Why are my pepper flowers/stems drop off ?

[Dipzy]

Hi, I am growing peppers in my greenhouse (cannot remember the variety but long sweet reds I think) and a couple of times when self pollinating with an ear bud the little flower and its stem have come away from the main plant. Why does this happen, I regularly water them and also spray with water and i try to be as gentle as possible.

My chillis are doing well so it would be nice to have peppers too. Any advise on this would be greatly appreciated.

[Mushroom]

hi
yes mine have been doing that too if they've already got fruit forming - I thought it might be because they are regulating how many fruit they have forming for the size of plant but not sure.
Peppers/ chillies I think dont need to be pollinted anyway as they are self pollinating. mine have not been pollintaed as they are indoors on windowsill and are forming peppers.

[norazina]

Hi Dipzy,

My peppers did that when they weren't happy (obviously I've learnt that hard way), could be: overwatering, too hot in the greenhouse, pot is not big enough.

Peppers are self polinating, but I did tapped the plants, same as with tomatoes, to assist with polination, just in case.

As per the Mushroom's post, not sure about requlating number of fruits, mine just seem to keep going and going, but I have also been giving them tomato feed with watering.

Hope this helps,

norazina

[smallblueplanet]

Hi norazina, what are you doing out in Baku? Are there any interesting chilli varieties out there?

[gojiberry]

Peppers will often discard the first few flowers/fruit. Spray with a water mist each day to improve fertility and help plants keep the fruit.

Ian

[SarzWix]

Yeah, it is sometimes difficult to get them to set that first fruit or 2. They have to have the right conditions - don't allow them to dry out (but not soaking either!), and the temp needs to be right too - between 15°c & 25°c seems to work for us. Also, you could try feeding them with some tomato food, they may have used up all the nutrition in the compost by now. Good luck!

[Dipzy]

Thanks guys, i will definetely give them some tomato feed when I get home from work tomorrow and try and regulate the water more. I do spray them with mist as I'd read that on another thread. I'll let you know how i get on.

[norazina]

Hi norazina, what are you doing out in Baku? Are there any interesting chilli varieties out there?

Hi smallblueplanet,

I live here , even though local chillis are s***e!!! So I get my seeds brought from UK (T&Ms, Suttons, Unwins) and from Germany

norazina