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Buds falling off! please help

2fishminimum

2fishminimum

So i have been growing some Datil peppers. the plants are a year old, and in their second season. I have them in standard potting soil in pots. the plants are really healthy looking. very green with well formed leaves. they have hundreds of flowers on them, but the buds are falling off after "flowering" is done. i might get 5 peppers per 50 flowers if im lucky.. mostly less than that.. oh and the peppers are pretty small too.. they seem to be about half the length of datil peppers i see on the web.. :(

like i said this is the second season ive had these plants.. I planted them april of 2011, and they grew really well over that spring and summer but they did seem to have that same issue, though i lightly "pruned" the plants so its hard to tell how many peppers i would have had.

none of my other peppers are doing this. all of my other plants are healthy, and there are no bugs as of yet in my garden..

i fertalize with standard garden and veggie plant food, but i plan on switching to Milogranite which was reccomended on several datil websites on google..

my irrigation system is a single dripper per plant that flows enough water to keep the plant from wilting but not enough to keep the soil wet.

the plants get 8 hours of sun..ill post some pics tonight if i remember..

any ideas anybody?
 
I've found that some varieties are easire to pollenate than others - the flower shapes differ and peppers/plants from around the world have different shapes to accomodate the different types of pollenating bugs and birds. I'd try hand pollenating the plant in a "control' section, say the entire right hand side of the Datil plant.

I've found two ways to do this:

1. An electric toothbruch without the brush head on it. I just take the little metal shaft on the end and touch it to the base of the flower stem near where it touches the main stem/internode. If the flower falls off when you do this, it was "done" anyway. You'll get a feel for it as you do it.

2. use a wet Q-tip and touch the insides of the flowers. Kinda work it around the inside of the flower. Pollen will stick to the Q-tip and you get it on the all the right parts of the flower (i.e getting the pollen on the pistil)

My indoor peppers won't produce a single fruit if I don't do one of the above, so perhaps the insects in your garden are not very good or properly outfitted for pollinating this type of flower.

Good luck!
 
Flower drop probable causes:

1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F
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.
 
Hi farmerguy! so to clarify, you think the problem im having may be because the flowers are not being polinated and there for the flowers fall off?
 
It may be the weather? I am 1 hour east of orlando and when it starts getting hot (90f+) out it happens to me. But i havnet been
losing that many at all. i also read this could be it also a wile back ago on another graden website.

Flower drop probable causes:
1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F
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.
 
2fishminimum said:
Hi farmerguy! so to clarify, you think the problem im having may be because the flowers are not being polinated and there for the flowers fall off?
Click to expand...

Yup - that's exactly what happens to me indoors to every single flower unless I hand pollinate - they all fall off. Willard3 put some likely causes as well which are all true, but the giveaway point to me was that none of the other peppers in your garden are doing this. So hand pollination is definitely worth a try. I usually do it for 3 days in a row, morning and night (sounds like the regimen for the wife who wants to get pregnant - same sort of thing!). As long as you've got water and a Q-tip, it's worth a try.

Had this happen to me with rare tomato strains a couple years ago - every single variety was producing gangbusters except for this weird one whose genetics were from Oaxaca Mexico. Not a damn tomato but lots of flowers. I hand pollinated and whammo - within 2 weeks I had loads of cherry tomatoes coming off it.
 
Hi willard! wow great suggestions.

not sure about the minerals in my water.. its just tap water from my hose bib on a timer..is tap water bad? as far as the attention i give the plants, i dont like to mess with them too much. like i said water is on a timer because i travel for work about 2 weeks a month, so when im home i just weed the pots a bit and fix a dripper if i need to.

the size of the pot is intriguing to me.. ill take pictures, but my plants are all in 2 gallon pots.. is that too small?

and also fertalizing insects piques my curiosity.. i have a few lady bugs i see once in a while.. also some bumble bees, and a few other type of insects that run flower to flower, but not a ton of activity.. im still very new at gardening, and i am unfamiliar how polinating peppers works.. does pollen from one plant have to be applied to flowers on another plant in order for peppers to form? or can pollen from one plant be applied to flowers on the same plant ?

thanks so much!

