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health I almost killer her, now what?

Evening all. I am growing my first pepper plant, a yellow scotch bonnet pepper. I started with 4, then down to two. Then two I gave away to a friend are doing wonderful, producing tons of peppers after being outside. The remaining two I almost killed....they were very healthy and i went on vacation and forgot to tell my mother to water them. I came home to 2 naked plants in 1 gallon containers. I watered them both and within a week they both had produced enough leaves that i was confident they would survive. My mother asked if she could have one and I agreed. At that time I transplanted one into a 5 gallon shallow fabric pot. A couple days later I took the other plant to my mother. While driving, I look over and notice that it has about 8 peppers forming. Big surprise to me. I get home and go directly to my plant and not a single pepper. It had dozens of flowers but not a single pepper. Well its been about a week since then and it has dropped every single flower. I even tried pollenating some when they were full bloom. The other thing is the leaves are all small. None much bigger then a silver dollar. The last 3 pics are from about a week ago. She seems to have filled in more since and has some new flowers forming.
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Anyone have a clue what im doing wrong?
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The size of the leaves on a pepper plant can vary depending on the variety. As long as you are giving it enough light and nutes and the plant is otherwise healthy I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Here is a list of factors to take a look at if you are having a lot of flower drop:

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.
 
Way to be a good son and give your mom the one that already had peppers. ;)

BF's post pretty much covered it above. Your scotch bonnet plant looks awesome and I'm sure it will start setting pods soon given that the other was. I'll also add something I've experienced, that when an established plant is growing back from lots of active growth nodes at the same time the leaves it produces often tend to be smaller than normal at first. Only so much root energy at first to be divided among lots of growth areas. This in contrast to peppers that have had their branches pruned back so there are few growth nodes and more initial growth energy for each.
 
Way to be a good son and give your mom the one that already had peppers. ;)

BF's post pretty much covered it above. Your scotch bonnet plant looks awesome and I'm sure it will start setting pods soon given that the other was. I'll also add something I've experienced, that when an established plant is growing back from lots of active growth nodes at the same time the leaves it produces often tend to be smaller than normal at first. Only so much root energy at first to be divided among lots of growth areas. This in contrast to peppers that have had their branches pruned back so there are few growth nodes and more initial growth energy for each.
With my limited plant knowledge, I was leaning toward that explanation also. I was thinking that the change in size of pot made it go back into "veg" stage. Im almost positive she has grown at least a third since being in the big pot. My mothers is about half the size. Lol She absolutely loves that plant!
 
Evening all. I am growing my first pepper plant, a yellow scotch bonnet pepper. I started with 4, then down to two. Then two I gave away to a friend are doing wonderful, producing tons of peppers after being outside.

I see you have artificial lights. What length of time do you have your lights set to be on? What type of lights do you use eg. Fluorescent, LED?
 
Great set up, the timing seems ok yet there are problems associated with indoor growing that are still not in the books today.
My advice, check all the usual suspects like BF listed, & keep a sharp eye out for any other problems that have obvious reasons
eg. Mites, fungus etc.
 
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