Chilli fruit stalks still going yellow and breaking.

[ItsEssexRob]

Hi there. I posted a thread pertaining to this about 3 weeks ago, and since then I;ve had one or two more flowers come up. However the same thing has happened. the stalk of the flower turns slightly paler than the plant and then becomes brittle.

I did try to self pollinate the flower by tapping it, could I have damaged it then and caused it to die?

I am keeping it on a windowsill in the bedroom, which only gets sun after about 4 o clock ( we dont have south facing windows). It is kept watered ( although the saucer tends to fill with water sometimes in a 12 inch pot, and is fed Chilli Focus feed.

Since feeding it weekly I have at least 20-30 flower buds pop up and start to grow and I am keen to ensure the same does not happen to all of these.

It is kept right beside a Sweet Pepper plant which is growing a perfect plump fruit on it, so not sure location is too much of a problem, even if it only gets sun after 4 pm.

Anyone got any ideas, do some of the early buds break off? Does tapping them damage them? Or do I need to move it into my GH.

As I have stated in my scotch bonnet thread I really am loathe to move my Capsicum plants into the GH as the ones I have grown in there because theres no more room in my house have hardly grown and nowhere near the in house ones.

Thanks

[zazen999]

Not enough sun and too much water I'd wager.

[nancyrowina]

I found using an eye shadow brush (or any fine water colour type paintbrush would do) to gently pollinate the chilli plants seemed to work. And I'd say it sounds like you might be watering them too much as well, never let the soil completely dry out but you don't have to keep it soaking wet either.

[chefgage]

If your getting lots of water in the saucer then I would say you are watering too much. I tend to find
that the chilli plants need a small amount of water fairly often, not a large soaking when the soil looks dry.

[zazen999]

I found using an eye shadow brush (or any fine water colour type paintbrush would do) to gently pollinate the chilli plants seemed to work. And I'd say it sounds like you might be watering them too much as well, never let the soil completely dry out but you don't have to keep it soaking wet either.

Peppers/chillis are self pollinating and you really don't need to do that! They would rather be on the dry side of moist than the damp side and out of all my plants, these can cope with drying out completely and revive once watered.

[The Large One]

you can hear my chillis screaming for water from down the bottom of the garden, thats when i know i need to water them and then only sparingly

[eirish]

I grew up in a major chilli-growing area, where summer temps are usually 35-40 or higher, humidity can be only a few percent and the annual rainfall is about 10". And there's lots and lots of sunshine. So too little sun and too much water sounds likely (and will probably result in tasteless fruit when you get some!).

[ItsEssexRob]

Think we are expected to have some sun this week with temps in the early 20's so might try moving them out again.

[taff]

they also do that when there's loads of fruit on it. Some will just drop off anyway.

[Vince G]

yeh, agree with taff there. I made a conscious effort to pinch out the tops of my chillis this year as I basically grew sticks last year that had a few fruit at the top! They're much bushier this year, and the buds/flowers/fruit form at the leaf joints, so the more branches/leaf joints there are, the more buds you get. The bush can't cope with too many so I think it decides how many it can support and chucks the rest off.