San Francisco - East Bay - Walnut Creek Growers

Squidracing · Dec 27, 2014

Hi All -

I'm trying to better understand the reasons behind the outcome of this past seasons dismal crop.

I had three of each of the following - Carolina Reaper, Ghost and, Butch T. In the end my Carolina reaper's grew to about 8 inches tall yielding a total of 10 flowers with no fruit. Only one of my Butch T produced fruit, five pods in total, the other two nothing. I got a total of two pods off of my three ghost plants with all coming on one plant.

Other then the Carolina Reapers, I would estimate that I had approximately 100 flowers per plant.

I had all the various foods on a regular basis, the plants were beautiful and healthy, no worries on that side of the equation. I'm trying to understand if it is a climate issue as there is very low humidity with big temperature differences between day and evening.

To my fellow East Bay growers, what have your experiences been like?

hogleg · Dec 27, 2014

Firstly its not your climate. Most growers at THP would be jealous of the length of our season and climate in the bay area. Gonna need a lot more info about your grow, to get some ideas whats slowing your crop down. Starting date? in ground or pots? and if so what size? what are the numbers on the various foods? did they have calcium? or was any calcium added?

Just a wild guess. but I wonder if they were getting to much Nitrogen during flowering?

Geonerd · Dec 27, 2014

Yea, we need more info. Do you have any pictures of the plants and their environment?

There are a number of possibilities that may or may not have something to do with your plants.
Root bound?
Phosphorus deficiency? (Can cause stunted growth.)
Sitting in the shade all day? (Light = pepper food, and soil temperature is just as important!)
Or ???

Squidracing · Dec 27, 2014

hogleg said:
Firstly its not your climate. Most growers at THP would be jealous of the length of our season and climate in the bay area. Gonna need a lot more info about your grow, to get some ideas whats slowing your crop down. Starting date? in ground or pots? and if so what size? what are the numbers on the various foods? did they have calcium? or was any calcium added?

Just a wild guess. but I wonder if they were getting to much Nitrogen during flowering?

Hi hogleg - Good questions. I started late March, in ground and the Butch T and Ghost did really well. The Reapers, not so much.

I spoke with Ed Curry who suggested a feeding regiment that I followed, using it for all three peppers. In no particular order - Growers Secret liquid worm castings, General Hydroponics FloraGro 2-1-6, Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus 2-0-0, Growmore Kelp Meal 0-0-1.5, Liquinox Fish Fertilizer 5-1-1. I should mention that I rotated the feedings to once a week with a mixture of 2 ingredients per feeding. typical ratio was 5-10ml/gallon.

More info found below in my response to Geonerd, thanks!

Geonerd said:
Yea, we need more info. Do you have any pictures of the plants and their environment?

There are a number of possibilities that may or may not have something to do with your plants.
Root bound?
Phosphorus deficiency? (Can cause stunted growth.)
Sitting in the shade all day? (Light = pepper food, and soil temperature is just as important!)
Or ???

Hi Geonerd - Great questions, answers as follow:
I have pictures but can't upload them as I'm not a paying member. I can say that they were very healthy looking plants. They were watered as they started to wilt with no over watering in the equation. They are not root bound as they're in-ground and have been provided with ample room for their roots to spread. They have strong sun between 9:00am - 2:00 to 3:00pm and then are shaded for the rest of the day.

I produced an amazing amount of flowers, truly amazing. The problem is that almost every one of them, literally, fell off and didn't produce pods.

The one Butch T that did produce, only produced one pod per branch, no more. They're still doing well in the ground and as long as we stay in the mid-30's overnight I think I'll be able to make it through the winter. While they've dropped many leaves at this point, they're sprouting small leaves as we speak.

I have to say that I have no idea why my Reapers are such runts....no idea what so ever. Ed Curry (who is a fantastic guy) was a bit stumped as well.

You can only imagine how frustrated I am having 9 plants and coming up pretty much empty handed for the season.

Thoughts?

