Only get about 5 peppers a season -How to Increase Yield

[skimzzz]

I've tried growing cayenne and scorpion peppers indoors. Both times, I get lush foliage but constant blossom drop. Around October, some flowers turn into peppers (about 5) -- and that's it for the season since winters here are cold.

I try to aid pollination with a thin paintbrush and shaking. I increase the phosphate and potassium ratio over nitrogen. I resort to lower (reddish) wavelength lighting. But nothing seems to work.

Any one have ideas on how to increase the fruit yield? At 5 peppers per season, it's not worth my effort. Even if I'm growing super hots like scorpions.

[applestar]

It sounds like they are not getting enough growing season. What were their other growing conditions like temperatures and light source/duration?

In my garden, peppers grow very slowly in the ground. They grow better in containers I believe because their roots are kept warmer than in the ground.

But mostly, I have better results from same plants after they have overwintered and are growing in their 2nd or 3rd year, and this is especially true of longer lived hot peppers and the super hots. I also have additional fruit production from pepper plants I have brought inside prior to frost.

[skimzzz]

They're grown indoors where it gets pretty hot during the summer (85+ F). I read that blossom drop tends to occur at over 85 F? Ironically, fruits only seem to appear when it gets colder (60 to 70 F). I use around 5 100W equivalent LED bulbs for about 12 hours a day, so lighting should not be an issue. It's a 12 inch container which might a small.

The plants generate a ton of flowers, but almost all eventually fall off. For season #2, I plan on transferring to a 5 gallon container. Hope you're right about 2nd and 3rd season harvests.

[pepperhead212]

I have never had peppers drop blossoms due to high temps (or anything, for that matter) - only tomatoes and eggplants.

The pots are definitely small for those varieties. And the lighting isn't really that much - 100 w equivalent is really not high lumens, even combining 5 of them. I remember back when I was looking at bulbs for indoor herb growing, I found out that peppers required much more light - a 400 w MH for maybe 2 pepper plants, which is over 35,000 lumens, and even more wattage, when growing more, and placing the lights farther away . I realized then why I did not have luck growing peppers indoors! LED lights are much cooler and efficient now, than those old MH bulbs, but you need some high output LEDs for peppers.

You do have the right idea about the red, for inducing flowering - I did this by accident in my early days, putting some peppers under a HPS light - the only thing I had around, and I had to make room for strating seeds. Soon, I had countless blossoms on this one 18" plant - even removing more than half, the peppers were all stunted, with so many of them there. Never used that light again! I later found out that this is one of the ways they trigger plants to flower for shows, when they need it at an exact time.

[applestar]

How are you using a “thin paintbrush”? ... I don’t see the reason for it.

Pepper stigma is delicate and easily damaged — I am still unable to manage intentionally cross pollinating two different varieties by deconstructing a newly opened blossom and hand pollinating it with pollen collected from another variety, even though I have had some success with tomatoes.

Damaged and unsuccessfully pollinated flowers will fall off without developing into fruits.

For simply getting a plant to fruit, it is much simpler to use an inexpensive disposable electric toothbrush — the kind that just vibrates rather than have mechanical spinning brush.

To make an observation of the process, in good light, touch the top of the flower stem, and you will see pollen literally tumbling out of the anthercone.

That’s all you need to do — the pollen will have fallen on the stigma of the same flower and pollinated it. Once you see how it works, you can just go around touching the vibrating toothbrush to the floral trusses like a visiting bee.

[imafan26]

Scorpions and cayennes usually have much better yields. However, I do grow mine outdoors. I do grow most of them in containers. I only keep them in 1 gallon containers for the first flush. After that, they go into 5 gallon buckets or larger. They are relatively heavy feeders and while they are flowering they get fed every month. Hawaiian chilies that are not in the ground get at least a 14 inch pot. Peppers are kept outdoors, most peppers germinate best when it is at least 68 degrees and produce peppers even when it is up to the high 80's. They don't like 90's unless you can keep them from wilting and pepper plants live on, but will decrease their production when it gets colder and the days get shorter. My coldest days are about 51 degrees and my shortest day is about 11 hours and 18 minutes.

Now, for bell peppers, it is normal for me not to get a lot of peppers 3-5 peppers from a plant before it fizzles out is normal. Most bell peppers just succumb to disease. A locally bred bell pepper does produce better but it is a mini bell and it will live more than a year.

