During our heat wave here in Arkansas my habaneros were suffering from a 100% blossom drop. Now, since it's has cooled down they are now loaded with pods. But I am still noticing about a 10% blossom drop. Is this 10% blossom drop normal or do you think that my plants are still recovering?
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Blossom drop
- Thread starter Habanero Fellow
- Start date
normal, things happen
Yeah, sounds about the right margin to me. There are many factors affecting blossom drop. I noticed that when it was really hot and humid, blossom drop went up a little bit. Chinense tend to favor more humidity, so it wasn't as bad with those. However, when the soil was too damp, the Chinense suffered the most. I live in a part of the USA that gets a good amount of rain, but not a ludicrous amount, and has nice hot and humid summers. It was in the upper-80s to mid-90s almost all summer, so I had perfect weather. Had to supplement dry spells with collected rainwater, or garden hose when I didn't have any. In any case, there will always be a certain amount of blossom drop no matter how good the soil/rainfall/temperature is. The plant puts out flowers in response to the climate, and sometimes can't support them all past a certain point of development, which is of course affected by soil composition, as well as root size compared to total plant size.
My plants are doing well, about the same amount of drop as yours.
My neighbor hasn't been so lucky. Big, green, beautiful plants, but hasn't seen a pot other than a banana or jalapeno all summer. has about 30 assorted plants (scotch bonnets, bhuts, Scorpions), and to date he said he's seen 1 flower on one plant, and it dropped. I dont' know what to tell him to fix him, except maybe stay away from the MG Moisture Control next year
My neighbor hasn't been so lucky. Big, green, beautiful plants, but hasn't seen a pot other than a banana or jalapeno all summer. has about 30 assorted plants (scotch bonnets, bhuts, Scorpions), and to date he said he's seen 1 flower on one plant, and it dropped. I dont' know what to tell him to fix him, except maybe stay away from the MG Moisture Control next year
Probably giving high N to a soil that already has nutrients in it.
He swears up and down that he hasn't fertilized them since June and that was with a 1/4 diluted fish emulsion. I don't know if he's lying or what. He doesn't get a TON of sun in his backyard, so I think it could be that along with too much nitrogen. I just don't know what to tell him to fix it. I have the same light conditions to work with and my plants are producing pretty well.
That does sound like his plants are getting too much nitrogen. My plant's main fertilizer is worm castings from worms that are fed rabbit manure. So I think that they are getting a great balance of nutes. Just fed my habs a couple of gallons of castings this morning. I usually mix the castings into the top soil around the peppers, water down and cover with grass clippings. I hope that the supers next year love this treatment as much as the habs do.
Plants are going to force fruit even if the conditions aren't perfect. They want to make viable seed,no matter how hard we make it for them. I left a bhut in a 3" pot and never fertilized it. It is 9 months old and only about 10" tall,but it has fruit hanging on it.
Now that's a tough plant. Earlier this year we had a severe hail storm. It literally ripped most of the leaves off of all my plants. The ground under my plants was littered with green. It looked like a green carpet. The tomatoes really never recovered. But the pepper recovered and are still going strong.
I'm doubting his problem is too much nitrogen, maybe not enough since the plants were only given 1/4 strength fish emulsion back in June. I'm giving mine 10-10-10 on a regular basis and had very little bloom drop this year despite record high temps and a drought. Fewer hours of sun will stunt a plant in size but it won't reduce the number of blooms at any given point in the year (all else being equal, with a smaller plant generally producing fewer blooms).