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Blossom drop.

N

nwalk9

Growing habaneros ghost and Carolina reapers in 5 gal pots. So far the habaneros have been producing lots of flowers but they keep dropping. Not over or underwatering. I put some cardboard down to help with keeping the soil from getting too hot and moisture retention, along with a shade cloth. Temps occasionally get to 100 degrees. On those days I move them to more shade though. Ive been spraying them occasionally with Epsom salt in water. Is there anything else to do?
 
I always hate the epsom salt addition.  Everyone swears by it, but nobody ever really knows if it's necessary, or not.  I'd suggest that you stop doing that, first and foremost, unless you know for a fact that your plant is suffering from a magnesium deficiency.  Adding more of something for no reason (or reasons unknown) is not a good practice.  Somebody is going to chime in, and flame away, I'm sure.  But I can honestly tell you that I have never in my life sprayed epsom salts on any plants, and I've managed to grow just fine. (better than many epsom enthusiasts that I know, btw)  So I know that it's not essential.  I'd suggest starting right there.  Especially if you're repeatedly adding it, and you're not getting rain.
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Probably, your blossom drop is temperature related.  That's really hot.  BUT... I'm really surprised if it's dropping all of the flowers.
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What color are your 5 gallon pots, by chance?  Are they sleeved or insulated, in some way?
 
I have seen flower drop earlier in the season, but eventually it catches.  Rains and temps obviously effect this.  I can just tell you from my own experience that there was a lot of flower drop in the early-mid season last year.  With the heavier rains in our region, I am seeing more leaf drop, and less flowering, but I expect that to be the case.  I hate moving pots back and forth to avoid soaking rain events, but don't have an option right now.
 
Humidity, temps specific nutrient availability, pH and several other conditions may directly and indirectly be responsible for blossom drop.
 
CAPCOM said:
Humidity, temps specific nutrient availability, pH and several other conditions may directly and indirectly be responsible for blossom drop.
Click to expand...
 

Or chilis are just a bunch of assholes and too much grower's love too. :P
 
Ca. and Mag. are used by the same receptors in a plant.
If either is used heavily it blocks the other...
 
I like witches brew - Disolve Dolomite lime in Vinegar,
It adds both nutes.
Add brew to water and it has seemed to be aq pretty good balance of both.
 
 
 
Let me know when you find the answer because outside of using a shade cloth and cooler temps (especially at night) im baffled. ATM i only have minor flower loss on my bonnets and several pods already. Virtually no loss on my ghost and annuums. My bonnet last year dropped flowers like mad after setting several really nice pods before it got hot. Once the temps climbed the only thing that helped was more shade. Plant looked great it just wouldnt keep it flowers in the heat.
 
My milder chinenses dont seem to mind the heat at all. Last years Beni Highlands cranked out pods the entire season and this year the Aji Arnaucho has lots of flowers with a few pods already. No sign at all of flower loss. My nearly no heat chinenses are just starting to flower so im not sure about them yet. They seem fine atm.
 
I had a orange hab one year that sat out in the blistering heat, drooped every single day before watering and the thing was loaded with pods. Hottest damn orange habs ive ever had too.
 
smokemaster said:
Ca. and Mag. are used by the same receptors in a plant.
If either is used heavily it blocks the other...
 
I like witches brew - Disolve Dolomite lime in Vinegar,
It adds both nutes.
Add brew to water and it has seemed to be aq pretty good balance of both.
Click to expand...
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Hi Mike, how ya feelin'? Always nice ta see ya posting! (Every day above ground better that the alternative, right?)

For those of you unfamiliar with this garden supplement, it's been around and analyzed for years> smokemaster's witches brew revisted, as seen by a nerd, and I've used it to help with leaf curl...
 
And it helped....
 
`
 
make your plant resistance to stress and uptake Ca faster  -->  give your plant L-amino acid.
 
 
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.
 
 
I have three Cayenne plants, started on the same day from seed, some time in February. One of them is considerably bigger then the other two and is producing like mad at the moment. The other two are slightly smaller but good looking plants and I decided to top one and leave the other (more than 2 months ago) just for shits and giggles and lo and behold, the untopped one dropped all the buds and currently has none while other two are doing OK and better than that. Funny thing is that they all get the same amount of everything (light, feed, water) as they live next to one another:
 
trio.jpg

 
One in the middle is one that dropped all the flowers. They are in 12L pots, same growing medium.
 
I'm not concerned at all, I just finding it interesting and I thought I'd share it here.
 
Its bloody hot here in Sac Town, and we recently had our temps jump from spring to summer-like weather. You need to do what you can to help the plant deal with our heat. I used to grow in 5-6 gallon buckets. I used to manually water. Never had much success. Now for pots I do a minimum of 7 gallon white containers (smaller for Annuums) and have them on drip. They do much better. Once I added 40% shade cloth to the ones in full-sun locations, production was significantly better. 
 
You mentioned shade cloth, so that's great. Are the containers black perchance?
 
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