Flower Drop: 25-30% but many pods forming; normal?

[AjarnV]

Not a big deal, but I'm curious about the percentage of flower drop I'm getting. The plants are fruiting up and I've got plenty of pods, but it does seem a high percentage. Calcium isn't a problem obviously and neither is magnesium. The plants are healthy and the temperatures have moderated to the low 30's (Celsius).
Anyway, just looking for some feedback.

 

[RichardK]

That's probably normal, could be anything really... As you know C. Chinense are very picky about nutrition temperature and watering regularity when flowering and fruiting.

Look in the dropped flowers, make sure the pistil is level with or higher than the tip of the anthers, if it's recessed it could be due to stunted growth or not enough sun when the flower was developing. Also make sure it's not brown/black at the tip which could be a sign of western flower thrip (they like to chew up the flower parts). Also see how much pollen has been produced by the anthers, if there is little to no pollen, it was probably caused by high temperatures during the flowers development, if there is plenty of pollen or if the anthers are wide open and empty (the pollen has already fallen out) then it's probably not due to pollen sterility.

Flowers that aborted due to not setting or sterility problems typically turn yellow, then the part of the stem that connects to the plant shrivels and the flower drops. When I get really warm weather I see aborts that are still greenish and not so much shriveling at the stem-node end.

Also, do you know what the soil K and P levels are? If they are low on those, that could be a cause of some setting and some not. Probably nothing to panic over and as long as the plant is starting to load up, you should get a decent fruit load but it will take longer.

Hope that helps

 

[Burning Colon]

It's a big issue for me, as I too have the same issue with orange habs and carribean red. My over winter hab has 3 pods with lots of flower drop, I have 2 caribeans, 1 with 4 pods, the other none, lots of flowers, then the stem turns yellow and just drop off. My fatalii has about 3 small flowers starting and I don't know its fate. I have done the reach to see what I need to do to fix the problem and nothing seems to match. Too much sun, too little sun, too much nitrogen, too little nitrogren, too hot, too cold. They get epsom salt misting, seaweed fertilizer, calcium, all the essentials. I am manually pollinating as I can't buy a bee but the stems are so weak the flower falls off.

All my annuums are producing fine with no flower drop and an abundant of pods. baccatums are doing fine as well.

 

[RichardK]

It's a big issue for me, as I too have the same issue with orange habs and carribean red. My over winter hab has 3 pods with lots of flower drop, I have 2 caribeans, 1 with 4 pods, the other none, lots of flowers, then the stem turns yellow and just drop off. My fatalii has about 3 small flowers starting and I don't know its fate. I have done the reach to see what I need to do to fix the problem and nothing seems to match. Too much sun, too little sun, too much nitrogen, too little nitrogren, too hot, too cold. They get epsom salt misting, seaweed fertilizer, calcium, all the essentials. I am manually pollinating as I can't buy a bee but the stems are so weak the flower falls off.

All my annuums are producing fine with no flower drop and an abundant of pods. baccatums are doing fine as well.

If they are outside with some wind, insects and 6+ hours of direct sun a day then they SHOULD be setting fruit... If this is true, don't manually pollinate them (they should be fine with wind alone) as you are probably snapping or bending the pistil which is very fragil and any damage to it will most likely doom the flower. Also, avoid plant wilting during flowering as much as possible, this won't harm fruit that already set but it can cause loads of flowers to abort.

Also, if you choose to manually pollinate anyway, DO NOT under any circumstances let the pollen get wet at all! You will render it useless!

All of my C. Chienses do not set very well or at all under lights inside, however when I put them outside, in a week or less they are loading up just fine with no manual pollination, no special foliar feedings, no extra nutrients at all. All I give them is 6-7 + hours of direct sunlight a day, and water them deeply when they are dry.

Good luck

 

[Burning Colon]

My plants sit on my deck, 5 ft off the ground, has direct sun exposure until approx. 1pm then has a slight break from the sun for about 2 hours then return to direct sun(house temporarily blocks the sun during this time). We usually have a constant 4 - 7km wind.

I pollinate with a dry Qtip, gently touch the antlers of each flower and go from flower to flower. I discard the Qtip and use a new one for each different type of plant to hopefully avoid cross pollination. It was hard to find Carribean Reds and now that I have some I want to keep the seeds pure. I can now get Habaneros(orange) regularly and have a store that brings in Scotch Bonnets when in season. (I read up on several techniques to manual pollinate before attempting and used it all winter on my annuums(just my chinense didn't flower during the winter).

thanks Richard.