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If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.
Urgent help needed!
- Thread starter XCI
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this is normal - looks like you have some fruit set already. My thoughts on this are that the plant has an idea how many fruits it can sustain both by weight of branches and nutrients, and once that many have set, it aborts the rest.
I always assumed you can increase this by balancing nutrients better and possibly water but...if you're getting fruits, dont worry about it. The plant will grow some and more fruits will come.
Also be sure to hand pollinate flowers or this happens too.
I always assumed you can increase this by balancing nutrients better and possibly water but...if you're getting fruits, dont worry about it. The plant will grow some and more fruits will come.
Also be sure to hand pollinate flowers or this happens too.
I water every time they wilt with 1L of water per plant, they are in 15L pots, I feed them once a week on a sunny day with Chilli Focus, my plants aren't yellow so don't think it's overfeeding.
I have hand pollinated them all now though, I have one 7 Pot Primo pod and one Reaper starting to form.
I have hand pollinated them all now though, I have one 7 Pot Primo pod and one Reaper starting to form.
I wouldn't worry. I have a young bell pepper plant that had maybe 50 buds on it. When 3 of them set pods first and grew, all the others fell off. Just the plants way of saying this is how much I can handle right now.
Just to add also, you can see how healthy and green your plant is and the only thing yellowing is the flower and stem it came from. Just my 2 pennies
Just to add also, you can see how healthy and green your plant is and the only thing yellowing is the flower and stem it came from. Just my 2 pennies
geeme said:
1. It's about 80F here during the day
2. About 57F at night
3. I use Chilli Focus once a week but last week I used it twice, was this it?
4. I water whenever my plants start to wilt, I use 15L pots and water with 1L of water
5. They are outside in the light all day
6. Not much rain but water them regular
7. Nope, they are outside in a side area with air circulation
8. Maybe, I have started to hand pollinate now, before I was just shaking them
9. 15L pots
10. I just use tapwater, never did any harm before
11. Probably, hehe.
The only reason I can think of is the fact that I fed with Chilli Focus last week twice and that there was a storm where it rained so maybe overwatered? but the leaves are green, none are even a hint of yellow.
Based on your answers, assuming your tap water isn't throwing the pH off too much, I'm also leaning towards too much nitrogen.
Chiles are rather efficient self-pollinators (assuming the pollen is not sterile), so shaking them a tad each day is actually sufficient for pollination to occur. Wind and insects do that naturally, but they're not 100% required if you're shaking the plants.
I'd highly recommend you check the pH of your tap water and soil.
Regarding your watering, that could also be an issue. The best way to water potted plants outside is to thoroughly drench them - let the water run until it's freely running out of the drain holes before moving on (and also ensuring it's actually soaking in and not just going down between the soil and the side of the pot.) This way you ensure the soil is truly moistened all the way through. With simply dumping 1L of water into 15L pots, the soil can still end up with very dry areas, leaving the plant in need more than you realize. Try soaking the soil more thoroughly, as well as checking pH and limiting nitrogen for a while, and see if the plants aren't a bit happier after that.
Chiles are rather efficient self-pollinators (assuming the pollen is not sterile), so shaking them a tad each day is actually sufficient for pollination to occur. Wind and insects do that naturally, but they're not 100% required if you're shaking the plants.
I'd highly recommend you check the pH of your tap water and soil.
Regarding your watering, that could also be an issue. The best way to water potted plants outside is to thoroughly drench them - let the water run until it's freely running out of the drain holes before moving on (and also ensuring it's actually soaking in and not just going down between the soil and the side of the pot.) This way you ensure the soil is truly moistened all the way through. With simply dumping 1L of water into 15L pots, the soil can still end up with very dry areas, leaving the plant in need more than you realize. Try soaking the soil more thoroughly, as well as checking pH and limiting nitrogen for a while, and see if the plants aren't a bit happier after that.
geeme said:
Thanks for the help, when I water them I try to make sure it's soaking and it drains through the holes at the bottom, I will make sure I feed once a week, the reason for hand pollination was that I have one pod on my 7 Pot Primo for a long time and no others have formed, only flowers, but now my Reaper is growing a pod, I will try to be patient, thanks for the lengthy reply.
I may have missed it but do you shake your plants? Yeah I know it sounds stupid but this was happening to me as well. Since peppers are like tomatoes, and I shake the hell out of my tomatoes to help them pollinate, I started doing the same for the peppers. It worked like a charm and now I have tons of fruits setting. I do still have some blossoms dropping but not a huge issue since I have fruit.
Koreansoul said:
BTW - I read an interesting article a couple years back regarding tomatoe pollination. It would have been from an ag agency or ag department of a university. The gist of the article was that some tomatoes only really pollinate at a certain frequency of vibrations, and this frequency only occurs in certain types of bees in nature. However, most electric toothbrushes have the same frequency, so the article specifically recommended using an electric toothbrush rather than hand-shaking. Have you tried that with your tomatoes? The article did specifically state that peppers don't require this frequency, else I wouldn't have bothered with the article since I wasn't growing tomatoes.
