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Aus newbie q's

Timmmy newbie

Timmmy newbie

Hi All,

New too this site so first off I have to say I've enjoyed looking around for the last couple of weeks and A.J wow is all I can say.

So my little beginner crop:

hotday002.jpg


Left to right: Jap pearl, cayenne , (blue box) white p hab, (blue box) Bih Jol, Orange hab bottom pic, (round tub) red habs, (black box) Naga Morich, (black box) Fatali

Thx Hippy Neil THSC for the starter super hots!

So it's my first real time growing an I might have hit a bit of a prob so I thought I would post the question.

My Orange Hab and cayenne plants seem to be dropping a lot of the peppers within a week of changing over from the flower stage. All of the plants have only the fert that came pre mixed in the soil along with a slow release fert I added when potting.

Is this normal for the first couple of peppers? The orange hab plant is absolutly covered in new flowers so I'm assuming it's fairly healthy. I have been watering every afternoon but with 30c+ that's got to be a good thing yeah?


Sorry for the dark photo's it's so bright and hot today I over did it a bit.

Tim
 
gday from Sydney and welcome to THP Timmmy. about time we had another New South Welshman on these boards - we're being overrun with Banana-benders at the moment (fyi - for non-Aussie readers, a Banana-bender is a Queenslander).

your problem is a very common one and not something that you can't necessarily control. there are numerous threads on the topic of flower drop - try this recent one => http://www.thehotpepper.com/showthread.php?t=8494

you may not need to water each day. try sticking your finger in the potting mix, if your finger comes out moist/wet then you probably don't have to water until the next day. make sure you have drainage holes in those tubs otherwise you can drown your roots - peppers don't like wet feet. it may help if you add some mulch to those pots also as this will also help retain moisture.

watch out for Neil, he'll lead you down the capsaicin trail and you'll get burned!

EDIT: nice pics btw - your young plants look healthy to me
 
Hi Tim,

Welcome from Canada! I really like your pictures - nice. Plants look great...lush and full of buds. Yes, bloom-drop is common. These wonderful plants are so sensitive to every little nuance in the world around them. The weather and humidity...temperature too high or too low and moisture in the soil - too much or too little. When the time is right those buds will set. Oh...the excitement.

I look out the window and the ground is blanketed in snow. Going down to -30c tonight. Great thing about this forum, we Northern Hemisphere Chiliheads get to live vicariously through pictures like yours...so please keep them coming.

Thanks.
Sheldon
 
welcome to THP from Fort Worth, Texas

your plants look healthy and I will just say ditto to what has already been said...they will set pods when it is time...

I do however, want to reinforce what chilehead64 said tho...I was watering my plants each day during our hot July/August because they were wilting in the afternoon....remember, hot wet conditions is prime breeding ground for the bacteria/fungus that causes root rot...I lost a bunch of plants because of this...I finally got a moisture meter and started watering only when the meter told me it was dry 4" down in the soil...the meter is a fairly cheap rapitest model...

from what i have learned, overwatering is the number one emeny of pepper plants...
 
Welcome from Newcastle mate.....Where in NSW are you from??? and as chilliman has said.....Thank god for more New South Welshman...:lol:

I will say that AJ, PrairieChilihead and chilliman have said it all really.....

It will be fine and it happens to us all.....

It will come good and then you will be scared with the amount of chillis you get from the orange hab.....AJ's 2nd year orange hab tree produced 2013 chillis in one season.....:shocked:....1st year trees will give you less....
 
Hi all,

Thx for the reply's.

I will look around for the mter sounds like a plan.

The weather has gone from well under 20c to over 30c in a couple of days with lots of harsh wind and hard rain. So I'll cut back on the water and keep an eye on the results.

I'm on the central coast NSW near :hell: hippy territory

Neil has already given me a taste of n.morich, trin scorpion, fatali's, choc hab and bih jolokia straight up so I'm now looking forward to having my own peppers. But I can't say I'm a fan of orange hab's I have purchased them from coles before and don't really like the taste. Can't wait for the fatali's love them nice and tasty.

I have cut holes in the buckets but I must admit the soil has a green tinge to it lately so I haven't watered them over the last few days.

