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my chilli flowers keep falling off why???

bubbly4me
18 years ago

Hi there

I was given a chilli plant a month ago.Not sure what kind of chilli it is but when my cousin gave it to me, it was about 8 inches tall and were flowering. I have put it on my kitchen's window sill with lots of sunlight. I saw one flower start to become fruit then it fell off one day with the stem that attached to the plant. I was so sad but thought not to worry, there are plenty more flowers that will become fruit. Then after about a week of the other flowers have bloomed, they fell off too with the stems!!! At this rate I will never have a chilli. Why is that? I thought it could be the plant is lacked of food so I have fed it with tomato food, is this right?

Any help will be appreciated.

Comments (19)

  • jiggy
    18 years ago

    Hello there,
    Are you over watering perhaps? this happened to me, though the flowers dropped off as they were just buds never mind flowering. I dropped the watering back to twice a week instead of three times a week and they set better. I've been told that's quite common with Orange Habaneros though.
    Also, how much are you diluting the feed and how often are you feeding?
    :o)

  • bubbly4me
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Hi Jiggy

    Thankyou so much for replying. Over watering could be the case. I water it 3 times a week. I will try to cut down the watering from now on.

    I have only fed it once since I got the plant which was few days ago and the reason I fed it was because the flowers keep falling off and I thought it was because it needed feeding. I planned to feed it once a week. I follow the instruction for the tomato feed. It says 20ml in 4.5 litre water. I gave the plant about a capful of the bottle. Do you think this is enough or too much?

    Many thanks again for replying. :o)

  • willardb3
    18 years ago

    You should be feeding high P and K and low N stuff for fruiting.

    What was the NPK (numbers on bottle as in: 10-10-10) ratio of the fertilizer you used?

  • bubbly4me
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Hi Willard3

    Thankyou for you reply. It says on the bottle 4 - 4.5 - 8. What do you think?

  • byron
    18 years ago

    That sounds like agloflash

    One feeding is all you need..

  • jimster
    18 years ago

    The suggestions above are good. And also, the change from wherever it was before to its new location in the house could cause blossom drop.

    Don't assume that, because the plant dropped some blossoms, it will drop them all. My chiles in the garden dropped a noticable amount, but most remained and matured.

    Jim

  • bubbly4me
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Thank you so much everyone for all your replies. Such a friendly lot. I have lerned so much by just posting one post. Thanks again.

  • JMaxx
    18 years ago

    I believe you have a pollination problem. I had a pepper plant start in a pot in my office at work. It started in a pot containing an agave plant as a result of "composting" pepper seeds from my lunch. It produced flowers which fell off in a couple days and did not produce peppers. I realized there are no bugs in the building (at least of the pollinator variety- flys, bees, butterflies) to pollinate the flowers.

    I grabbed a paperclip, straightened it out and started manually pollinating. I gently move the clip inside the flower touching pistol and stymen while holding my hand under the flower to catch falling pollin. I rub the clip in the pollin on my hand and repeat on the next flower.

    I am now enjoying homegrown peppers grown on my desk at lunch.

  • bucketboy
    15 years ago

    i have the exact same problem but my pepper is grown in a hydroponic dwc system. for the last couple of weeks i have been testing different phs and differnt fert % but the flowers still fall off after a few days. anyone ever grown in hydroponic or know what could be a problem? i was thinking that it could be the lighting, but when i read that JMaxx grew in an office i knew that that could not be the problem. And as for them not being pollenated i tried to use my finger to rub pollen in the inners of ever flower and that never seems to help them either. like i said i am at a loss as to what to do.

  • bequita91
    8 years ago

    If there isn't enough humidity your pepper flowers will fall off. I grow mine indoors and have had to buy a humidifier. Hope that's helpful

  • esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
    8 years ago

    bequita91: Do you realize you replied to a 7 year old thread?

  • bequita91
    8 years ago

    I didn't at the time of posting, while looking for tips myself! stopped myself from going further with more pepper tips haha


  • willardb3
    8 years ago

    Flower drop probable causes:

    1. Day temp too high >95F

    2. Night temp too low <65F or too high >85F

    3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer

    4. Too much water

    5. Low light levels (reduces fertility).

    6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility)

    7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to
    pollination).

    8. Lack of pollinating insects.

    9. Size of pot

    10. Too much mineral in feedwater.

    11. Too much grower attention/anxiety.

  • György József Hamar
    5 years ago

    9. Size of pot


    Could you explain? All the other points say too much/too low etc., but this one is quite ambiguous.

  • willardb3
    5 years ago

    Size of pot is too small making plant potbound.

  • esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
    5 years ago

    That could be an issue, but my plants at badly root bound right now and flowering well. They even have several peppers on them as well.

    Maybe if the OP posted some photos, it would help a lot.

  • the_northeast_chileman
    5 years ago

    You do realize OP posted over 12 years ago?

  • Tony Beveridge
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    @esox07 (4b) Wisconsin: now that is a long time to wait for the final punch line, but hats off to you, that made me laugh out loud.

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