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seeds Small fruits with few / no seeds

MrChilli

MrChilli

Hi all,

I grow a variety of chillies, and am in flowering / fruiting season currently. I recently picked a Chocolate Hab, which was brown but quite small. Inside it smells normal, but not one seed..! I've been trying all sorts to aid nutrients, and recently re-potted a fair few plants in a 50/50 potting soil / mushroom compost mix - in order to try and lower the Ph a bit. I add coffee grounds to the soil, as well as frequent use of Seagro - a fish emulsion fertilizer which apparently you cannot overdose plants on. I apply this via foliar spray as well as a little fertigation via drippers.

I've also tried using "acid loving plant food", a powder that can be applied to the base of the plants, as well as epsom salts. Strangely though some of my plants have huge fruits on them, especially my pepperdew's. I also note some leaves are paler in colour, and some plants have a bit of leaf curl. The hotter chillies also have quite a bit of blossom drop. I recently also noticed whitefly and have sprayed with Neem oil.

Varieties that seem to be struggling;

Habanero's (choc, white, orange)
Trinidad Scorpion
Trinidad 7-pot (only 2 fruits have set but many flowers)

Average temp - 25-30 degrees, average sun 12 hours per day

Any advice appreciated, and happy to post pics if required.

thanks.
 
this recently happenΘd to me last year... i got 2 habañero plants, and one just gave me tiny fruits that fell off and didn't do anything else... after a while, it just died off... the second plant from the same store is thriving... dunno what happened... maybe something was in the container... or a defect in the seed/plant itself...?
 
I have found that they always go way better the second season. Your plants are still 1st year juveniles :dance: Also..you can gets runts in the chillie litters
 
Update. The choc hab is 3rd season. I got some nice fruits last year with plenty of seeds, so it's definately not that. The 7 pot and scorpions are 2nd year, but I got really small fruits last year. I'm sure it's a feeding / nutrient issue. just need to know perfect balance for decent sized fruits.
 
Hi MrChilli,

I'm in SA as well and have been looking for new things like 7 pots and scorpions. Please let me know if you'd be willing to part with some seeds. :halo:

I also have a lot of plants growing and would be glad to trade some seeds.

With your symptoms. Have you checked the soil to see if they're not showing any signs of root rot?

Cheers,
Andrew.
 
I had a similar case last summer and it was I was paying my plants too much attention. I gave up all the nutrients and just used fish emulsion and epsom salts. When I did the plants did better however it was too late in the Canadian summer for anything to be really done.
 
Hi Spuds,

Head on over to www.mrchilli.co.za to see what I have. I don't swap seeds as I sell them, and need to ensure that what I sell is 100% accurate, but I may dissapoint a lot of my customers if I can't get a decent harvest this year. I have a few imported scorpion butch T that i've posted on bidorbuy also.

It could well be that I'm trying too hard, as my pepperdew plant is about 3ft high and has fruits almost as big as my hand. And I really don't give it anything!

I did add some bone meal to a few sample plants yesterday, and will monitor over the next week to see if this helps. I read that peppers feed aggressively and so can deplete nutrients very quickly.
 
Thank you sir!

I've also learned to not pay too much attention to the plants. With all the rain recently, I haven't watered in close on 3 weeks, and the plants are doing exceptionally well.
 
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