Squidracing · Dec 28, 2014

I should mention that I get minimal breeze near my plants. Seeing how they're supposed to be self pollinating, I'd be surprised if that's a pollination related issue.

hogleg · Dec 28, 2014

Your regimen sounds pretty good. Your start may have been a little late. I like to start supers no later than Feb.1st indoors. I would lay off the liquinox at the onset of flowers. Consider switching to something more conducive to flowering (more P and K) with less nitrogen. Be sure to keep the cal-mag in the rotation, that should help pods set. More of the hot afternoon sun could help if thats possible. Its not much but I hope this helps.

salsalady · Dec 28, 2014

Hi squidracing-
I can't help with the growing issues, but there's some good info HERE about posting pictures. You don't have to be a paid member, it's just easier for paid members to upload directly into their posts. Basic members can post pictures by using picture hosting site like photobucket or flickr. Upload the pics to that site then copy the code, paste the code into your post on THP, pictures will show up in post.

Good Luck with your growing!

Squidracing · Dec 28, 2014

hogleg said:
Your regimen sounds pretty good. Your start may have been a little late. I like to start supers no later than Feb.1st indoors. I would lay off the liquinox at the onset of flowers. Consider switching to something more conducive to flowering (more P and K) with less nitrogen. Be sure to keep the cal-mag in the rotation, that should help pods set. More of the hot afternoon sun could help if thats possible. Its not much but I hope this helps.

Hi hogleg - thanks for your feedback. I should have been more accurate with my response by saying my Ghost and Butch T will both 8 inch tall when I initially planted them in March.

The question I have to the local community is, who locally has had strong success in producing pods??

Thanks!!

THECHRISE · Jan 4, 2015

I'll let you know this upcoming season. As, you know our season ended this week... for outdoor peppers. The hot summers really delayed any fruit on my rocoto plants. They didn't start producing until mid-September (started in March) and not all ripened, so I had a ton of greens that I pulled.

Squidracing · Jan 6, 2015

THECHRISE said:
I'll let you know this upcoming season. As, you know our season ended this week... for outdoor peppers. The hot summers really delayed any fruit on my rocoto plants. They didn't start producing until mid-September (started in March) and not all ripened, so I had a ton of greens that I pulled.

Hi THECHRISE - Well color me jealous, at least you produced fruit!! That single variable (getting pods) is what I'm at a complete loss as to why I had the pathetic flower to fruit ratio I did. I'm trying to get feedback on superhot flower to fruit ratio from growers who are within a zip code or so from me. Did you try any superhots or is that what you're aiming for this upcoming season?

Thanks!

THECHRISE · Jan 6, 2015

Squidracing said:
Hi THECHRISE - Well color me jealous, at least you produced fruit!! That single variable (getting pods) is what I'm at a complete loss as to why I had the pathetic flower to fruit ratio I did. I'm trying to get feedback on superhot flower to fruit ratio from growers who are within a zip code or so from me. Did you try any superhots or is that what you're aiming for this upcoming season?

Thanks!

I am starting superhots (OK, I am not completely sure what qualifies), but I have some scorpions growing now indoors. I am trying to germinate others, but so far I only have scorpions and I do see flowers developing. I used to live in Clayton and never had problems growing habaneros, aji's and rocotos. I am closer to WC currently, and all my first flowers of the rocotos (last season) always dropped but it kicked ass after the temps dropped < 80 - 85.
I wish I could just upload pictures right off my phone or PC...

HurtsGood · Jan 18, 2015

I dont kow if this helps but I`m in concord. my glog below.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/44789-hurtsgood-growing-voyage-2014/

Squidracing · Jan 19, 2015

HurtsGood said:
I dont kow if this helps but I`m in concord. my glog below.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/44789-hurtsgood-growing-voyage-2014/

Hi HurtsGood - Thanks so much for your comment and link to your glog. Your success confirms to me that it's not the daily temperature swings, or humidity (lack thereof) that many mention as being a possible reason for flowers falling off. I'm at a loss for my failure to product pods, and I'm not sure if I'm going to put in the effort again. I'll keep an eye out for your work this year, seems like you have the magic touch!!