Tim
 
Timmmy newbie said:
but I must admit the soil has a green tinge to it lately so I haven't watered them over the last few days.
Tim
Click to expand...

sprinkle some corn meal on the top of your soil and/or add 1 tbsp peroxide (3%) per gallon of water to get the green gone...
 
So I just had a read of the link chilliman64 provided.

Does this pic show phos deficiency? See the purple bits on the stem or is that normal for a cayenne plant.

cayenne.jpg


I have already been spraying the leaves with a epsom salt solution from day one so I would think the mag levels should be okay.

As you can see I do have peppers forming but for every pepper growing I've lost 2-3.


Seeing that I have my plants in pots should I be using fertilizer? I've read that they will grow okay without and that if I add too much I'll create more problemss. How true is that?

Here's a pic of my Bih it's just doubled in size in under a week so I'm hoping it's going to take off. Will it have enough time to actually fruit and seeing that it's a new plant will it produce much this year (in theory). This plants in the bucket thats a bit on the wet/green side. Do you think thats why the leaves aare a bit ugly?

bihjolokia.jpg
 
Hey God long time,

The orange hab is in the smallest pot and now the plant is by far the biggest. Would it be too late too transfer it over to a larger pot. It already has flowers all over the plant.
 
Timmmy newbie said:
...Does this pic show phos deficiency? See the purple bits on the stem or is that normal for a cayenne plant.

I have already been spraying the leaves with a epsom salt solution from day one so I would think the mag levels should be okay.

Seeing that I have my plants in pots should I be using fertilizer? I've read that they will grow okay without and that if I add too much I'll create more problemss. How true is that?

Here's a pic of my Bih it's just doubled in size in under a week so I'm hoping it's going to take off. Will it have enough time to actually fruit and seeing that it's a new plant will it produce much this year (in theory). This plants in the bucket thats a bit on the wet/green side. Do you think thats why the leaves aare a bit ugly?
Click to expand...

Timmmy newbie said:
Hey God long time,

The orange hab is in the smallest pot and now the plant is by far the biggest. Would it be too late too transfer it over to a larger pot. It already has flowers all over the plant.
Click to expand...

* I don't think your plants show any signs of deficiencies
* the discolouration where stems/branches/leaves meet is normal
* don't overdo it with the Epsom Salts, you can burn the plant with too much (I know I have), once a week or better yet fortnightly should do the trick
* you can use a tomato fert but less is better than more, better to compost and mulch with an occasional weak feed. I grow in pots and prefer to use Seasol and Powerfeed fortnightly or less frequently. too much fert is bad for your plants and harder to shift when in containers. you can stunt growth as the roots/leaves burn with too much fert - less is more. if you see signs of burned leaves or stunted growth, stop feeding your plants and flush the pots out with the hose until water is freely passing through the pot and running out the drainage holes.
* your Bih should produce pods this season but they are a late season plant, don't expect to be pulling pods off it before end of Feb. luckily our growing season goes to April or May.
* it should be fine to transplant your Orange Hab, try not to disturb the roots too much and do it on a day when it's not too hot so as not to overly shock the plant. also, water before transplanting
 
Welcome from Ohio. It was wonderful seeing your nice and healthy green plants. Around here all we have at the moment is snow.
 
I will say:

The orange hab has got to be one of my favourites. It is a f***ing machine. I think that it's propensity for growth and production make it commonplace to many pepper freaks, but like the jalapeno, ease of growing and healthy supply do not mean it is unworthy!!

The jalapeno and orange hab are my 2 favourite peppers based solely on flavour.;)

...What was the question???;)
 
wow looking at the bom.gov.au site and it looks like a big storms about to hit.

Thx for all of the answers chilliman!!!

I have a 4-stage RO unit for my saltwater tank. Would the filtered water be useful at all? Maybe for watering a week or two before harvesting the peppers?

I have some f2 fertilizer along with aquasol that I've used with growing phytoplankton for my fishy tank. I might use it sparingly once every now and then.

I might try transplanting the orange hab next weekend.


Tim
 
Timmy,

Another welcome from a Buckeye (Ohioan). I had a tomato and cucumber plant in hydro that one member commented looked sickly. I added one 500 milligram multi-vitamin and it made a huge difference. Of course, you would have to dissolve it, but it has lots of the micronutrients plants use.

Mike
 
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