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Small jalapeño fruit

I grew four jalapeños plants from seed last year in a trough in my front room window, they did well and I got a pretty good crop off them, I cut them right back after harvesting the last fruit and left them in the window over winter, I was delighted when they grew back up again this year, the plants grew to approximate heights of 3 to 5 feet! However the actual fruit were quite small compared to last year (many under an inch long).

So my main question is, what effects the size of the actual chillies (fruit)? What can I do to get bigger fruit next year?

N.B. I did NOT re-pot the plants over winter and they did show some signs of what I suspect was manganese deficiency this year, I added manganese to their usual feed (standard tomato liquid fertiliser) and the new growth looked healthy but I am wondering if they they were struggling for other nutrients, I'll re-pot them this year with fresh soil/compost/fertiliser. Any advice on anything else I should do would be appreciated.
 
HaxSyn said:
I grew four jalapeños plants from seed last year in a trough in my front room window, they did well and I got a pretty good crop off them, I cut them right back after harvesting the last fruit and left them in the window over winter, I was delighted when they grew back up again this year, the plants grew to approximate heights of 3 to 5 feet! However the actual fruit were quite small compared to last year (many under an inch long).

So my main question is, what effects the size of the actual chillies (fruit)? What can I do to get bigger fruit next year?

N.B. I did NOT re-pot the plants over winter and they did show some signs of what I suspect was manganese deficiency this year, I added manganese to their usual feed (standard tomato liquid fertiliser) and the new growth looked healthy but I am wondering if they they were struggling for other nutrients, I'll re-pot them this year with fresh soil/compost/fertiliser. Any advice on anything else I should do would be appreciated.
 
The first question I'd ask is are they in soil (The brown stuff from your garden.) or media (Peat or choir with perlite.)? Soil tends to compact causing disruption of nutrient uptake.
 
Thanks for responding. I had a layer of perlite (about an inch?) in the bottom to act as a sort of water reservoir with a tube for watering going to the bottom, on top of the perlite I had a mixture of roughly 2 parts "nutrient enriched coconut coir" to 1 part potting compost (mixed in with more perlite). 
 
HaxSyn said:
Thanks for responding. I had a layer of perlite (about an inch?) in the bottom to act as a sort of water reservoir with a tube for watering going to the bottom, on top of the perlite I had a mixture of roughly 2 parts "nutrient enriched coconut coir" to 1 part potting compost (mixed in with more perlite). 
 
So you water the plant through a tube to the substrate? Are you adding any nutes to this water? 
 
EDIT......See pic below.... Is that the manganese deficiency you noticed? Or something different?
 


YjmenAZ.jpg
 
That is correct I watered them through the tube, with the layer of perlite hopefully letting the water spread evenly across the bottom of the trough and hopefully not saturate the plants.  

I added a liquid tomato fertiliser (NPK 2 - 2.5 - 4.5) to the water on an irregular basis . The yellowing in the older leaves did look as described in the diagram after doing some internet searches I concluded it was manganese deficiency so I added manganese to the water, actually I used "Epsom Salts"  (Magnesium sulfate) which seemed to work, at least the yellowing of the older leaves appeared to stop (although didn't reverse, which I understand is expected) and the younger/new leaves were a healthy looking green), I think I caught it fairly quickly as the yellowing was only visible in some of the older leaves. 
 
Too much nitrogen and too hot weather.

Too much light during the hot hours of the day.

You will have thickened smaller leaves and fruit but an overall healthy looking plant.

Happened to me last year. Have mine on southwest side of house and they get all day sun from 9am until sundown. Texas heat and sun is just too much for almost anything.

They need a little shade. Would be ideal if you can get morning sun....shade during mid day heat....then evening sun. 6-8 hours direct sun here is plenty. Fruit will be larger. My fruit was small but really good flavor and heat. All organically grown using homemade compost and fed fish and fermented plant and fruit juices

Heres my jalapeño from this season.
 

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