are younger, and doing great! Crazy peppers. I am blaming the drought, I am watering almost daily, but apparently just not the same as a decent rain!

[gixxerific]

To add a little bit my giant anhcos are doing good as far as production and total growth. But again most of the others are still really small, though some of them have produced peppers they were almost a 1/4 the size of the toatl plant.

My neighbor has 2 different plantings one is doing the same as mine, not much. But another he got from lowes when they were good size are 3-4 foot tall with lot's of big peppers.

This doesn't make sense to me. He planted these about the same time as the others and they were basically the same size and they are next to each other. Yet he still has the mini's and mucho's.

Only time will tell. This has not been a good pepper year for me at all.

Good luck everyone.

[FieldofFlowers]

So far I'm having the best luck with bell peppers that I've ever had. Okay out of the two years I've tried anyway. The pepper plants looking the healthiest are on the narrow garden lining the west side of our house. One had about four of them growing (I picked one) and another starting.

That area gets soaked whenever it rains, but dries out quickly. I have to water that spot ever so often or it gets bone dry.

Peppers in other areas of our yard are variable. Many of them are yellowing, but some are producing. It's been an okay year for Hungarian wax peppers and Jalapeños, but the cayenne pepper is just starting to produce one. Not all of the flowers have produced peppers. It's been one of our wettest summers, though the temps are probably close to normal or above. Overall so far, I can't really complain about how our peppers are doing. We have just about enough.

[garden5]

All of my peppers have been producing well, so far. They are only about 1 ft. tall, but have lots of peppers staring on them. I'd probably have more peppers on plants twice as tall, but the darn deer make a periodic visit to the pepper patch.

I'm thinking that the moisture-content of the soil may play a larger role than just the temperature. Also, nutrients seem to definitely play their part as well.