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Vegetable Gardening

Peppers flower, but do not fruit?

12 years ago

Hello,

I have added two new peppers to my garden this year, espelette and mulato. The plants look great, and flower like you would not believe, however the flowers are not producing fruit. I have been pollinating via a paint brush and all my other peppers (jelapano, aji limon, and big jim) are producing as expected. I doubt the problem is the soil or nutrients as all the peppers are in the same soil mix with horse compost and 7-5-4. Why else might I be experiencing this problem? Highs have been in the mid to low 90's and the humidity ranges from around 45% at noon to 95% at dawn.

Thanks!

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Comments (5)

pepper71
12 years ago
I have been giving a "thump" to my flowers in the morning and can visibly seen the pollen. The plants have been produce many peppers. Try the thump method. I use the paint brush method on stuff like the cukes where there is a visible male and female flower, I dont know if peppers have male and female flowers like the cukes. Where in the United States are you ? What type of bugs are you seeing on the plants?
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Dan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
12 years ago
Inconsistent moisture or too much heat for their liking. If it continues with these two and they have poor fruit set ongoing, they don't like your weather or some other aspect of your setup. I quit using a couple pepper vars in the past several years here due to poor performance.

Dan
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Well, it's pretty well established, as far as I know, that heat delays or prevents proper blossoming and fruit set on peppers and tomatos, so your cool nights probably are helping, as are your frequent rains. Now, here in Michigan, we have the opposite problem, it's been VERY cool, and heat lovers are sulking. Daytime temps have struggled to hit the 70 degree mark most days in May and the first half of June (high saturday, for example, was 64), and nights have been mostly in the 40's, a few 50's, and some nights in the 30's (including one night last week when it hit 32 in Port Huron, Michigan, about an hour northeast of me). I DEFINITELY think peppers like a lot of nutrients, you just have to be careful to balance out the nitrogen so that the don't just grow leaves. I would use something like a 20-20-20 at the minimum, if not something that is actually lower in N and higher in the other two.
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Though you do not indicate your Hardiness Zone or in which part of the country you live, I believe it's time to plant your tomatoes and peppers in the garden, stop debudding them and let them do their thing. Most varieties of peppers grow to more than 2 feet and tomatoes can grow to over 6 feet, depending on what type they are and the length of your growing season. I planted mine Victoria Day weekend which is our last frost date in Zone 5, and some of the tomato and pepper plants I purchased already have flowers and are only about 8 inches high.
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I think -- I'm no expert on this -- the leaves, flowers, and fruit are falling off right where they would naturally do so, certainly it's not something obviously wrong, like halfway down the stem. Mainly I fertilized them with tomato fertilizer, which is usually low in nitrogen for just that...hey, I have beans growing near them, could this be putting too much nitrogen in the soil? There's a gap of two or three feet between the patch of peppers and the thin row of snow peas and pole beans growing up the back fence. Newt: OK, if I can figure out where to get epsom salts, I'll add a little in case that'll help. The temps have not been falling much below seventy, so that's not an issue. I have seen places claiming peppers cross-pollinate, which seems logical, but I've also seen ones saying they self-pollinate, and thus don't need help. I take it this is false. Will simply tapping the flowers help, the way it does tomatoes? The ground around the peppers has not really gotten dry, which is why I was slow to water them. I am under the impression that it should start feeling dry when you stick your finger in it, or else you'll over-water. Was I mistaken?
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digdirt2
12 years ago
The condition is called 'blossom drop' and I linked the FAQ on it below. It covers the basic of the issue but you can also find out much more about it - probably more than you'd care to know :) using 'blossom drop' as a serch term here or or Google.

Dan mentioned some of the causes - weather and inconsistent soil mositure. The pollen is only viable within a specific air temperature range and % of humidity. Another cause is the use of excessive amounts of nitrogen fertilizers.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Blossom Drop FAQ
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sci525
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks all!
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caroliniannjer
12 years ago
Yup, Dave's right--it's the heat

We had this problem last year and didn't get peppers until it started cooling down.

Above 95-98 we had "blossom drop"
and for temps just below that (with high humidity) do something to the pollen that keeps the flowers from getting fertilized.
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