Farmer thanks for help! ive got some time off tonight, so ill take some pics of my set up tonight and post after im done trying the hand pollenating.

this forum is great!!
 
2fishminimum said:
Hi willard! wow great suggestions.

not sure about the minerals in my water.. its just tap water from my hose bib on a timer..is tap water bad? as far as the attention i give the plants, i dont like to mess with them too much. like i said water is on a timer because i travel for work about 2 weeks a month, so when im home i just weed the pots a bit and fix a dripper if i need to.

the size of the pot is intriguing to me.. ill take pictures, but my plants are all in 2 gallon pots.. is that too small?

and also fertalizing insects piques my curiosity.. i have a few lady bugs i see once in a while.. also some bumble bees, and a few other type of insects that run flower to flower, but not a ton of activity.. im still very new at gardening, and i am unfamiliar how polinating peppers works.. does pollen from one plant have to be applied to flowers on another plant in order for peppers to form? or can pollen from one plant be applied to flowers on the same plant ?

thanks so much!
Click to expand...

From what I've seen with peppers, most of the pollen from a given flower ends up pollinating that flower. But, sometimes you can have, say, a ghost pepper, you harvest the seeds and end up with some weird hybrid because a bee/bug was feeding away on another plant, then chose the ghost pepper to land on. The pollen stuck to its legs and ended up "impregnating" another plant's flower. So in most cases, pollen from a given plant ends up pollinating the majority or all of the flowers on that given plant. This is good since inbreeding in plants tends to stabilize traits.
 
FarmGuy thanks again! amazingly enough i happen to be in town this week so ill try it tonight. ill also try to post some pics so yall can see my set up. its not real fancy but im proud of it :dance:
 
I'm probably going to upset a few people on this. Not concerned with that. What I am concerned with is that people get the correct information...It's not to say that the reason a plant may drop its flowers is because of all of the things listed. ANYTHING is possible. But, what is MOST likely the reason behind your plant losing its flowers is the fact that it is being stressed. I learned that lesson the hard way 3 years ago. I had a rocotto plant that dropped for almost 2 months straight. I just couldnt figure out what the hell it was. Then someone suggested to me that I put the plant in more shade. As soon as I did that, guess what? My plant started to pod up.
People, for some reason, like to complicate growing. If mother nature doesnt complicate it, why should we?
Just my $.02
 
YAY I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO POST THE PICS!! sigh..

anyways, this is my "experimental" set up. if this works real well this year, i plan on tripleing it for next season.. if any of yall has suggestions im all ears :)


as you can see i have the plants in window boxes and 2 gal pots.. im slowly phasing out the window boxes in favor of the 2 gal. pots.. i have a 1/4 inch line run from a timer with "in line" drippers at each pot.

as you can see there are lots of healthy looking flowers.. good growth.. nice green leaves..

i tried hand pollenating yesterday but im not sure if i did it right.. (sounds like the makings of a new thread)

aaaanyways.. please post if you have an suggestions



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My main suggestion would be to only have one plant per pot. You'll have much healthier plants, as well as more prolific plants.
 
yep.. you got me there.. ive been phasing out those stoopid window boxes.. also sombody suggesed 5 gal buckets as pots, and using just one plant per.. is that overkill or are the black pots you see there enough?
 
I personally have been growing in 5 gallon Lowe's buckets for a few years now. I had a plant last year get to 7' tall in one. Works fine for me...
 
Not change the subject but do you know the contents of milorganite fertilizer? See you are considering using it?

Also your plant has a slightly rolled leaf, could be mild overfeeding or too much sun. My thoughts
 
armac said:
Not change the subject but do you know the contents of milorganite fertilizer? See you are considering using it?

Also your plant has a slightly rolled leaf, could be mild overfeeding or too much sun. My thoughts
Click to expand...

here is your milogranite link.. i think its mostly nitrogen.

http://www.milorganite.com/




as far as shade.. what do you guys reccomend.. right now my peppers are getting about 10 hours of sun.. should i cut that down by what.. 2 hours?
 
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