• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Dropped Blossom Question

My MOA Scotch Bonnets are flowering, but they are dropping their blossoms and I have a question. I have never grown pepper so I'd like to know if in this picture is a pepper starting to form. It looks like it to me, but I don't know since I have never done this before.
2018-04-12 00.34.35.jpg
 
Masher said:
Yes...that's a pepper
Thanks. Now I guess I'll have to find out why they are dropping. My guess is low humidity since its still winter here and we use a wood stove for heat. I also read that the first flowers can be a little finicky, but would the first flowers drop even if they're pollinated?
 
Yes they will drop anytime the situation is not conducive to fruit production. Poor environmental conditions is a big one. Too many fruits on one plants can also cause them to abort.
 
There is a list that gets posted about flower drop I'm pretty sure. Too much nitrogen is one. I had a plant set peppers then gave it a few feedings in a row because they were getting just water while I was out of town. After the feedings the small flowers dropped but the peppers and pollinated flowers stuck around. The other time I had a lot of flowers drop it was over 100 out for over a week.
 
Flower drop probable causes:
 
1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F or too high >85F
3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer
4. Too much water
5. Low light levels (reduces fertility).
6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility)
7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to pollination).
8. Lack of pollinating insects.
9. Size of pot
10. Too much mineral in feedwater.
11. Too much grower attention/anxiety.
 
 
Thanks for the list willard3. I was thinking it was low humidity, but I found this....
2018-04-19 13.13.19.jpg

The plant is still dropping more flowers tho. So I have a couple more questions.
 
#1. If one or more of the problems on the list is happening to the plant, could a pod still grow? Or if a single pod is growing all the problems on the list aren't applying to the plant.
 
#2. Could this plant still drop this pepper? Or is it safe now? If the plant doesn't die of course.
 
#3. What should I do now that the plant is fruiting? Water and fertilize more?
 
Hi, I'm a newbie doing my first season, indoors, but I've picked up a few things.
 
Scotch Bonnets are C chinense and they like it tropical, which means high humidity. I had a devil of a time with my two chinese plants during winter here in Sweden. They developed lots of flowers that all dropped. In the end I read https://spicesontheweb.co.uk/chilli-flower-drop-off and got a large humidifier and only then did they start developing pods. Someone here supplied that if their roots have lots more exploring to do they might not be ready to develop pods either. I think both are true since summer temps and higher ambient rhs have rolled around here and my Jolokia plant at least is podding very well.
 
In contrast the two annuum plants I have have dropped about three flowers combined.
 
 
When it got hot here last year and nights were hot too my MOA yellows dropped blooms like mad. STL can get really humid and nights well into the upper 80F range. Some nights even warmer. I probably lost 3/4 of the blooms off one plant. Keeping it more shaded helped some but there is nothing i can do about hot/humid nights. Most of the other varieties thrived and my jalapenos produced great amounts. My orange hab from the year before cranked out the pods even in full sun all day.
 
So just because its a tropical variety doesn't mean that they all love it.
 
Show: That's interesting to hear. Annuums seem less potentially problematic overall : ) The OP's environment doesn't seem so tropical, wood stove and all, but we don't know what the humidity or temperature are yet. 
 
I was baffled mainly because my 7 Pot Yellow grown in the same soil mix and same pot was just fine in full sun all day. I grew 1 late start Caribbean Red that also. It did just fine but it was in a fabric pot. It didnt produce much due to a late start but i didn't see a much of any blooms dropped.
 
All my annuums though went nuts including a bumper crop of Anaheims that tend to like cool nights.
 
Another thing my MOAs hated was the cold. Once it got too cool i got virtually nothing more off the 2 plants. The 7 Pot didnt do well when the night temps dropped either. The few pods i did get very late were tiny.
 
Back
Top