If you live where it is cold and you have the plants indoors and they are not producing I think light and temperature may be the biggest issues. Peppers need to be at least 68 degrees, but the hotter peppers like it closer to 75. They also like as much sun as they can get. You probably would not keep your house that warm even for your own comfort. For me, 68 degrees is cold. If it is colder, peppers can still live, they just don't do much growing or blooming. I agree, with Applestar that you probably will only get good production when the temperature and light are optimal.

[skimzzz]

Thanks for the feedback.

I assumed light was sufficient, because the plants grow leaves like crazy.

Blossom drops occurred even before I tried using the paintbrush or shaking. Now, I use a tiny brush to release the pollen around the stigma. How does the electric toothbrush method work? Surely, you don't touch the flowers with the brush itself. Is vibration close to the flowers sufficient to release pollen?

[applestar]

Solanacea — peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, etc. — have evolved to respond to bees landing on the flower and buzzing at it. In the summer, I sometimes just watch sweat bees and bumblebees wrap their legs around the flower to clutch the flower stem at the base while hanging under the downward pointing anthercone, and rapidly buzz their wings in higher pitched whine. The flowers release massive pollen that the bees catch on their belly fuzz, and then comb off and bundle up in their hind leg pollen baskets.

To simulate this, you can touch the curving stem of the flower just above (below?) the calyx/petals with the vibrating type toothbrush.

My DH decided he didn’t like his $100 “ultrasonic” toothbrush with replaceable heads, so I tried using that for a time, but it really didn’t make a difference compared to a $6 disposable. I also tried the spinning round head type toothbrush, but they make a different kind of sound — more like a powertool — plus the rotating brush was too harsh on the tender stems.

For particularly delicate stems of some smaller fruited peppers and tomatoes, you can touch the back/smooth part of the toothbrush to the stem.

...nowadays, no one is probably ever without their mobile phones, so in a pinch, you could use your phone on vibrate mode, too, but that’s a very expensive alternative

[imafan26]

Peppers are actually self pollinating. They are not dependent on bees and are wind pollinated as well. They only need a breeze going through the greenhouse ( or a fan) or just a gentle shake of the stems. While peppers are capable of cross pollinating, I grow a lot of different kinds of peppers and they rarely cross by themselves unless they are pollinated by insects or deliberately crossed.

If you have a lot of green leaves and not a lot of flowers or peppers, you either don't have enough light so the plant is making more leaves to capture light. The leaves will be darker green than normal if they were to be kept out in the full sun. The other reason for having lush leaves and a large plant with fewer flowers would be too much nitrogen. Peppers like narrow range of temperatures and will bloom best with temperatures between 70-85. Temperatures above 90 and below 60, peppers don't produce flowers, or flowers will drop.

https://www.uaex.edu/publications/PDF/FSA-6015.pdf
https://blog.wildpepper.com/2018/01/26/g ... rs-winter/

[Gary350]

This is an interesting thread about peppers lots of good information. Applestars plants in pots are doing much better than my plants did in the garden. Peppers claim to be a 75 day crop but it takes 6 months for my plants to make peppers. I have noticed if I add no organic material to the hard soil roots grow small and plants stay small but if I add any type organic material plants have a larger faster growing root system and plants grow taller & larger much faster. I try to have my plants in my garden by May 1st & by June 1st plants are 15" tall then maybe 2 ft tall by June 20. Weather is 95 by July 1st plants grow very slow all summer in 3 months of 98 degree heat.

This year I had 20 pepper plants to experiment with, some had no organic material added and some did. Some plants had full sun all day & some had cool early morning sun with full shade after lunch the hottest part of the day. Some plants got 15-15-15 fertilizer & some didn't. Some plants got nitrogen & some didn't. Most got calcium for BER. The plants with no soil preparation, no fertilizer, hot sun all day never got taller than knee high and made no peppers at all. Plants that got early morning sun grew faster than plants in hot sun all day but once temperatures were 98 all summer all plants grew very slow. Plants with good soil grew faster than plants that didn't. Plants with fertilizer grew faster than plants that didn't. We had a hot dry summer very little rain, no rain for 3 week, rain, then 4 weeks no rain, tiny sprinkle then 3 more weeks no rain. Drought all summer did not seem to hurt pepper plants they looked wilted all day but 1 hour after dark plants perked up and looked good. Late Sept during cool weather plants grew fast and taller lots of blossoms then Oct a pepper explosion 100s of peppers, so many peppers limbs were too heavy some limbs broke off. I was harvesting peppers every day soon I had 5 gallon buckets full of peppers I gave them to my 2 Sons. Weather turned cold, weather man kept claiming frost but no frost pepper plants did better than every, wow I never saw so many peppers. I don't believe the claims that pepper plants like hot weather my plants were doing better than every with 34 degrees at night & 70 during the day. This makes be believe a winter green house will be excellent for peppers if I can keep plants from freezing at night 1 plant would make plenty of peppers. I am not exactly sure what to do next summer, I know for sure I'm only planting Red sweet Peppers, no green peppers & no hot peppers. Next garden season I'm considering 4 plants in full sun then put up a sun shade tarp when weather gets hot, lots of organic material with fertilizer & calcium but I still expect no pepper harvest until 6 months later in Oct. .

