indoor Carolina reaper chili producing sterile flowers?

[Sinder]

i wrote this in the welcome channel, but its probably not the place to ask so i will rewrite what i said and post it here in hope i can find a solution.


The issue is with my Carolina reaper i have as picture below that i will be posting, it doesn't produce any pollen or that stem that we put pollen on, like my other chilies does. its been growing nice and healthy but wont produce fruit even if i try to pollinate it.

i give it tomato fertilizer, so i don't think Fertilizer is the issue.

i don't think its overwatering or underwatering as i have learned the mistake of this in my start of growing as my first chili plant got edema but survived it when i learned how the watering should be for chilies.

i don't think its the temperature or the humidity either as my heat and such is all controlled by a Thermostat that turns on heat if it goes below 22C in the soil so the temperature stays between 22-28C on the day and a bit less in the night but never under 22C, The humidity usually stays around 50-60%

i do grow it indoors so no access to bees, but i do self pollinate all my chilies everytime i see a new flower like ive been doing for 2.5 years now on my other chilies with alot of success.

i dont think its the lights as they are powerfull grow lamps that runs with a timer for 16 hours on and 8 hours off.

The Carolina reaper i feel is giving me sterile flowers that wont be pollinated so it wont give me any fruit. i have tried to search on Sterile flowers on chili and it seems to be something that can happen, but i couldn't find an solution to it which i'm hoping someone here might have.

Any ideas of what the issue can be?

 

[Sinder]

i probably should mention that it have happened before about 2 months ago, Even when i self pollinated them they all just dried out eventually.

 

[Sinder]

Maybe there is another issue to my problem, sometimes when i try to pollinate the flower it falls of very easy, could it be related to anything like fertilizer?

 

[Karpasruuti]

I think ur reaper wants more rapid temperature change. Try to keep it less than 20°C at night.

 

[Sinder]

I think ur reaper wants more rapid temperature change. Try to keep it less than 20°C at night.

ok thanks i can do that without problems, what is the lowest i can try? and should i be using a oscillating fan? i read that in a guide on here earlier, but from other sources on another forum i was told chilis didnt like a cold fan blowing on them, but that forum werent 100% dedicated to chilis.

 

[Karpasruuti]

HMm 15°C? I have problems too with this fake "PepperX" that does not make any pollen but last year I moved it outside and Finland nights are quite cold. So it did quite well. Also there was no pollen this time but now I moved them close to the window and colder place and no more strong light and one of them immediately started to make a pod.

Probably evaporative cooling could work with a fan? If u mean that with oscillating fan?

 

[Sinder]

HMm 15°C? I have problems too with this fake "PepperX" that does not make any pollen but last year I moved it outside and Finland nights are quite cold. So it did quite well. Also there was no pollen this time but now I moved them close to the window and colder place and no more strong light and one of them immediately started to make a pod.

Probably evaporative cooling could work with a fan? If u mean that with oscillating fan?

i might struggle getting it down to 15C but i can defiantly get it down to 18-20C since im doing it indoors or il have to freeze.

and this picture is what i mean with a oscillating fan, put it on lowest strenght (1) and let it do a 180 degree turn, could it help or will it just do more damage?

 

[Karpasruuti]

It just moves air and kinda does nothing except harnessing the plant. It gets more sturdy. It still may help. It won't hurt if dont blow too hard and water regularly.

 

[Sinder]

It just moves air and kinda does nothing except harnessing the plant. It gets more sturdy. It still may help. It won't hurt if dont blow too hard and water regularly.

another question about the temperature, Do you measure the temperature in the air or in the soil? ive always measured the temperature by the soil, everytime the temp in the soil goes below 20C a tube greenhouse heater turns on. should i focus more on the air and not the soil maybe?

should i connect my heater to the light timer so in the night when timer turn off the lamps there will be no heat at all, and when the timer goes on the heat go back, that way the plants might get down to 17-18C over night.

 

[Karpasruuti]

another question about the temperature, Do you measure the temperature in the air or in the soil? ive always measured the temperature by the soil, everytime the temp in the soil goes below 20C a tube greenhouse heater turns on. should i focus more on the air and not the soil maybe?

should i connect my heater to the light timer so in the night when timer turn off the lamps there will be no heat at all, and when the timer goes on the heat go back, that way the plants might get down to 17-18C over night.

I think you're at right track. At night heaters go off. I would focus on the air temperature.

 

[Karpasruuti]

Probably just too nice an environment and ur chili is like "so nice here; lots of nutrients and a warm place. I don't wanna wake up yet." But some chilies do nicely when air temp is between 25-35 celcius. Btw u didn't tell how old is ur carolina reaper?

 

[Sinder]

Probably just too nice an environment and ur chili is like "so nice here; lots of nutrients and a warm place. I don't wanna wake up yet." But some chilies do nicely when air temp is between 25-35 celcius. Btw u didn't tell how old is ur carolina reaper?

my Carolina is about 8-9 months old now, maybe close to a year. but everytime they flower they dont produce fruit, but the temperature have always kinda been above 23C until yesterday as i though thats what chilis wanted.but im working on a fix now, i just removed the greenhouse heater from the room and connected it to the timer, so in 2 hours when timer shuts the light off we will see how far i can get the temp down. i did try to polinate a flower earlier and it didnt drop like usually so maybe the temperature is the issue, will find out in couple days when the fruiting sets in if the polination was a success.


Healthy and big it becomes but it wont give me any fruits. hopefully it will fruit soon when i give it a colder temp

 

[Sinder]

So temperature below 15C is fine for any chili plants then? because i was told on the other forum that chilies under 20C wont produce fruit its why i have been so paranoid of it going under 20c. if it can handle 10-15C then i can start growing it outdoors in the summer that i have been avoiding because i though they would stop producing chilis if it go under 20?

The room where chili is in is now atm at 19C, much less then ive ever had it in there since i started growing chilis

 

[Karpasruuti]

I would not go lower than 15°C. It start to be a bit cold. Not for all but some varieties like it. Pubescens like more colder nights because it's originally from mountainous regions.

 

[Sinder]

it seems like temperature was the issue, alot of the flowers are now showing the stigma and flower doesn't drop as fast i touch it anymore.

allowing temp to drop to like 18-19C during night and then heaters turns it back to 22-23C at day.

@Karpasruuti Thanks

 

[Karpasruuti]

That is nice to hear

 

[Jimmy-Z]

Congrats Good to hear that was the problem.

 

[Sinder]

is the green bubble the fruit that are slowly coming outoff the reaper flower?

 

[Karpasruuti]

Yes. If you water to much or to much fertilizer they may drop.

 

[Sinder]

Yes. If you water to much or to much fertilizer they may drop.

i only water once the dirt is dry about 2-3cm down into the soil, and i have stopped using fertilizer the past 2-3 weeks as i was thinking maybe i have giving it to much fertilizer in the past, like everytime i watered i had tomato fertilizer in the water so i stopped using it like 2-3 weeks ago, so wont give it more fertilizer until the fruit have set properly.