• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification.

flower drop?

gmen16

gmen16

Is this flower drop? Or the start of a pod? The flower opened up about 2 days ago then fell off tonight


 
No, it's looking like the flower was fertilized and the pod is now growing. If it was truly flower drop, the entire stem of it would've fallen away as well
 
Start of a pod - congratulations! Note that the petals are all that dropped off, which is nature's way of telling you a pod is going to occur (though they don't always fall off.) True "flower drop" includes all the way from the petals down to where it attaches to the stem of the plant.
 
Flower drop refers to the entire flower (stem and all) yellowing and dropping off the plant. Usually after a flower is pollinated, the petals will drop off and it's a good sign the flower was properly pollinated. That doesn't mean it still won't drop. Just have to wait and see. Usually you'll notice the fruit growing within a day or so.
 
geeme said:
Now the hard part begins - WAITING (patiently!) for the pod to grow and ripen. It really doesn't matter how long we grow chiles, ALL of us want them ripe NOW!  ;)
Click to expand...
 
And several of us (I'm guilt of it) are our own worst enemies for waiting on pods to grow & ripen
 
I had a lone flower that was open for about 3 days, and then i went to "pollinate it"  since I really donot have insects (i grow off of a balcony)  and the whole thing fell off, stem and all.  I was so bummed out.. this has happened so many times.  It happened with the reaper as well.. it was full of flowers and all of them shriveled up and fell.  I do not knwo what I am doing wrong.. its not overwatering since i water them from the bottom once a week... im lost and perplexed.
 
Emald001 said:
I had a lone flower that was open for about 3 days, and then i went to "pollinate it"  since I really donot have insects (i grow off of a balcony)  and the whole thing fell off, stem and all.  I was so bummed out.. this has happened so many times.  It happened with the reaper as well.. it was full of flowers and all of them shriveled up and fell.  I do not knwo what I am doing wrong.. its not overwatering since i water them from the bottom once a week... im lost and perplexed.
Click to expand...
There are many reasons why peppers drop their flowers, including too warm temps, too colder temps, too much water, wrong ferts etc etc. Sometimes they are just not ready to produce. Plants will often drop the first dozen (or more) flowers so your plants may just not be ready to reproduce.
 
Or perhaps you left the flower for too long before attempting to pollinate it. 
 
Personally, I never know when the flower is actually fertile, so once its open, I keep trying to pollinate it, until its apparent its either going to drop, or set.
 
The easiest way I can tell the flower was fertilized is that the pod, when it first forms, pushes the pollen parts (I forget their name) outward, since usually they're touching each other in the flower
 
no clue... i am guessing i need to pollinate them myself.. its frustrating though cause i haven't had many flowers since the heat wave.
 
You really don't need to pollinate chile flowers yourself, per se. Give the pots a good thump on a daily basis - that will do it, because chiles are self-pollinating. The goal is to simply shake the plant a tad, so if you're growing in ceramic pots and don't want to thump them (I wouldn't, as it might hurt my hand ;) ), just shake the plant itself a tad. 
 
Willard has a great post on reasons for flower drop. One of them is pH - have you checked the pH of your soil?

Also, how many hours of direct sun are they getting a day? They need at least 6.
 
My soil should be ok.. they are on fox farms Ocean forrest.  Nothing else has been put int here... they get about 14-16 hours of 4 T5 lights a day.. so i am stumped.  However I do not have insects or much wind.. so maybe a fan?
 
Oscillating fan would work :)
 
I grow in a balcony and i never hand pollinate flowers.
I use generic soilless from store

I use water that ware stand for 2-3 days, that bring the PH from 7-7.5 to 8.5-9 and I never fixed the PH

I found (for me) that over fert is the main reason for flower drop

2-5/1000 (as describe on ferts) is over fert'
To fert them every 1-2 weeks is over fert'

Every 4-6 weeks I "wash" the soil with water and a next time that they need water i put ferts (1/1000)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top