What have the temps/weather been like in your area? What are your watering/fertilizing schedule? What type of medium are they in?

Mark

the weather has been ridiculously rainy the past week, but this has been going on longer than that. before that it hovered in the 90's.

I water when the leaves begin to droop, but the rain has handled most of that for me, in fact probably too much rain.

I don't really have a fertilizing schedule. I fertilize when I haven't seen any new growth in a while, which is roughly every 2 weeks. I use fish fert, epsom salt, and fertilome blooming & rooting plant food (usually mixed below mfr rec)

the medium is a mix of 'just natural' brand potting soil (has a lot of bark in it, seems to be well draining), mushroom compost (3-1), and there's about 1/4 cup of bone meal mixed into that 5 gal bucket.

The medium looks very wet. Maybe you could drill more drain holes and only water when the medium is dry a few inches down. The next time you do water, add a little epsom salt to the water(I've used a tablespoon to a gallon of water), it'll help green up the plant. HTH

the medium was quite wet, the pic was taken right after it got done being rained on. it's been raining every day the past week down here in FL. I moved my plants to the covered porch, but the rain is coming in sideways so it gets wet anyway. I haven't had to water in quite some time.

it currently has 10 3/4" holes, but I could reasonably add some more.

This post was edited by judo_and_peppers on Tue, Jul 2, 13 at 15:54

I would give it a week past this mess of rainy weather and the temps above 90 plants will drop the flower buds. After a week when this east coast rain passes they should bounce back. Its good that you got them out of the rain a little sideways rain won't be bad for them. Make sure that bark is pine bark and not sap wood or your mix will be leeched of nitrogen causing you issues. But from the looks of it it's due to much rain.

Mark

well, I guess I'll just have to wait and see. thanks for the help.

it's funny. my dad thinks I'm crazy for moving my plants in.

"what do plants do in the wild when it rains? I'm sure they'll survive" he says.

but merely surviving is not enough for a chilihead. I want gnarly yields, not 'survival'.

Ha ha, well in the wild they are not at the mercy of pots, which introduce a lot of factors when it comes to water, soil, drainage, and fertilization. I think it's good that you have them protected and after this mess passes they will give you the yeild you want. I wish I had the wild conditions so all my plants would grow year round in the ground and turn into pepper trees :)

Mark

I would not add any more Epsom salt unless you have checked your soils and are lacking it as for the rain that should not be the issue neither if your pots have good drainage some people say pepper roots do not like to stay wet but hydro grow shows that to be incorrect there is a big difference in being wet and not being able to breath then being wet with plenty of Air many people make that mistake i don't think it would be lack of nitrogen being your getting plenty of rain.... rain picks up nitrogen nutrients and minerals as it falls from the sky i would check to make sure you have good drainage in the pot & the roots are breathing ......

here is a few things you can try that may help
get you some Standard Miracle Grow .... and a small bottle of Super Thrive along with a bottle of Alaskan Fish Emulsion mix it at half strength for indoor or potted plants in a gallon jug then put some in a spray bottle mist your plants every other day with this it will not burn your foliage but will make sure your plant have the right stuff to thrive if the plant is still giving you a issue i would add some perlite to the soil to help assure better air flow also if you are using tap water at any time be sure to put it in a gallon jug or a tub tote for 24 hours to insure the chlorine is evaporated & gone it is a enemy .....& will kill your beneficial micro organisms & Fungi in the soils that help aid your plants .

any commentary on the brown lines on the pod (3rd picture in the first post)? what should I do about that? I noticed a dark patch on one of my brain strain pods yesterday too. it's got me a bit worried. the pods seem like they're about to change color soon though, which I'm quite excited about. I just had my first thai pepper start turning red last night, hopefully the others follow shortly.

I am starting to wonder if maybe the soil was too compacted when I repotted it. I packed it in there good. that may well be one of the issues. looks like I might be repotting it. again.

I am trying to look up 'super thrive' but their website is giving me trouble. what's in the stuff? that's usually an important thing to know.

I use alaskan fish emulsion as part of my regular fertilizing regimen, but I just put it on the soil, I don't spray it on the plant. usually when I do a foliar feeding I only use epsom salt, and a tiny bit of the fertilome stuff.

As for your question on the brown lines its called corking. Jalapenos are more known for this Google images Jalapeno corking. But others do this also. I had some Bhuts do this as well as Habanero's.

Mark

based on reading about it, this 'corking' does not seem at all like a negative thing. good to hear. surely you can see how something like that all the sudden appearing on my peppers would scare a first year grower like me.

I feel like someone should from time to time remind me that I have no idea what I'm doing, and have zero experience in this stuff.

looking forward to seeing them change colors soon. based on the picture on the tag, it's probably gonna be orange. sounds good to me.

thanks again for the guidance.

Super Thrive is vitamins minerals and hormones should be able to find it at home depot or any of the other Big box stores in the garden area .