Chilli and Pepper plants - flowers?

[dexterdoglancashire]

I'm having a problem with year with my chillis and pepper plants. Lots of bushy leaf growth, and height - but no flowers. What can I do to encourage them to flower?

[WrexTheDragon]

Have you been feeding with tomato fertilizer?

I have one that is covered in fruit, one covered in flowers and another just coming into flower. It's been a funny year so far.

[reetnproper]

Hi,

Mine have been very, very slow to flower this year.

Of my 4 Sweet pepper plants 1 has yet to flower (although several flowers are now growing and one is only days away), the second has plenty of flower heads, a flower open and 2 fruits growing but they have only just started to grow and the remaining 2 have plenty of flower heads but only one open flower each.

As for my 15 (my dh loves chillis ) hot pepper plants all of them have numerous flower heads developing but none of them are near to flowering yet.

Must be an odd year for them.

Regards
Reet

[Hilary B]

How odd. Mine are bearing several developing fruits, and a few remaining flowers (that is shared fairly evenly between 3 spicy peppers and 3 chillies). One plant has fewer flowers, that is the one in a slightly smaller pot (I only have 5 of the preferred size).
All were grown in the house from seed and planted into their big pots when the weather was ready for outdoor planting.
Not had chillies or peppers reach that stage before (I underestimated the slugs last year).

[Alice]

What size pots are they in DDL.
I find if you pot them from small pots into big pots they are slow to come into flower.
They don't seem to want to flower until they can feel their roots touching the bottom and the sides of the pots.
I start them in 3" pots and keep them there until I can see their roots at the bottom, then move them to 5 " pots and leave them there til I can see the flower buds, then move them up to 9" pots.
Maybe too late to help you this year but if you have the courage try this
Select a victim and don't water it til it is about flat on it's face (stress it out) then give it a good watering. It should come into flower straight away. If that works for you then you can do the rest.
Good luck.

[rustylady]

I'm with Alice on this one. Keep them in smallish pots till they start flowering and setting fruit and then pot them on

[dexterdoglancashire]

Thanks everyone. I did start them off in small pots, then slightly bigger ones then I've got 3 to a morrisons bucket. This is what Ive done in previous years with no problems. I'll try to kill one off as a sample and see what happens.
I've just started to feed them this week, so fingers crossed.


Nuther question tho:
Can I trim off the bottom leaves of each plant as they have so much "up top" do they need the bottom leaves?

[Alice]

I wouldn't trim off the bottom leaves DDL unless they looked like they wanted to chuck them away themselves - like turning yellow.

[Snadger]

........................

Select a victim and don't water it til it is about flat on it's face (stress it out) then give it a good watering. It should come into flower straight away. If that works for you then you can do the rest.
Good luck.

I was given the same advice from a fellow allotment holder and it does seem to work!

[solway cropper]

My sweet peppers and chillies were both slow to flower but now both types are festooned with fruit. could be something to do with the scorching hot day a few weeks back when I forgot to water them and they looked very sad by nightfall.

[annacruachan]

My sweet peppers and chillies were both slow to flower but now both types are festooned with fruit. could be something to do with the scorching hot day a few weeks back when I forgot to water them and they looked very sad by nightfall.

I think that may be what happened to mine. Several really scorching days in the conservatory when I obviously didn't give them enough water. Now all three plants are full of fruit, though they are not showing signs of turning red yet. I'm not sure whether I should leave them all on and hope for the best, or pick a few to allow the plants' energy to go into the fruits that are still small.

[hsthst]

I grow chilli plants from seeds from my family in Peru. I grow them as they grow in the valleys below Arequipa and Cusco, hot and dry and no feed........gives you hot mature flavoured fruits. I don't know about plants from other parts of the world but thats how to grow the vast majority of chillis from South America.

[I have an Olive tree]

hmm my chili and sweet peppers in my greenhouse are exactly the same. The Peppers are huge but no sign of a flower ( have some in in Growbag and some in pots(. The chiliis are all in pots and have started to show signs of looking like flower buds on them. I blame those scorching hot days in June and virtually nothing since..

[zazen999]

I grow chilli plants from seeds from my family in Peru. I grow them as they grow in the valleys below Arequipa and Cusco, hot and dry and no feed........gives you hot mature flavoured fruits. I don't know about plants from other parts of the world but thats how to grow the vast majority of chillis from South America.

Are you thinking of saving some seed and sharing it around hsthst.....we have quite a few chilli heads who lurve their chillis and would love to swap seeds with you......I know because I'm one of them

I was growing 96 plus a few more at the lottie but I managed to palm - ahem I mean give some to Heywayne and Allotment Lady so I think I'm down to about 75ish now.......

I agree with letting them dry out - I also have tried nipping the first flower off and this has spurred the rest on to produce flowers, and lots of them, quite soon afterwards.