Are your pepper plants dropping blossoms and not producing peppers?
Pepper flower drop is typically a stress response to extreme temperatures or other issues, and it's not uncommon.
The most common causes include extreme temperatures (daytime above 85°F–95°F or nighttime below 50°F–60°F), irregular watering, nutrient imbalances (like excess nitrogen), poor pollination, and natural shedding because the plant produces more flowers than it can support.
Natural shedding of pepper flowers: young plants, or overloaded plants, or pepper plants under any kind of stress can naturally or periodically drop blossoms. The plants will resume production once conditions improve. Don't worry too much, they know what to do! But here's our advice to keeping them happy:
Common causes of pepper flower drop:
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Extreme Temps: If it's too hot (over 90˚F) or cold (under 60˚F), pepper flowers can drop off. In extreme heat, moving potted peppers to part shade or using shade cloth over a pepper garden can help keep peppers happier.
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Lack of Pollination: If there is no pollination from breezes or pollinators, add more flowers and native plants to attract pollinators to your landscape. Avoid using pesticides and herbicides, and create a good habitat for pollinators. Bumblebees are especially good at pollinating peppers and tomatoes with their buzz pollination skills, so plant flowers that attract them to your garden: sunflowers, echinacea, lavender, and your region's native flowers like Penstemon. You can also manually gently shake the plants, or use a paintbrush to move pollen from bloom to bloom to help pollination if grown indoors and/or where pollinators and breezes are not present. (Oscillating Fans are used by indoor growers to ensure better pollination. The air movement from the fan shakes the flower, creating a vibration that causes the pollen to drop from the anthers directly onto the stigma within the same flower.)
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Stress: If a pepper is stressed by overwatering or underwatering, it can drop blossoms. Be sure to check to make sure the soil is draining well and not soggy, it's good to let the soil dry out slightly between watering. Peppers hate soggy roots and will drop flowers if they are drowning in wet soil.
- Excess Nitrogen: Too much nitrogen fertilizer can cause pepper plants to put their energy into growing more foliage and not flowers and pods, so you could have a lush pepper plant without flowers or peppers! Hold off on heavy-nitrogen fertilizers, especially later in the season.
Read more about why a Pepper Plant has Flowers but No Peppers
