no blooms on peppers (flowers, tomatoes, leaves, frost)

[bgmv90]

This year is the only year I have not had great pepper plants. I do the same thing every year. They are in raised beds, fresh dirt, mulch, fertilizer, etc. But the hot pepper plants just didnt produce hardly any blooms, therefor no fruit. They were also a little leggy. But why wouldn't they flower this year? Was it too hot? Did I buy defective plants?

[wit-nit]

Erratic weather, inconsistent watering, too much fertilizer, all are possibilities.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by wit-nit

Erratic weather, inconsistent watering, too much fertilizer, all are possibilities.

Or the wrong fertilizer. For blooming you want something with the higher middle NPK number such as 10-52-10. Too much nitrogen, the first number, causes a lot of leaves and branches. I use 20-20-20 all season and get good results. If they are leggy, it may also be that they were shaded by other plants and didn't get enough sun.

[bgmv90]

Sometimes they get a small just started pepper and then it seems to shrivel and bend on the stalk piece that attaches to plant.

[DONBY]

Many of my acquaintance said the same thing for pepper this year, maybe because of the weather ?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by bgmv90

This year is the only year I have not had great pepper plants. I do the same thing every year. They are in raised beds, fresh dirt, mulch, fertilizer, etc. But the hot pepper plants just didnt produce hardly any blooms, therefor no fruit. They were also a little leggy. But why wouldn't they flower this year? Was it too hot? Did I buy defective plants?

I think it has been a little strange this year due to weather not being normal most places in the country. Here in NWA we have had a cool summer, but no rain since it rained the entire month of April almost. We all had gardens that took off like a bat out of H#LL but many of us had the bat land flat. The best overall harvest seemed to be tomatoes, followed by cukes for most of us. The worst, so far has been peppers. Our peppers are doing fair, but nothing like in years past and I too, have babied them. I know our friends who share their wonderful garden produce with us haven't had hardly any peppers to share.

Of course I can only judge by what we have had here. I have no idea where you live or what your summer has been like. I do know we still have about a month to go before the plants stop producing. What we seem to have a lot of are hot cherry peppers. They came from a 4 plant pack that were severely damaged in our late frost. I picked the pack up for about .50 and every darn plant survived. I don't have a lot, but certainly enough for us and to share with a few friends.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by bgmv90

Sometimes they get a small just started pepper and then it seems to shrivel and bend on the stalk piece that attaches to plant.

That would most likely be lack of pollination, but could also be too hot when in blossom (above 90F), or too cold. They are self pollinating but need the breeze, like tomatoes. If there are very few flowers or the air is very still they won't mature. You can use a small soft artists brush gently hitting the center of each flower to help them.

[NickMan7]

It's definitely environmental and I wouldn't worry too much about it. Next year you'll get to try again and I'm sure you'll get a bumper crop!

My peppers are slower this year, too, particularly the banana peppers, though they are still producing more abundantly than some other people I know. I've gotten almost 100 peppers from 5 plants, but I got more than 150 peppers from two plants last year, so.. 'tis what 'tis. Last year was much hotter and drier, both of which peppers prefer.