[imafan26]

I have a hard time germinating peppers below 68 degrees. The hotter peppers from India require it to be at least 80 degrees to get good germination. At lower temps, they germinate poorly. They flower poorly in the cold as well. It does not usually get above 91 here in August, the peppers, if adequately watered and kept where they get afternoon shade will still produce. Larger peppers produce much less. There is also pepper load to consider. A habanero has a pepper load of about 15-20 peppers while a superchilli can support 200. I usually do not let the peppers ripen because the birds will eat them. Ripening peppers on the bush also slows production. They need as much light as they can get.
They are heavy feeders. I use a starter fertilizer. It is recommended to give extra calcium and phosphorus. Since these elements are not very mobile it should be added to the potting mix at the root level. I prefer gypsum as a calcium source since it does not raise the pH very much, but people have use dolomite. Bone meal is a good source of both calcium and phosphorus
However, to use bone meal effectively the pH must be kept below 7. Manure from chickens are usually from egg producers that are fed calcium. It is a good source of organic nitrogen and phosphorus but unless you balance your mix, chicken manure will alkalinize the soil by a half a point.
I usually start with vigoro citrus food. It contains slow N and micros (6-4-6) and I use or osmocote 16-16-16 as starter fertilizers in potting mixes. One the plants have true leaves they can get 1/4 strength fertilizer every week. When the plants are 4 inches tall they need to go into 4 inch pots and later potted up into 1 gallon pots. I can add some bone meal to the pot mixed with some additional slow release fertilizer 2 inches below the root ball. My mix is peat based so it is slightly acidic. I will get the first fruit from the 1 gallon pot and then if I get to it, I will transfer the larger plants to bigger pots. The Hawaiian pepper will end up in a 10-18 gallon pot since it is a very tall pepper that lives for many years. The shorter lived jalapenos and bells only go into 2 gallon pots. They rarely make it past a year. Bacanums, frutescens, and chinense peppers are much longer lived. The peppers will get about 2 tsps of 10-20-20 granular fertilizer + micros every month for the rest of their lives and osmocote, if I remember a couple of times a year for the survivors. I grow a lot of peppers but they all don't survive long. Bacterial and fungal diseases take their toll on the large leaved bell peppers and they rarely make it past two fruitings. Long sweet peppers are more productive and last a little longer, but they are still annuals. Bird peppers are the longest lived and will live 8-10 years in the ground or in an 18 gallon pot. They are less susceptible to bacterial diseases, but still have problems with thrips, mites, scale, pepper weevil, fungal diseases, and nematodes.

Birds are an issue they will totally cap a Hawaiian chilli, so I prefer to grow the slightly larger superchili and peppers that are large and hang down. It is harder for the birds to get to them as long as they are green. Dwarf thai chilies do o.k. as well because the plant is less than a foot tall and cannot support the bird's weight well. Hawaiian chillies have to be caged and screened, if I want peppers.

I find small tomato cages are useless for tomatoes but are good for supporting peppers especially when they have heavy fruit.
Allowing too many peppers to ripen on the plant, reduces production and shortens the life of the plant.

[prplchkj]

I'm in Burbank, so my peppers, which are grown in containers outdoors, end up dealing with 90 - 100 degree heat. I tend to stick to the sweet bell peppers. Except for the year that I didn't stop my plant from producing fruit before it got some size on it my yield has been pretty good. One of the tips I found out there, on the internet, to increase yield worked too well. That was to add some epsom salt to the soil. The increase in fruit freaked me out a little bit on the peppers, but it worked out well for my beans. A thought I had, with regard to the 100W bulbs you're using. Have you considered looking for a daylight bulb instead? Something that's in the 5000K or above range? That's supposed to be a light level equivalent to noon sunlight.