The foliage is growing (and there are even flower stalks), but the fruits are not set. Why pepper refuses to produce a good harvest: 6 probable reasons

1708.19

Author: Alla

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Some gardeners give up if the planted pepper seedlings do not bloom or bear fruit. Pepper is a rather demanding crop and it is necessary to create certain conditions for it in order to reap a good harvest.

Lack of attention during the rainy season

When discussing why bell peppers do not produce ovaries, many come to the conclusion: they need to be pollinated. The summer residents are really right. But now I don’t want to say: “If you want to harvest pepper, run with a brush.”

In fact, pollination occurs on its own; bees help with this. But the situation changes dramatically if the weather outside is rainy during the flowering season of the bushes. In this case, pollination either does not occur at all, or occurs, but to a minimum.

The problem is solved by treating plants with special preparations, the action of which is aimed at stimulating fruit set. These include “Zircon”, “Ovary” and “Bud”.

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Main reasons

There may be several reasons why peppers do not set fruit, so the first thing you need to do when faced with such an unpleasant phenomenon is to try to correctly make a “diagnosis”.

Violation of pepper care techniques

In the vast majority of cases, it is the gardener’s mistakes that lead to the fact that the development of the plant does not end with fruiting. Pepper is a rather demanding plant and reacts very sensitively to improper care.

Did you know? Despite the accepted tradition in our area to call sweet peppers “Bulgarian,” the first Europeans to become acquainted with this vegetable were the Spaniards. This happened around the 15th century, when the crop was brought to Europe from America, and for a long time this representative of the nightshade family was used by the inhabitants of the Old World exclusively as an ornamental plant.

Conditions that must be met for abundant laying of ovaries:

1. Correct formation of the bush. Contrary to the misconception that exists among some summer residents, this manipulation is necessary for pepper no less than for other crops grown in the home garden. In open beds, it is recommended to form two trunks for most varieties (three are usually left in a greenhouse). But, more importantly, at the initial stage of flowering, it is necessary to pinch (remove) the lowest bud that appears at the beginning of the first branch on the bush - the so-called “crown flower”. If this is not done, all the nutrients the plant receives from the soil will be directed to the formation of the first fruit, and the flowers located above, not receiving proper nutrition, will begin to dry out and crumble without ever setting fruit.
2. Balanced feeding. If at the first stage of the growing season vegetables need to be provided with the entire complex of minerals, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, then after the start of flowering, an excess of nitrogen fertilizers in the soil leads to the fact that the plant begins to actively gain green mass to the detriment of fruit formation. Therefore, fertilizers such as manure, humus, mullein, chicken droppings or urea must be used with great care, especially in the middle of the season.
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3. Pollination. Pepper is a self-pollinating crop, but this does not mean that pollen gets onto the pistil of the flower by itself. For this to happen, the pollen must be sufficiently light and volatile, and in addition, the anther itself must mature and crack in time. At low temperatures and high humidity, this does not happen, and if the air warms up to +30...+35°C, the pollen becomes sterile, and even if it gets on the pistil, fruit set does not occur. Of course, problems with pollination are more relevant for plants grown in a greenhouse, where there are no such reliable helpers as wind and insects, but under unfavorable weather conditions and in an open area, plants may not be pollinated.
4. Sufficient amount of light, heat and moisture. Pepper is a light- and heat-loving plant. With a sharp cold snap or temperature changes, flowers and fruits often fall off. The plant is less demanding of an abundance of moisture, but it can also respond to drying out of the soil by dropping buds or ovaries.

Important! The optimal temperature regime for peppers that have entered the flowering and fruiting phase is in the range of +25...+30°C. If the thermometer drops below +13°C, the root system of the plant freezes completely, the nutrition of the above-ground part stops, and as a result, both flowers and fruits die.

Diseases

A sweet pepper plantation can be affected by various diseases, including those for which there are no effective treatments (for example, tobacco mosaic). However, it should be noted that problems with fruit setting on an apparently healthy bush are almost never a direct symptom of a specific disease: the disease usually manifests itself differently, and the lack of fruiting is more likely a consequence of the lack of effective treatment.

