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Fruit set

L

lostmind

I know I've read about this a bunch on the forum here but my searches aren't really coming up with much.

My plants are flowering a lot but no fruit is growing...

Weather here has been awesome. 28-30c (82-86f) during the day, 16-20c (60-70f) at night. This isn't too hot, right? I saw AJ complaining about his heat causing the plants to not set fruit but I bet he is 10c hotter then here.

I don't fertilise much. The dirt I grow in has a lot of compost & worm castings mixed in. A few weeks before I planted the peppers, I sprayed the area fairly heavily with fish emulsion. When I planted I turned it all over, made sure the soil was loose at 18" down and fertilised with some organic tomato fertiliser granule stuff. Since then I've fed lightly with seaweed/kelp junk 2 or 3 times.

The plants are mostly just insanely bushy, no where near as tall as most plants I see on the forum here. They are so much bushier and wider then last year that my garden is looking a bit cramped now. The plants are at least 2.5'-3' across and maybe 18"-24" high. LOADED with flowers and not many pods.

The chinense varieties are especially doing this. My annums are setting some fruit but not much. They are also taller and skinnier.

Any hints/tips/tricks?

Should I go buy some fertiliser and give them a dose of something? I gave away my miracle grow a while back to a friend... So I have nothing but the fish emulsion and seaweed/kelp junk. I was hoping I didn't need any more fertiliser then what I have. But my growing season isn't as long as some people and I think if I don't get some pods on soon, I won't get many ripe pods this year.

Thanks!
 
BUGS BUGS especially bee types that love pollen it sounds like you not getting any pollination going. Peppers are self pollinating so take your hands and rugh them up a tad or too shake them and tell them produce or you will be compost. Everything else that you are doing sounds okay. But just shake them up a tad and see what happens. Good luck
 
I was thinking the same thing as O-Joe, help them along a little bit. I give mine a foliar feeding with VitaMax, and on occasion Epsom Salts. You don't really need either of these and could just use plain water. Give them a light misting in the early morning with a spray bottle before the sun hits them and you shouldn't have any problems with fruit set. Make sure to mist into the flowers so the pollen gets carried into the flower.
 
Yah, I been giving them a little shake every now and then, and even tried to hand pollinate a bunch using my fingers... but that took forever and was pretty unsuccessful.

I have a big bunch of thyme flowering right now and there are a ton of bee's in the yard most of the day...

Maybe I just have bad luck.
 
How much light are they getting per day? What do the leaves look like? Dark Green? Light Green?

How are the flowers aborting? Getting pinkish with stiff petals? or are the petals wilting and flower stem gets yellow?

Too much heat will cause the first instance, where the flowers are sterile and abort with semi closed petals that are stiff not wilting.

If the stems are yellow and the petals wilted or are already brown and dead, this is probably after the flower has set and was aborted due to lack of water, nutrients, off soil pH, not enough light or mineral buildup in the soil.

Make sure they are getting at least 6 hours of direct sun a day, water deeply (so water comes out the bottom of pots) and infrequently, watering only when they show signs of needing it, like bottom leaves starting to wilt or when the top inch or so of soil is bone dry.

I suggest feeding with a Bloom Fertilizer with micro nutrients, I use Miracle Grow Bloom Booster (15-30-15) which can be sprayed on the leaves and in the soil.

Good luck!
 
Hey Richard,

It's more of this: "the petals wilting and flower stem gets yellow?"

They get sun all day long. I water only when I notice the leaves start to drop, 2-3x a week depending on the heat.

Maybe I need to fertilise then... I should give it a shot.

I'll try a 15-30-15 fertiliser if I can find it...

Thanks!
 
Any news on improvement? I can't get any fruit to grow either. I'm using FF ocean forest and I'm pretty sure they don't need ferts. When I break open a dropped flower there is a tiny bb sized chili. Now I have a puzzle to figure out. I'll increase the sun first. I had to put them under shade because the pots were getting so hot it was hurting the roots, the leaves would show. Now they are big enough and have enough foliage I think I can remove the shade now. Lessee what happens.
 
I live in hot S. California (90-95 in the shade, 110-120 in full sun) and I was getting lots of flowers on my chinense which were then dropping after the stem turning yellow - sounds like the very same situation as you.

After trying everything you have tried, I got some BudSwel 0-7-0 worm casting/bat guano. Within a day or 2 the problem ended and now every flower sets fruit.

BTW, here in the hills it's pretty breezy, so I haven't needed to shake the plants.
 
We get pretty good breezes here as well. I see the plants moving on their own all the time, plus I find the tiny aborted chili's in the flowers so I know they want to make a chili, it's just deciding to drop them for some reason.

I'll check on that fert, thanks SanSoo
 
I am getting some fruits but still about 50% or more flower drop.

Temps are coming down this week and I have finally got myself some 15-30-15 fert... will see soon if it helps (they'll get first dose tomorrow morning!)
 
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