Why do my pepper plants have no peppers?

“I have 9 Aji Amarillo plants from seeds bought from Sandia, and as of July 22 in CT, not a single pepper. Started seeds in basement in February, with warming mat and grow lights. Excellent germination, great early grower, planted in outdoor raised planters and individual 5 gal pots in early May, after conditioning. They are now 5 to 6 feet tall, looking healthy, with large leaves! But why, oh why, do I not see a single pepper? I also see no buds. Would appreciate any feedback on what to do.”

Answer: If your pepper plants don't have any peppers on them, it could be for a variety of reasons. Read our recent blog post about this issue.

Pepper plants without peppers could be caused by a variety of issues: such as too much nitrogen, too hot of weather, or lack of pollination. If you're not seeing any flowers, it could be that your plants are over-fertilized with nitrogen, which results in a lush pepper plant with no blooms. 

We do find that Aji Amarillos do a lot of growth for the first two and a half months before they start to flower, so yours may just be about to go into full bloom. Aji Amarillos take about 85+ days to start to produce in ideal conditions, so if your plants are large and healthy, and the weather isn't too hot or too cold, you're probably going to see some blooms and pods forming very soon.

This Aji Amarillo plant, shown above is just now blooming in late August 2022 in Colorado. It was slow to start due to a late snow that prevented planting until June, and then there was super hot weather for most of the summer (95˚F +).  The weather has cooled a bit and now the plant has become quite robust and is now just starting to bloom. Hope it provides some pods before the first frost! If you can start your pepper plants indoors earlier to get a nice deep root system growing before planting outdoors, that helps a lot with the speed to harvest. 

Hope that they produce for you soon –
make sure not to over-fertilize with nitrogen!

One more reason why your pepper plants have no peppers:

In general, if your pepper plants have no peppers, and it's not too hot (above 90˚ F) or too cold (below 60˚ F) and your peppers are growing into robust plants, then it could simply be that they need a longer period of time to grow to produce. 

Some peppers, like super hot peppers such as the Bhut Jolokia Ghost Pepper, require a super long growing period to produce, Ghost peppers taking 110+ days and Pequin peppers typically 90-130 days! So ideally they must be started extra early indoors and also be grown in a region with a long growing season. You can also grow peppers indoors or in a greenhouse if kept from freezing – some pepper plants can grow for many years!

Want to grow peppers faster?
Grow the Fastest Growing Peppers!

These are the fastest growing peppers that you can grow from seeds in your garden! Because of this, these peppers are great for container gardening and for short seasons. If you live in a short season growing region where you have late and early frosts/snows – then growing these peppers will increase your chance of success!

Read more about this topic:
I have flowers on my pepper but no peppers!