Hi all...

My next door neighbor planted some bell peppers this year in 5 gallon buckets... the peppers grow to 1/2" to 1.5" and then just fall off. He actually got to eat one that grew to 3.5 to 4", but that was the only one.

He wants to know why..? Any ideas?

Thanks as always!

MARK

Do the peppers seem to have soft or rotten spots on the stems? They usually hang on so tight you have to use garden shears to get them off without breaking the branches. Could it be cutworm damage?
Any strange marks or color to the leaves to indicate a plant disease?
If you see no obvious signs to why they are falling off, the plant is probably deliberately dropping them.
Several things could be going on. In very hot weather the plants will blossom but not set seed. If the little pepper pod, which is actually the ovary, has no seeds forming inside it it will drop off. Once the little seeds form they give off plant hormones that control the growth of the pod.
Or it could be a chromosomal problem where that particular plant has damaged chromosomes and would produce deformed seeds so the plant doesn't get the right hormone levels and the deformed seeds die. Just like on an apple tree if the blossom gets frosted(chromosome damage) or doesn't get pollinated the little apple doesn't grow and drops off on the ground.
We basically have to buy our transplants and can't be too choosy, but not every seed that forms inside a pepper has the same genetic potential. You know how Down's Syndrome works, thought to be if the parents are too old, it's more likely to occur? Well the seed that grew the transplant could have been too old or had some other genetic problem, we can't tell that until we try to get it to set peppers for us. Think of an ear of corn, the seeds close to the end of the cob are small and stunted. A pepper pod produces all it's seeds in one year and then dies, it doesn't have years and years to produce seeds until it's older ones are defective, it produces some good seed and some bad seed. The bad seed grows into a pepper plant but is not productive

No visible damage or marks or discoloring... just peppers that grow about 1/2 to 3/4" and then drop off.

Thanks for all the info... I think we'll chalk this one up to a bad batch of seeds and see what happens next year!

Thank you for answering this one W&B... ;)

MARK

Hi Mark, I'm looking for the same info. I planted two peppers upside down in a 5 gallon bucket. There where many, many pods. Two on each plant grew to aprx 3". (They were tasty.) The stems on all the others turned yellow and fell off. No more new pods. Just a healthy looking plant.

I'm still searching for clues...

There should be some holes in the bottom of the bucket. Bell peppers have a fairly large root bundle and will become root bound if not given room to expand... Also, they don't like to sit in standing water.


Joe

Thanks Joe. The peppers are growing upside-down from holes in the bucket. You mentioned peppers have a large root ball... Since I have two peppers growing in the same bucket, is it possible this is the problem? If so, would removing 1 of them resurrect the other?

I think one thing you could do, without separating your plants, is to mix 1/2 cup epsom salt to 5 gallons of water. When you water your plant add a couple of cups of this solution to the wet soil. Make sure to water first, leaving the soil wet, thyen add the epson salt water. Bell peppers do with this small suppliment...


Joe