Brand New Pods Dropping?

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Illsstep

Hello,

I've been growing some jalapeños indoors under lights, and it has been going well so far. But in the past few days, the flowers/new pods on one of the plants have been yellowing slightly and then dropping off the plant, stem and all, if the plant is jostled even a tiny bit.

Daytime temperatures are steady around 73°.

Nighttime temperatures are similarly steady around 68°.

Relative humidity is kept between 60% and 70%.

Light intensity is quite high, at 30+ DLI from 16 hours/day under a ceramic metal halide.

The plant in question also has a couple other pods that are doing perfectly fine.

The plant itself has good color, and is not showing any signs of distress that I can see. It is flowering plentifully.

And there is another jalapeño of the exact same type and size growing next to it under the exact same conditions that has not dropped any flowers/new pods.

Picture of what dropped:

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With the flower petals removed (it looks like it had pollinated and a pod was starting to grow) :

RlV1BqM.jpg


And a picture of the plant showing one of the healthy pods:

wEu40FF.jpg


Any ideas?
 
Maybe it isn't strong enough to support more pods than what you have on, at the moment.  It's not uncommon for plants to spontaneously abort fruit.
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Clearly, some of the dropped flowers were pollinated.  Maybe some were not, and that's the reason they fell.  But as long as you are getting some pods, and see no serious signs of deficiencies, I wouldn't worry too much.  Nobody gets 100% pod rates on their plants. 
 
The black areas on the flowers/pod starts that dropped are an indication of a problem. Tell us about your feeding and watering and also if you have a fan on the plants.
 
I have an oscillating fan on the plants, as well as good air exchange between the growing enclosure and the rest of the room.

They are kept well watered, and are growing in a very coarse mixture that drains quickly and holds a very low perched water table. It is about 80% bark, and I added lime when I mixed the soil and then let it sit for several weeks before using it.

Fertilization is with Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, 2 tsps per gallon of water, each time I water (about twice a week). I add a little bit of white vinegar to the mix to lower the pH of the fertilization water. Perhaps too much nitrogen? The fertilizer is more than what I usually use with this soil mixture (it contains no slow-release fertilizers, or any other fertilizers) - I usually use 1.5 tsps per gallon. But the bags of bark I got that went into this soil mixture had more sapwood than usual, and the slight yellowing I was seeing on the plants' leaves suggested to me that I was dealing with a certain amount of nitrogen lockout due to the increased sapwood, so I upped the fertilizer a bit.
 
How do you know what the perched water table of your media is?  Did you you saturation test it?
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Point being, if you assume that it has a low PWT, you may be making an error of judgement with watering.
 
Possible, of course. I have not done a saturation test, but instead built a soilless mixture as directed by someone that has gone to great efforts to educate other growers about the problem of perched water tables in containers. It is supposed to be extremely forgiving when it comes to overwatering, and it is supposed to support a fairly low perched water table. I am taking him on his word so far.

However, for relatively recent transplants into their current 5-gallon containers from 1/4 gallon containers, I suspect that such a heavily bark-based mix is not likely to support a high enough perched water table to be giving these plants issues at this point.
 
Illsstep said:
Possible, of course. I have not done a saturation test, but instead built a soilless mixture as directed by someone that has gone to great efforts to educate other growers about the problem of perched water tables in containers. It is supposed to be extremely forgiving when it comes to overwatering, and it is supposed to support a fairly low perched water table. I am taking him on his word so far.

However, for relatively recent transplants into their current 5-gallon containers from 1/4 gallon containers, I suspect that such a heavily bark-based mix is not likely to support a high enough perched water table to be giving these plants issues at this point.
Click to expand...
 
That would be Al's 5-1-1 mix.  The mix does, indeed, have a low PWT.  However, that means it needs lots of waterings, and more feedings.
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If you had a lot of wood in your pine bark, then that could definitely be a problem.  But honestly, I don't see your plants being in any real trouble.   The issue with the nitrogen robbing will work itself out, eventually.  However, my advice would be to not supplement inorganic sources of nitrogen, to compensate for what's being used to compost the cellulose.  Instead, use an organic nitrogen source.  Worm castings, fish emulsion, etc.  You don't want salt build-ups.  Alaska fish 5-1-1 would be perfect for you right now.
 
If I am watering such that 20% or so drains out each time, as Al (indeed) suggested, won't that be enough to flush any salt buildup from the soil? Will that make inorganic N supplementation workable?
 
Illsstep said:
If I am watering such that 20% or so drains out each time, as Al (indeed) suggested, won't that be enough to flush any salt buildup from the soil? Will that make inorganic N supplementation workable?
Click to expand...
 
As long as you are aware of it, then yes, it probably will.
 
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.
 
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