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my pepper plant had lots of buds, but after they've flowered they just fall off. I don't just mean the petals - I mean the whole of the bud and stalk all the way back to the main stem.

I can see it happening again now - there are at least two flowers where the petals have died, and the stalk looks like it's coming away from the main stem.

It's too many now to be a co-incidence - what's going on???

Are you watering your peppers enogh, if so give the a good old feed.

Hi JXM,

I had the same trouble early on so I give them two drinks a day (as they are in small pots & dry out quickly) water in the morning & weak Tom food at night & they are OK now. I also give them an occasional mist over with water if it's really hot & I'm at home

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ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

Nick - what size pots are you growing yours in? I've got mine in 4" pots, but wonder if that is too small. Still no sign of any flowers yet.

Blimey Jennie ours are in 8" ones and I thought that was a bit mean! We've already had some good cayenne chilli peppers though.

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Manda.

"Wouldn't it be nice
For maybe an hour
To not have a care."

Jennie
Again, i'm maybe just a week or two infront of you - my plants started flowering two weeks ago and have now started to produce fruits - hope this weather improves or there is no hope of them ripening

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Hello Jennie, ideally peppers want to be in 9" pots. You can get away with pots a little smaller if you feed and water more, but I think 4" is too small. I have been eating mine since the beginning of July. I think you still have time for success if you move them into bigger pots and put them in the sunniest position you have. Mine are in the greenhouse but the windowsill is fine if that is sunnier. Good luck.

Thanks Alice and SBP. When I read an article that said pot up in small pots, I was obviously thinking tooooo small. Will have to get some transplanted. Unfortunately the greenhouse is not getting as warm as I thought it might. Do peppers and chillis need a minimum of more than about 15 degrees? I might not be achieving that at the moment.

I have my peppers in B&Q buckets, 4 to each bucket and they're flourishing!

They're also in the greenhouse, but the greenhouse does have a fair bit of glass missing! What is your outside temperature?

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Rachel

Trying to tame the mad thing called a garden and failing

My Garden Mayhem...inspirational blog for me I hope!

Jennie, we've got peppers AND chillis both in the greenhouse and outside and to be honest the outdoor chillis seem to be doing best of all. We're down south though so its been fairly hot. Not sure about the minimum temperature for chillis.

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smiling is infectious....

http://www.thehudsonallotment.blogspot.com/ updated 28th May 2008

I think you might be struggling for temperture there Jennie. Ideally I think they would like about 18 degrees. What about a windowsill ?

Jennie, mine are in 8 and 9 inch pots. I water twice a day and give half strength tomato feed every second day. Most of the days my greenhouse has been at about 20degs as the chilli peppers like a really good temp.but will grow fine at a lower temp like Alice said.

Some of my chilli flowers did exactly this early on but then they really got going and are showing tiny chillis now. Maybe it's lack of initial pollination until the bees get at them?
tomatoes do it too sometimes.

Thanks for all the advice Scorcher today - well 19 degrees. I have the peppers on the windowsill in the greenhouse (it has a brick base), our house windowsills are very inset being an old house and always quite dark. I'll keep trying!

JXM, I had exactly the same problem with my pepper plants, which were in a mini greenhouse. When I went on holiday 2 weeks ago, I took them out, and put them all in my children's paddling pool, on a cool patio. They were still standing in water when I returned, and all the plants now have baby peppers on them. I think it must be lack of water and/or pollinating insects causing the problem, as they seemed much happier outside standing in water. Mine are only in 4in pots too, but they don't seem to mind.

strange, now the peppers are growing, and quite fast too, but my chilies have stopped. Despite a fast start they seem to be no bigger now than 2-3 weeks ago!

They are still green (they should be red) and only 2-4cm long. There are a few new ones that have started to grow but one went yellow and the other went greeny brown.

Any ideas what would cause them to suddenly stop growing? Are there too many? They are certainly well watered.

I put some plant food on a couple of days ago, so we'll see if that helps, but it seems a bit too drastic just for a lack of food... Maybe the drop in temperature?