In order to recognize the threat in time and take adequate measures to eliminate it, you should know the distinctive signs and causes of the most common pepper diseases, namely:

Pests

In addition to diseases, pest attacks can also interfere with the active formation of pepper ovaries. Perhaps the most insidious of them are ants. Building their homes in the loose soil of the bed, they harm green spaces not on their own, but because of aphids, with which these insects create stable and surprisingly strong symbioses.

Did you know? It’s hard to believe, but hardworking ants purposefully carry aphids in their jaws along the stems of agricultural plants and carefully place them on the leaves. It turns out that during the processing of food, leaf aphids secrete a sweet and sticky honey juice, which is a favorite treat of ants.

Peppers affected by aphids turn yellow and curl, new fruits do not form on the bushes, and those that have managed to appear dry out and fall off.

In addition to aphids, spider mites, slugs and Colorado potato beetles are also dangerous pests for peppers. If you do not respond to their attack in time, you may not expect a harvest.

Soil too dense

Bell peppers cannot tolerate hard and dense soil; in such conditions they do not produce a rich harvest. To be honest, when pepper grows in such soil, you don’t even have to think about the harvest, because even its foliage looks stunted, and flowering happens sometimes and is very sluggish.

The problem can only be solved by changing the bed for the crop. Well, or at least help the pepper with regular loosening.

Prevention

As a preventative measure to prevent pepper diseases, create beds of coriander, basil, and onions next to it, and sow marigolds and nasturtiums around the perimeter. This will be a good protection for the crop from the main pest - aphids. Also, as a preventive measure and to protect plants from pests, infusions of garlic or onions, dandelion stems, dry mustard or red hot pepper are used. These organic solutions are safe for humans and plants and can be used at any stage of the growing season.

Improper nitrogen administration

Millions of summer residents know that nitrogen is an indispensable fertilizer for garden plants. There is only one “but”: its regular use does not bring any good.

Timely supply of nitrogen to pepper bushes is the key to good development of its greenery. But it should be administered only during the growth period. If the pepper begins to receive nitrogen at the moment when the bushes begin to flower, prepare for barren flowering. Under such conditions, the plant begins to “fatten” - it clearly has no time to set fruit.

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You see that the harvest is approaching - remove nitrogen from the fertilizing, replacing it with potassium or complex mineral fertilizing. For health and strong ovaries, you can treat the bushes with a solution of boric acid - it also helps a lot.

What to do if there are no ovaries

First of all, it is necessary to pick off the flowers on which the ovaries have not appeared. If there are no ovaries on the entire brush, it should also be completely cut off. In this way, the plant will receive a signal about improper development and begin to form ovaries.

If possible, it is necessary to adjust the climatic conditions:

• regularly ventilate the greenhouse (a slight draft is not dangerous for the crop; stagnant warm and humid air poses a greater danger to it);
• It is recommended to regularly walk around the beds with a fan or a hairdryer on cold and carefully blow on all the flowers;
• gently shake the pepper - this will help the dew to wake up and pollinate the flower stigma;
• carry out artificial pollination - manually transfer pollen from one flower to another using a toothpick, needle or cotton swab (for ease of use, one end of the “sprayer” can be inserted into a stationery eraser).

Pepper signals that pollination has occurred. If the procedure is successful, after 2-3 days the leaf blades of the crop noticeably bend back.

If the ovaries do not appear due to temperature changes or cold, it is recommended to feed the pepper with an immune stimulant. The following drugs help well:

• "Bud";
• "Zircon";
• "Epin Extra";
• calcium nitrate.

It must be taken into account that pollination and formation of ovaries occurs during the day. At night, the plant rests. Therefore, you need to feed peppers early in the morning. In the evening this procedure will be useless.

Abuse of ash

Another passion of summer residents is ash, which is considered almost a panacea for the entire garden. Unfortunately, not everyone understands that ash microelements are not important for all crops and not at every stage of growth.

Summer residents who pour ash directly into the hole at the time of planting bell pepper seedlings do not see a good harvest. It is important to understand: ash is essentially potassium. This element does not allow greenery to develop and bloom, but at the moment of fruit set it is very necessary.

So, if you want a rich harvest of pepper, make it a rule to “treat” it with ash when the period of formation of ovaries on the bushes begins.

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Why peppers don't bloom in a greenhouse

Both in open soil and in greenhouse conditions, the lack of flowering in bell pepper is associated with violations of agricultural practices for growing vegetables. When growing a plant in a greenhouse, you need to pay maximum attention to its watering, air temperature and humidity, and timely and correctly selected feeding of pepper.

