how long does it take for peppers to start taking shape once the flowering process begins? i hand pollinated all flowers about a week ago and am now anxiously awaiting signs of peppers...any idea of how long it may take? plant is a mature, over-wintered bhut jolokia......thanks for any feedback!
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flowering to fruit?
- Thread starter jimhaleii
- Start date
Watch for the flowers to start to discolor and wilt...then the petals will drop leaving a baby pepper if they took. First flowers are a little finicky and aren't always successful. If the stems begin to thicken around the time the flowers begin to discolor that is a good sign. About a week seems right to me...should be real soon.
Also look around the plant and remove any that have yellowing stems. They should drop off easy. Thin yellow stems are a sure sign they didn't take. If you remove the bad ones you may boost your chances on the others.
Also look around the plant and remove any that have yellowing stems. They should drop off easy. Thin yellow stems are a sure sign they didn't take. If you remove the bad ones you may boost your chances on the others.
wow.....I really don't want to be harsh, and I know this will not be received well because I don't post here often, but really maybe you need to walk away from the plant for awhile. Chile plants have been being chile plants for a long, long, long time. They are really good at it, they pretty much know what to do, no matter almost any habitat supplied. You do not need to pay this much attention to a chile plant. If the flower didn't flat out fall off, if it dried up on the stem, then chances are really good it pollinated fine.
be patient
k
be patient
k
Don't knock his spirits bro. He didnt ask for your criticsm. Watching plants closely is important. Especially if he is new to growing. Things can happen fast. He just wants to make sure he is doing everything right. You're right, I didn't recieve it well because it is a negitive comment. I think if you use a little tact, you won't have to remark on the fact that of it being well recieved. Even seasoned growers check on their plants with an excited impatience.....maybe you should try it out.
Yeah because so many peppers occur naturally in Chattanooga! So by your rational we should just throw some seeds out in the fall helter skelter as if a bird crapped 'em out and then come back in June to harvest what has sprung? Good luck with that! Unless you are talking about the extreme Southwest of the US Chiles do not occur naturally nor will they survive on their own for too long. Most of the peppers we grow are the furthest thing from anything that occurs in the wild. I will agree that pepper plants are low maintenence, but some attention and care is required to grow them in an unnatural setting. I would be willing to bet the most of the folks on this site are into peppers for the whole process not just the end result. I personally enjoy the growing and gardening as much as (or maybe more than) the harvest.
Without hand pollination and special care the seed racks and online seed stores would be a very boring place. If someone wants an early start and good pollination rates and production indoors under lights or in a window (farthest thing from natural) hand pollination and some selective pinching of buds/pods is the best method even if you have good air circulation. I agree with the being patient comment you made, but the rest could have been left out. It would have been more suited to a post that had to do with overwatering or overfertilizing...but not hand pollinating and how long it takes peppers to form.
I disagree- I think new growers need to realize that mother nature knows best and it's OK to sit back and watch sometimes. No-one is more guilty of over-fussing with plants. New growers are keen , maybe overly so, or are those days so far away to remember?? I think the advice was meant in a humorous way.
I started growing stuff in around '81...ish. So they're pretty far back there, but if I couldn't remember the feeling I had as a young boy out in my own garden growing things in the soil, waiting for seeds to pop and first fruits to form, helping my grandfathers in their two drastically different gardens, or the pure enjoyment of watching my family consume a meal prepared with only the fruits and vegetables I had produced, I would no longer be gardening. I still get that excitement, and I challenge any gardener that claims they don't feel the same way. Every one of us has anxiously awaited our first fruit of the season and checked on them often. There is absolutely no harm in checking for germination, pollination or fruit set like there is in over watering or over fertilizing. We aren't talking about over caring for anything. If we're excited and anxious it is because we're human and passionate about what we're doing, and in this case there is absolutely no harm in it!
When a post begins with "I don't want to be harsh...but" it was meant that way.
I'm chill Bootsie...been watchin' you for a while with your great givaways. I can always agree to disagree. We had a few acres in South Texas. Most of my early peppers were Jalapeno, Cayenne and Bell peppers and we had several wild Pequins around the property. ...I turned my garden with a shovel and then raked it out by hand. I was only 11 and the bigger I made the garden, the less I had to mow.
Enough off topic stuff...you got a pod yet Jim??? Fingers crossed over here. Post a pic when you get one to set!
