Potted Pepper Losing Blossoms

[garden5]

I've got a few pepper plants in pots (about 1 - 1 1/2 gal.). They all grew better than the ones in the garden at first (the garden ones have about caught up) and now they are flowering.

They are putting on fruit, but the bhut jolokia drops the flowers right after they are pollinated and have a tiny little pepper starting.

I have them growing in my special compost-dirt. What's that you ask? Well, it started out as a pile of dirt that slowly had weeds, vegetables, etc. added to it. So, it's still mostly dirt, but it is much richer than when I started.

I'm thinking that I may have to water the potted plants about twice a day with this heat.

[rainbowgardener]

If it has a pepper formed and starting to grow, it is supposed to drop the flower. Then the pepper keeps growing. Did I not understand what you meant?

[garden5]

I'm sorry about that RG. What I meant is that it drops the flower/pepper stem and all. I guess I should have said that it drops the VERY immature fruit.

[soil]

I find fruit/blossom drop is caused by lack of sufficient minerals. a simple dusting of rock powders or glacial rock dust will fix it and get them producing well in no time.

[!potatoes!]

keep an eye on water. easy to get stressed in a little pot like that.

[mattie g]

Happens pretty frequesntly to mine, but I figured it's just what happens - some of the pollinated blossoms eventually produce peppers, while some just don't make it. It also seems that it happens more often after I already have a few peppers growing on the plant.

[garden5]

Well, it just dropped another few. They seem to turn yellow before they fall.

I'll have to try the rock/mineral dusting.

Thanks for the advice.

[mattie g]

Well, it just dropped another few. They seem to turn yellow before they fall.

I'll have to try the rock/mineral dusting.

Thanks for the advice.

Same exact thing for me, but, like I said, I always thought that was normal. If not, I'd have about 20 peppers on each plant!

[nicoleg906]

This happened to me with my habaneros. They would turn yellow, dry, and fall off. I put a fertilizer on them and viola! Blossoms turned into peppers!

[garden5]

Well, I haven't put anything in the soil yet, but there are a few flowers that have been pollinated and are still on, so maybe these will stay and the fruit will grow.

From what I've seen, blossom/fruit drop only really seems to occur when the fruit is very immature.

[garden5]

Well, I've got good news; so far, there are 2 peppers on the plant that are abut 1/4 in. long and clearly visible. Usually, once they get this big, they'll stay on the plant. Well, hopefully they will....we'll have to see.

[ThePepperSeed]

I must give credit to Willard of thehotpepper.com for his all inclusive list of reasons for flower drop:

1. Day temp too high, over 95F
2. Night temp too low, under 65F
3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer
4. Too much water
5. Low light levels (reduces fertility).
6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility)
7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to pollination).
8. Lack of pollinating insects[not really needed for chiles]
9. Size of pot
10. Too much mineral in feedwater.
11. Too much grower attention.

My plants drop a ton of flowers when it's hot. I never worry about, they keep them on when the time is right

[rainbowgardener]

I like the last one, too much grower attention! I usually think of gardener attention as being a good thing, but I guess you can always get too much of any good thing. In this case I guess too much fussing could lead to over watering, over fertilizing, and generally just messing with it too much. None of my plants are in danger of too much attention!

[garden5]

Well, the 2 are still growing and are about 1/2 in. long, so I think they will make it.

If I had to pic from the list, I would say that the possible causes would be to high daytime temp (even though it wasn't quite 95) and pot size (this one is about 1gal. to 1 1/2 gal.).

There's even a third one starting now .

[jdig]

to keep it simple. very simple.....

you need phosphorus and potassium, as well, some micronutrients and possibly some better pollination. but work on one thing at a time.

phosphorus and potassium will encourage fruit set. Any garden store will carry a phosphorus and potassium fertilizer. I would suggest one with a low Nitrogen content with higher amounts of phosphorus and potassium.

- all fertilizer will have numbers such as 0-18-37 or 15-7-13 or 0-0-22
there are many different combinations.

they stand for N-P-K. nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium

you need one with a low first number and higher numbers's for the second two

any garden store will be able to help you select one.

[brooklyn boy]

I've also had the common blossom drop problem last year when I planted my jalapeno peppers and my general conclusion from my experience and from I've read on other forums that theirs no specific diagnoses/solution for this problem you just have to wait it out a few weeks all the while it keeps on producing flowers it will keep on producing blossoms till they will eventually stop falling off ,all this is said when there are no other problems

Do you agree with me on this one , I seem to be the first to say it...

[jdig]

There should be no reason for a significant amount of blossoms to fall off if one is taking care of the plants properly and there is sufficient pollination.

Yes, every single flower will not set fruit, but hot and sweet peppers have the ability, under sufficient care, to set over 90%


Proper plant nutrition is key, giving the plant the right amount of what it needs at the right time.

And hey, it's actually pretty easy. Too many people get caught up in what kind of fertilizers their using this and that, brands ect. and far too many people over care for their plants!....Its a PLANT....it will grow. Your not going too the moon here...your growing a plant.

So what to do...for peppers....In simple terms... use high doses of nitrogen in the beginning growth phase with lower but still adequate ammounts of phosphorus and potassium. Make sure your plant gets the micronutrients it needs as well. Any complete fertilizer will do....then when you see flowers starting to form pick them off, then start to apply much much lower ammounts of nitrogen and much high doses of phosphours and pottasium to get those flowers to form and set. Use common sense though and don't over fertilze the plants, work your way up slow on the doses... And peppers love lots of calcium, make a note of that.

YOU MIGHT BE SUPPRISED HOW MUCH FERTILIZER A PLANT CAN HANDLE

[garden5]

You know what, I think you're right. It must just be a "phase" some container plants go through because I have 3 medium-small ones on the plant now and 4 other ones started.

Everything seems to be alright now.