Pepper Not Producing

[GAPeach]

I'm new to gardening & have 3 pepper plants that are not producing. I grew one pepper on one plant & nothing else has grown in a month. Should I cut this pepper off to try & get the plant to produce?

[ElizabethB]

It looks like a young plant. You can harvest now or let it mature a little more. Did you plant from seed or a start? If a start did it have a baby pepper or flower on it when you planted? I don't see any flowers on the that plant. What about the other plants? The plant looks healthy. Have you fertilized? If you have and you used a high nitrogen fertilizer that may be an issue. High nitrogen will push a lot of foliage growth instead of flowers. Be patient - it is still early even in Georgia.

Good luck

[GAPeach]

Thank You for the information. I planted from start & it did not have a baby pepper on it when planted. I do not recall seeing any flowers. The others just have a lot of foliage. I fertilized them about a week ago.

Thanks again.

[applestar]

I think this plant is taking a break in growing while it concentrates on the fruit. There aren't enough leaves on it for it to do both. I wonder, too if it's getting too hot in Georgia? Hot temps will get stressful, and it might consider this one fruit its biological prerogative fulfilled and call it done.

I want to say I would cut the fruit off -- eat it as a green pepper in mixed stir fry or something.

[JC's Garden]

I live in South Georgia and have only been getting flowers for about a week now. I grow from seed so I don't get the same the early production as my friends that buy plants with fruit and flowers on them. Be patient, peppers love Georgia.

[GAPeach]

Thanks everyone. I see a few flowers starting to form & I hope they start to grow soon. I'll wait and see. I have 3 others with plenty of leaves.

I think I may cook this up this weekend and see if the plant will start growing again. The others are thriving , but this one stopped.

[feldon30]

One thing about peppers I've found. They always seem to grow to about 8 inches tall, and then put out a flower in the first "crotch" or where the first branches are. The plant then spends an inordinate amount of time focusing on growing a pepper at that joint before it resumes vegetative growth and producing more flowers. It seems to slow down the whole plant by up to a month.

I always pick off the first flower at the first joint. The plant then seems to puts on a second set of branches and lots of flowers and I let it go.

YMMV

[GAPeach]

Thanks Feldon30 The first flower grew last month & I haven't seen another one since. I plan to cut the pepper off tomorrow.