They taste of very mild zucchini in flavor, but the texture is light and delicate. It's what you would imagine a flower to feel like in your mouth. They can be eaten raw, or baked, or fried, or stuffed and cooked in one of the aforementioned ways. So far, I've made them a few ways. Battered and pan fried, which was good, but once fried, they really could have been anything. Dry/wet/dry coated then pan fried, and again, they kind of could have been anything with that kind of coating. And the other day, when I had a horticulturalist come over to diagnose my tomatoes, and rudely plucked my one and only (and very first zucchini flower that I'd ever grown in my entire life >:( ) blossom and unceremoniously hand it to me, I just washed it, tossed it into a pan with a smidge of butter, and sauteed it until it was just wilted. THAT was my favorite preparation of them all because I was able to really taste the delicate flavor of the blossom instead of hiding it inside a heavy fried flavor. It's tempting to fill and fry them, but honestly, I could fill and fry something much less precious and it'd probably taste about the same, since I'm sure the predominate tastes would be from the filling.

I have had similar issues with most of my Hydroponic Peppers, even the Bell's. I found that I do not need the Grow formula, I need the Bloom from birth to cradle for my Peppers because the Bloom has too much Nitrogen. There simply is not a "Pepper Formula" out there and almost every plant likes Nitrogen. I am now using the Botanicare brand of Hydro Solution. It has a 2.5 - 2 - 5 formula. The particular one I use is called Pure Blend Pro Bloom (for hydro gardens). It works fantastic on Peppers. High temperatures do cause the blossoms to turn yellow and fall off if the temp stays above 90 degrees. As pointed out by another forum member, air flow is huge. And hand pollination is superior to even bumble bees believe it or not. I use an artist paint brush (something found in a water color artist kit) to pollinate the flowers by hand. This needs to be done early in the flowering stage until the powdery white pollen ends up all over the end of the paint brush. Often times you can visibly see the cloud of white powder come off the flower when you hit it a peak time. If you can do this to each flower, you will get a 100% or very close pollination rate. Lastly for some reason during the heavy flowering stage the plant needs more calcium and more magnesium than it can from the nutrient formula. I add about 10 drops per gallon of Botanicare Cal-Mag Plus through the heavier flowering periods. I have gone from getting one pepper per 10 flowers to not loosing more than one per 20 now on my pepper plants. I do not think it is just one thing, I think its the combination of things. Also I started out using 1500 ppm or 2.1 EC and found out that my leaves were curling, especially when the plant forked and wanted to create a bunch of new leaves and flower. I then found out over time, that .50 EC is perfect for hot pepper plants all through their life except when seedlings where I use a .35 EC. I am not saying this is the only way to grow peppers, but it has helped me a ton. I now have: Serrano, Anaheim, Goats Weed, Naja, Jalapeño, Thai, Thai Dragon, Medusa, Hungarian Carrot, Yellow Hot Wax, Cayenne, Bell, Super Chile, Chile Super Chile, Tabasco, Pepperoncini, and Habanero all growing at the same time in my grow room! If you are curious as to what I have done and want to see some pictures, visit the link below Here is a link that might be useful: My Hydroponic Garden

Megachili: I'm glad to know I'm not the only one...I'm a veteran pepper grower and I'm aware of the usual blossom drop reasons cited above. We've been hot here but not 95 degrees hot. And it's certainly not been cold. All the other chili types around it are doing just fine. The only thing I can think of is maybe it's pot bound? (15 gallon pot).. I've set three fruits 2 weeks ago - and since then - 20 blossoms have fallen to the ground. Very frustrating. Especially because the blossoms that are falling are from the lower part of the plant, and I fear that no more blossoms will form at those sturdy junctions in the stems....

I have searched the web, and can't find anything quite like what I have. First, I noticed a couple of weeks ago black spots on the lower leaves of a couple of my tomato plants (Cherokee Purple). I thought this was a fungal problem and sprayed with copper fungicide, but it has only gotten worse. A few days later, I noticed drooping blossoms. I thought this might be water-related, as we have had weird weather here in N CA lately, and my watering has been eratic, depending on climate (overcast some days, a little light rain one or two days, very hot some days). So, I stuck my finger in soil near every plant -- I have twelve tomatoes in one bed and another 4 in another bed, plus other veggies, flowers, etc., and tried to adjust accordingly. Some plants seemed damp enough, others dry. A few days ago, I noticed the formerly droopy flowers now are falling off at the stem a centimeter or so behind the flower. There is a bump on the stem on the droopy ones, and others have a brown, narrow,dried-up spot on the stem where the bump was and they fall off when touched. Like something has squeezed the stems. Not just behind the flower, but a centimeter or so below it. There is a little green stem still attached to the flowers. So, I inspected more closely and found tiny black bugs under some of the leaves. A few of the bugs are brownish or reddish, but most are black. There are also some white dots which are likely eggs. The bugs have no wings as far as I can tell, and 6 legs. One body section, like a beetle. I didn't find any on or near the flowers, though, only on leaves and a few on the main stems (not flower stems). I sprayed with insecticidal soap (hope this doesn't kill the bees), but would like to know exactly what I am dealing with, or if I am dealing with more than one problem. Oh, some of the leaves with the worst infestations did have brown spots. My other veggies seem healthy, though I do have some yellow edges on the new leaves of my cucumbers. Didn't find any bugs there, though, and blooms seem healthy. All the tomato plants are infected, though one bed is worse than the other. They are all heirloom tomatoes of different varieties. The plants with the largest infestations also have spiders nearby (I have _lots_ of spiders in my garden), but I don't think they are helping much. I tried to avoid them when I sprayed, but couldn't avoid them entirely. Was insecticidal soap the right thing? Does anyone know what this is? My poor Cherokee Purples are really looking bad -- thin with few leaves, many of those brown or yellow, few blooms.