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Peppers Dropping Fruit – Why Baby Peppers Fall Off The Plant

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Have you been growing beautiful looking pepper plants but aren’t getting any fruit? There is a good chance your pepper plants have been dropping their fruit.

Pepper plants can be finicky to grow but are well worth it!

If the temperatures get too hot, too cold, or they don’t have the right amounts of fertilizer and water they will start to drop their fruit.

You’ll notice this because the little baby fruits you were getting so excited about will be laying on the ground around the plants.

Why are peppers dropping baby fruit

What Causes Peppers To Drop Their Fruit?

There are many causes of peppers dropping fruit. I know just how frustrating it can feel to see all these baby peppers on your plant, thinking you have a great harvest coming up and then nothing.

While sometimes it’s caused by weather problems, there are still things you can do to help your plants grow a lot of peppers.

Bug Damage

When peppers start falling off your plants you should first look at the stems of the peppers to see if they have been chewed.

There are many bugs like tomato hornworms that can cause a lot of damage to pepper plants and their fruit.

If you see jagged chew marks it’s likely a bug that has been mulching happily on your plants. You’ll want to check the plants over carefully for pests and use some insecticidal soap, neem oil or BTK to help keep the pests away.

Try to identify what insect is causing the damage so you can find the best method of controlling them in your garden.

If the stems of the baby peppers show no chew marks but are straight and smooth then it’s most likely that the pepper plant chose to drop the fruit.

There are 2 main reasons that pepper plants will drop their small fruit.

Lack Of Pollination

Improper pollination can be a large cause of fruit drop too.

To the pepper plant, the purpose of making peppers is to produce seed. So if the pepper flower wasn’t properly pollinated that pepper will not develop seeds inside.

The parent plant will drop the fruit to favor growing another pepper that will produce seeds.

To help increase pollination and plant set you should plant flowers in your vegetable garden. It will help to attract a wide range of bees, butterflies and other pollinators to your garden.

You can also try manually pollinating pepper plants using a Q-Tip or tiny paint brush, or even gently shaking the plants.

The Weather Is Too Hot Or Too Cold

Since peppers are originally from the tropics we often think that they will love hot weather. But when the daytime temperatures get too hot, above 95 F (35C) or below 55 F (13C) the flowers and small fruit will start to fall off.

Avoid planting pepper plants outside until the weather is staying warm, about 2 weeks after your last frost date.

If you are having a colder than normal summer you can try adding extra warmth to garden plants using floating row covers or plastic hoop tunnels.

If the weather is too hot and causing the peppers to drop their fruit try using shade cloth to protect them from the hot sun. Make sure that peppers growing in hot conditions also have enough water, 1 – 2 inches a week.

If you live in an area that has very hot summers, try planting your peppers earlier in the season so they have time to set fruit and grow larger peppers before the extremely hot weather sets in.

If you miss this window don’t worry when the temperatures cool off in late summer they will start to set fruit again.

Watering

Make sure your pepper plants are getting enough water. When peppers are under watered they get stressed and stressed plants will drop their fruit.

In normal growing conditions 1-2 inches of water each week is enough. But if you are having an extremely hot spell or drought conditions you may need to water the pepper plants every day.

Mulching deeply around the plants with wood chips or straw will help to keep the soil moist and reduce watering stress.

Check For Flower Drop

If your bell peppers have been dropping baby peppers then you should also look to see if the plants also have blossom drop. The same conditions (and a few others) that cause peppers to drop fruit will also cause flower drop to happen.

This can be from weather conditions or excessive nitrogen.

If you’ve tried making these changes and nothing seems to help with fruit drop, you may just have to wait until the growing conditions become more favorable to growing peppers.

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geri

Saturday 25th of June 2022

thanks for helping understand the pepper plants

Pam

Sunday 19th of September 2021

Good advice, thanks