I don't snip flowers until mid Sept. when I know they won't produce ripe fruit before the first frost.

Not knowing what your plants look like makes it difficult to help, pics please.

Here's a photo I took a few weeks back. I didn't get to take a photo of the plants with all the flowers and the buds...

I live in the Philippines, it's a tropical country. We don't get frost/winter. The next few weeks/months spell a lot of rains though--but my habs are under row covers to prevent overwatering.

Prune Habanero Plants

I would prune everything but leaves until the plants recover from their current condition. Hopefully the plants will spend the energy and added nutrients to improve and they look like this:
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It tells the plant to kick back into "growth" mode. Fruiting veggies work in cycles. So, growth, flowers, fruit, harvest, growth, flowers, fruit, harvest, and so on.

What makes you think no calcium? Are these raised beds? What are the soil components?

Kevin

Here's a more recent photo. I've removed a lot of branches and flowers here, but retained some buds.

Kevin, they're planted directly into the soil. I reckon they have minimal calcium because of how the leaves look.

This post was edited by MVR2014 on Sun, Aug 3, 14 at 6:32

MVR: Many things can cause leaf distortion. Yes, lack of ca is one cause. But most soils have plenty.

Can you post more pics? Closer up.

Kevin

Kevin, here.

hmmm. No aphids? How about herbicides sprayed recently? Where did you get the mulch? Have you had your soil tested recently?

If you can eliminate other causes and you're pretty darn sure it's lacking ca, you can possible get some water soluble ca online or from a hydro shop. Or 2 other ways to get Ca into the soil quickly---

One way is to take a large yogurt container, put an inch or 2 of DOLOMITE lime in it with a cup or 2 of white vinegar, give a good stir, let sit overnight uncovered, and then use the liquid(not the sediment that sinks to the bottom) at a rate of 4 TB/gal of water.

Or... mix a pound of Ca(OH)2 (SLAKED lime) in five gallons of water, then let it sit over night and siphon off the supernatant w/o disturbing the dregs and use the supernatant to water with at a rate of 1 qt/sq ft or 8 oz/6' pot.

Kevin

Thanks, Kevin. But as I said in my original post, I can't seem to find dolomite or any kind of garden calcium in gardening stores here in Manila. I've found some online, but they sell them in 50kg bags, really for agricultural use. I am as of the moment fermenting some water soluble calcium (roasted egg shells + vinegar,) but it's only been 7 days, so I have about 23 days to go before I can use it.

That's right.. I forgot you were in Manila. Can't you order from Amazon online? No home Depots or walmarts in Manila?

Kevin

Oh forgot to say mulch came from my backyard. There was a typhoon recently that caused some trees to fall over. I shredded them and used it as mulch.

Would be too costly to order dolomite off amazon. No walmart here!