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Cayenne peppers
Alison337
Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg
Hi. The flowers on my chili plant die before they have a chance to do anthing. I get lots of buds but they wither and die off before they have a chance to open.
I live in southern Spain so it is quite hot and dry at the minute. They sit on the patio and there are not a lot of other plants around. They get the morning sun and are shaded in the pm . I water them every evening when it's cool and if exceptonally hot water them during the day.
I am concerned because we managed to grow 2 x vampire chilies plants from seed (2 out of 10) and I don't want the same to happen to them.
They get fed 2 x a week
Any tips?
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Posts
Sounds like the plants aren't getting pollinated. Maybe the lack of other plants means there aren't a lot of insects around to pollinate your chili.
To help, you can tap your fingers on the stem in late morning, this will help with pollination
Billericay - Essex
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
The buds aren't even opening Pete, so my advice would be to change the watering regime and water them in the morning rather than the evening. I would probably water them less, too. My conservatory gets up to 40C and I only water every two or three days at most. The only other thing I can think of is that they may not like the early morning sun and might be better moved so they get it later in the day. Are the plants growing well other than the buds falling off, Alison?
The plants are growing really well and have produced a few peppers already. There is an abundance of buds which if they had all developed i would have enough peppers for the next 3 years! I moved them to this more sheltered spot as the afternoon sun can never quite brutal. The temperature on the terrace has been in excess of 50° (yes that is correct! ) so this spot is cooler in the afternoon as it is a little more shaded. They are watered daily as if I don't the plants start to wilt
In that case, try reducing the amount of feeding. Capsicums don't need feeding very much and once a fortnight would be ample. It is usually recommended to feed them with a tomato feed but at half the strength you would use on tomatoes.
Ok
I have a universal feed so I will look for tomato feed and use t diluted once a fortnight. Should I do this for my baby vampires or do they need feeding more.often?
The same for the vampires, Alison. The problem with general feeds is they tend to have a bit too much nitrogen compared with tomato feed and this can lead to excessive leafy growth at the expense of fruit which need more potash (potash is the K value in the NPK ratio printed on the pack.)
Try folier spray of epsom salts (magnesium sulphate ) it can sometimes help with flowering look on Internet for the correct amount aprox half a teaspoon per litre but please check first and as others have said keep them on the dry side they don't like wet roots