Shane
3/5king....I'll be as tactless as I like. I'll tell you what, next time I won't apologize for it ahead of time, I promise.
stc3258......There is alot of room between not obsessing over your plants and "just throwing some seeds in the ground....blah,blah,blah". Of course, you have to pay some attention to your plants, but I think it is the same kind of issue as overwatering or overfertilizing. Too much is no good.
Without hand pollination and special care the seed racks and online seed stores would be a very boring place..... FALSE, online seed stores do not require hand pollination or special care to obtain excellent seed choices, especially with pepper seeds.
It is a classic newbie mistake to overbaby/obsess over the plants. It is the BIGGEST mistake they make and holding their hands and catering to this doesn't help the newbie nor the plants. At some point, someone has to tell them to just stop and let the pepper do its thing.
Peppers are easy plants to grow, its not like they are delicate orchids with high demands.
I am excited over my garden as the next gardener and I love to see that first pod form on a new plant. I spend all winter planning and looking forward to seed starting and I pay plenty of attention to my plants, but I also know that they are not going to perform on MY schedule and that too much attention can be just as damaging as too little.
k
stc3258......There is alot of room between not obsessing over your plants and "just throwing some seeds in the ground....blah,blah,blah". Of course, you have to pay some attention to your plants, but I think it is the same kind of issue as overwatering or overfertilizing. Too much is no good.
Without hand pollination and special care the seed racks and online seed stores would be a very boring place..... FALSE, online seed stores do not require hand pollination or special care to obtain excellent seed choices, especially with pepper seeds.
It is a classic newbie mistake to overbaby/obsess over the plants. It is the BIGGEST mistake they make and holding their hands and catering to this doesn't help the newbie nor the plants. At some point, someone has to tell them to just stop and let the pepper do its thing.
Peppers are easy plants to grow, its not like they are delicate orchids with high demands.
I am excited over my garden as the next gardener and I love to see that first pod form on a new plant. I spend all winter planning and looking forward to seed starting and I pay plenty of attention to my plants, but I also know that they are not going to perform on MY schedule and that too much attention can be just as damaging as too little.
k
Well, we can see that Ardnek710. The fact that you knew that you were going to say something tactless by in turn apologizing for it before hand, doesn't mean squat. It doesn't make it okay. Let me tell someone "I'm sorry but I am about to say something to you that I could say a thousand different ways but I will just apologize first so as to make offending you all right. How does that sound to you? Oh you don't like that? Well, now I'm going to do it AND not apologize for it 
".
"how long does it take for peppers to start taking shape once the flowering process begins? i hand pollinated all flowers about a week ago and am now anxiously awaiting signs of peppers...any idea of how long it may take? plant is a mature, over-wintered bhut jolokia......thanks for any feedback!"
He didn't ask anywhere above for what you think he should do, or how you think he should do it. He asked a simple question and you decided that you didn't like how much attention he was paying to his plant and that you were going to let him know. You also knew you were going to be callus about it as well. Take a little time to gather your words and say them respectfully and without judgment.
No one needs tell anyone how to grow or take care of their plants, unless they ask of course....nothing you said, had anything to do with his question. If anything, it is best to let them over love their plants, so they can see first hand when too much is too much.
". "how long does it take for peppers to start taking shape once the flowering process begins? i hand pollinated all flowers about a week ago and am now anxiously awaiting signs of peppers...any idea of how long it may take? plant is a mature, over-wintered bhut jolokia......thanks for any feedback!"
He didn't ask anywhere above for what you think he should do, or how you think he should do it. He asked a simple question and you decided that you didn't like how much attention he was paying to his plant and that you were going to let him know. You also knew you were going to be callus about it as well. Take a little time to gather your words and say them respectfully and without judgment.
No one needs tell anyone how to grow or take care of their plants, unless they ask of course....nothing you said, had anything to do with his question. If anything, it is best to let them over love their plants, so they can see first hand when too much is too much.
False huh??? My point (which you mistook of course) was how many of the thousands of varieties of peppers available today occur naturally? Without creating crosses, or selective breeding the answer is very few. There are some great wild peppers, of which I am growing several....but all the classics most of us grow each year are mutations and hybridized peppers created by in some cases thousands of years of (drum roll please) HAND POLLINATING!!! I was in no way suggesting that any of the big seed/pepper producers hand pollinate each and every plant they grow out...but they DO hand pollinate the crosses which create plants with desired traits. Even in the case of a mutation that occurred naturally without selectively breeding the mutated plant for several generations the mutation would eventually revert back to the original traits and be lost.