For the first feeding after planting pepper seedlings in a greenhouse, it is best to use a solution of cow or horse manure diluted with clean water in a ratio of 1:10.

For the second feeding, a mixture of superphosphate and bird droppings in a ratio of 12:1 is excellent. Such fertilizers saturate pepper bushes with all the necessary minerals, restore the fertile qualities of the soil and increase the yield of vegetable crops.

Lack of lighting

The right place for planting pepper is another guarantee of a rich harvest. The best bed for culture is the one that lies in the direction from west to east. Only with this arrangement will the plant receive exactly the lighting it needs.

A good place is one in which the pepper bushes will be warmed by the sun's rays for about 6-7 hours a day. So they definitely won’t have a bad time in the shade of the trees.

Never plant peppers densely - leave a distance of at least 40 cm between the bushes so that the sun's rays illuminate them evenly.

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Peppers on the windowsill: how to grow hot and sweet varieties

Anyone who wants to please themselves with vitamins not only in summer, but also in winter can grow pepper on the windowsill. Moreover, it is able to decorate any interior in the apartment. Pleases with abundant flowering, beautiful fruits of different colors and sizes. It is not for nothing that for a long time, even in peasant huts, pepper always grew on the windows all year round - cabbage soup, borscht without it was not food for the owner.

Temperature

Pepper is the most heat-loving vegetable crop grown in our gardens. For consistent flowering and good fruiting, the crop requires:

• Daytime temperature – +250 +270,
• At night – +160 +180,

Sudden changes from heat to cold and, conversely, have a detrimental effect on pepper:

• If the temperature drops to +130, the growth of the bush stops. Even greater cooling leads to the death of the plant.
• When the temperature is +300, moisture evaporates quickly. The soil dries out, flowers and ovaries fall off.

1. The fruiting of pepper depends on its timely planting in open ground. It is better to do this a little later than to subject it to the cold test.

The delicate plant does not tolerate sudden cold weather at all. Therefore, seedlings are planted in open ground only after return frosts or spring temperature changes have passed. The best planting dates are late May, early June. Then the soil will warm up to no less than +150. This is the minimum temperature for successful survival and growth of pepper. Only in this case will the flowering be complete. It often happens that good quality seedlings grown in greenhouse or indoor conditions are planted in open ground ahead of time. It takes a long time to adapt to thermal fluctuations, which negatively affects flowering. And, as a result, also on fruiting.

How to prevent problems

To ensure timely fruiting of peppers, preventive measures are taken in advance. They choose the right place to install the greenhouse, think through methods of ventilation, lighting, heating and irrigation.

High quality seeds are used for sowing. Before planting, they are disinfected, warmed, and treated with growth stimulants. Plant seedlings on time, without over-exposing them and preventing them from flowering in pots.

Bushes are planted in pairs, at a short distance from each other. This is necessary for cross pollination.

Before flowering, apply fertilizers with potassium, boron, phosphorus and limit fertilizing with nitrogen.

Advice from experienced summer residents

Experienced gardeners share tricks that will make the season go well:

1. Plant other plants between the rows that will safely get rid of pests - coriander, calendula, parsley, basil. In addition, parsley and coriander will interest pollinating insects.
2. Apple peels and banana skins are good lures for pollinators.
3. During the growing season, you need to trim off excessively elongated branches and shoots that are shaded. Nothing will grow on them.
4. If you pick ripe fruits more often, new fruits will form and the harvest will be richer.
5. Observe the sowing period. Seeds should be planted not in February, but in mid-March. Plant in February, the plant will “age” ahead of time.
6. It is better to sow sprouted seeds. Place the seeds on a cotton pad moistened with water, cover with the cotton pad, place in a saucer and wait for germination. If necessary, spray with water. You can add a growth stimulator - HB101 or aloe juice. After three to four days, the seeds can be planted.
7. Plant no more than 2 seeds exclusively in individual dark containers.
8. It's standard not to dive! Otherwise, seedling growth will stop for two weeks. It's better to do this:
   option one is to immediately plant the crop in 500 ml containers, so picking will not be required;
9. option two is to sow the seeds in small cups or peat tablets and then transfer them to larger containers, without touching the root system at all, and bury them with soil.