When a pepper plant has flowers but no peppers it could be because of a lack of pollination or it could be extreme temperatures. If it is too hot (over 95˚ F) or too cold (under 60˚ F) peppers plants will often drop their flowers. Pepper pollen stops working at and becomes sterile when temperatures go above 95°F or drop below 60°F at night. Shade cloth can help shield peppers on 90˚F + days to keep them cooler.
If temperatures are between 60-90˚ F, and flowers are dropping it could be that they were not pollinated. Note that sometimes younger pepper plants will abort blossoms on their own, even if the growing conditions are perfect. Also, if the conditions are right and the flowers are not dropping off, that means they are likely pollinated and it could simply be that you simply need to wait longer to see the actual peppers to develop – the pods are quite small at first, and while the blossom petals may drop, the flower stem will look green and healthy as they develop the peppers.
If pepper blossoms and flower stems are dropping from a lack of pollination, there is an easy solution to help the pepper plant make fruit. First a little science background: Pepper plants are self-pollinating. A pepper flower already has both parts needed for fertilization, the pollen and the ovules. When the pollen gets to the ovules that is fertilization and the pepper plant will begin producing fruit. Wind and pollinators, especially bumble bees, can shake the pollen to pollinate the blossom. You can shake plants gently to help them get pollinated, or even use a brush or your finger to move pollen from blossom to blossom if you don't have a lot of pollinators visiting your plants. Read more below...
Dropping Pepper Flowers
Sometimes pepper plants make flowers but they drop off, or they don't seem to be turning into peppers. This could be from a variety of reasons, such as lack of pollination, or extreme temperatures (super hot 90˚F+ temperatures often cause pepper plants can drop blooms). Don't worry if they drop their first few blossoms, especially early in the season, pepper plants will keep producing more flowers that will turn into peppers soon with wind/bee pollination and regular temperatures. In fact, with small, young seedlings, it's advised to pinch off the first few pepper flowers so the plant continues to put it's energy into growing larger.
How Pepper Flowers Work:
How to successfully pollinate peppers:
One thing to keep in mind regarding pepper pollination:
If it's very hot or cold, pollination may not occur. Pollination and pepper fruit set is not as likely to occur when daytime temperatures rise above 85˚ F or when nighttime temperatures drop below 60˚ F.
Growing Peppers Indoors?
If you are growing indoors or in a greenhouse, then it is going to be up to you to be the pollinator! Here's how:
Step one, be the wind.
Gently shake your pepper plant early in the morning. This allows the pollen to fall from the anther and move around inside the flower. When pollen lands on the stigma fertilization has occurred.
Step two, be the bee.
Bees are professional pollinators and so this second method is more reliable. Touch the pollen on the anthers with a natural paintbrush, cotton swab, or the tip of your finger and get it covered in pollen. Rub the swab onto the stigma that is sticking out above the anthers. Moving the pollen from the anthers to stigma accomplishes fertilization. Now, with the same swab, move on to all the flowers by getting more pollen on the swab and putting it on the stigmas.
These steps can be performed in the morning throughout the flowering cycle to ensure proper pollination.
One more thing – be patient!
Your pepper plants may be flowering but it takes time for peppers to arrive. If the entire bloom doesn't drop off but starts to shrivel, look for a tiny pod developing inside the spent blossom – it may be that you have peppers but they're just not big enough to see yet! If the temperatures are not too hot (over 90˚F) and if you're growing outdoors that allow for wind and bee pollination, your peppers are probably coming soon.
No flowers at all on your pepper plants?
Younger pepper plants take time to grow before they go into flowering mode, so be patient. However, if you have older plant that is very bushy plant but are not seeing any flowers, it could be caused by a variety of reasons:
- A pepper plant that is over-fertilized with nitrogen later in the season will put energy into growing more leaves but not blossoms (in fact, you may not see any flowers at all), so be careful not to over-fertilize your pepper plants with too much nitrogen! High Nitrogen fertilizers promote leafy growth, not flowering. Using more balanced fertilizers is best. Top dressing with homemade compost can also help keep your plants healthy and productive, too.
- Peppers can also stop producing flowers due to weather: with extreme heat over 90˚ F or cool temperatures below 60˚ F, pepper plants can drop blossoms and may not produce any new blooms until better weather returns.
- Remember, some peppers take a lot longer to mature than many other vegetables. Some of the super hots take a lot longer to flower and fruit, such as the Carolina Reaper which takes 90 days until the start of harvest, or the Trinidad Scorpion peppers take even longer at 120 days, the Ghost Pepper takes 110 days, and the Aji Pepper takes 100 days, and the Orange Habanero takes about 90 days of growing before the pods start coming, and Pequin plants can take 100 days to start producing peppers. So you typically won't see blooms on these plants until they have been growing for 2-3 months. On this topic, a customer recently asked us this question about their Pequin plant: Why are my Pequin pepper plants not producing? Here's why...
Short Season Peppers will produce peppers faster!
If you grow in short season regions, choosing the fastest growing peppers may be best for fastest seed-to-flower-to-pod!
That's right, everyone should grow Faster Growing Peppers!
Impatient? Starting late? If you want peppers sooner, make sure to check out our fastest growing peppers which can harvest in as little as 57 days (Chocolate Bell), Shishitos, Banana Peppers and many of our Jalapeno seeds when grown will have plants that being to harvest in just 65 days.
And one last reminder...
Don't over fertilize your peppers!
Too much nitrogen, especially later in the season, can cause your pepper plants to grow lush and green but not have any blossoms.
Read more about this pepper growing issue:
