Green peppers no grow no blossoms HELP!

I started my green peppers from seed inside and transplanted them into a brand new garden which was a lawn. Most all plants in my garden were started from seed.

The soil was sandy but I amended it with garden soil and manure. I also added some lime because it is about 4 feet from the tomatoes. I have not done any soil testing. Yet.

The green pepper plants are not even twice the size of when they were transplanted on May 15th. They have produced no flowers. I fertilized them with Miracle Grow but that did not seem to help.

Everything else is growing like gangbusters. The tomatoes have tomatoes and lots of buds. The same with the beans planted on the other side of the peppers (except they have beans, not tomatoes!) Onions, cukes, herbs, peas, broccoli, etc are all progressing normally.

Any ideas? There is some slug damage on the plants nearest the grass. I can't find any other damage or spots.

What are your temps and have you been getting any rain?

No rain for a while, temps have been moderate, highs no higher than 85, this week in the 70's and 80's. I do have a watering system that waters twice a day (sand does not hold water).

And, like I said before, everything else is doing great!

This message was edited Jul 9, 2009 7:23 PM

I also have sandy soil and it leaches nutrients so fast that frequent fertilizer is needed. Also it doesn't hold organic matter very long. It just seems to disappear. I think your weather has been great for most things but peppers like it hot as in close to 90+. Keep adding all the organics you can, fertilize regularly and don't forget the occasional spoon full of epsom salts and when the real summer weather arrives, they'll get going.

Twiggy, what are the epsom salts for?

I'm in the same situation as you, only my soil is more on the clay side. The attached photo is what one of them looked like after the ridiculous amount of rain we had. Lost of few. Many of them hung in there, but haven't grown much, even though the soil is obviously fertile. Everything else is growing like crazy.

Temps jumped up for a while there and now they're fairly low much of the day/night. I thought I'd see blossoms soon but haven't. Bad weather for peppers, I guess. My pumpkins, though, are pollinating like crazy. I'd rather be making salsa from my own garden, but I guess we get what mother nature gives us.

http://gardening.about.com/od/organicgardenin1/f/Epsom_Salts.htm

It makes stronger plants. I've been using it for years with good results. There's a lot discussion on the tomato forum about it. It helps strengthen cell walls and aids in the uptake of other nutrients. Many commercial fertilizers are void of micronutrients to start with. Epsom salts is magnesium and sulfate which are both required by most plants. This article is a good explanation. I use granular fertilizer like 8-8-8 or 13-13-13. I measure out 5 cups of fertilizer and 1 cup of epsom salts and mix it up in a big coffee can. Once the peppers and tomatoes start blooming, they get a TBS every 2 weeks. Lesser amounts when they're smaller. Sandy soil requires more feeding because of more frequent watering.

Thanks twiggybuds!

I'll try fertilizing more often and the epsom salts. This is the first time a garden has been at this site and I figure it will take a few years to get the soil right. It was kinda thrown together with some amendments this year, and I have the fall to start for next year. I'll have leaves and pine needles, and there are horse farms in this area with free all you can take horse manure. There's one right across the road, and I can wheel my wheelbarrow there and back easily! Darn stuff is heavy! And I need to test the soil...

Thanks for that information Twiggy. That sounds like the problem with the peppers.

Peppers need it hot. My garden is doing fairly well but it's been so cool and damp that the peppers are growing at a snail's pace. If things don't change I'm doubting much of a pepper harvest at all.

There are just some things you can't control, and the weather is one of them. It would probably be too late to put black plastic around them, but if you can manage it you may want to give it a try.

Don't feel bad--probably everyone else in your area is looking at small pepper plants too. I bet your peas are super happy!

My peas are going for a second round!

Everyone . . . except for the people walking out of the big-box stores with plants with peppers just about ready to harvest hanging from them - ha! At that point, seems like a trip to the produce stand would be easier.

Those overgrown plants will fade and not produce much over the season.

Honeybee the trench composting method is IMHO the best way to get the most out of the compost. When I lived near Atlanta my garden was on a slight slope with clay soil. It did wonders for the soil and those nutrients slowly leached downhill instead of just down. Best garden I ever had. Here on my sand I used to run over old crops and with a push mower and everything stayed in the garden that didn't come to the kitchen. I used to pile raked up leaves and grass clippings alongside the garden and use the mower to chop and distribute them into the garden. I could never see any reason to handle it twice as in making a compost pile.

I have to garden mostly in pots now because I'm handicapped. Now I keep a couple larger pots under fruit trees and put waste in one at a time until it fills and top it with a bit of soil. Then I start on another. The trees get the benefit of what washes out of the pots and I can use the remains like regular compost.

except for the people walking out of the big-box stores with plants with peppers just about ready to harvest hanging from them...
-dividedsky

Actually I was thinking of getting some hanging peppers from Walmart, maybe my peppers might be producing by the time those fade...

:o) Oh, it crossed my mind, too!

Hi my peppers are in the same condition and I am wondering if I can put a piece of plastic over them? We are having temperatures of around 70-80 but at night it is about 50 degrees. I saw a set up on Dave's Garden and thought maybe it would help.

All of my pepper plants have been producing well. I noticed that once the fruit set heavily, 4-6 peppers or so on a plant, it quit flowering and all the plant's energy went to growing the fruit. Now that I've harvest most of the fruit off those plants, the plants have started flowering and setting fruit again. That makes me very happy as it's been over 100º here for the past week or so. We do need to erect some kind of shade for them, though as most are suffering from sunscald. I still have 2 yellow pepper plants that each have 1 pepper on them, and both of my red pepper plants have 1 pepper left on them.

The jalapeno plant is producing like crazy! Thankfully, we only have one of those since we don't eat a lot of jalapenos!

I am a bit west of INDY and my plants have been out since May. My plants have grown well and have lots of blossoms on the sweet peppers and blossoms & little peppers on the poblano's!!

Lucky you, nanny! :o) Sounds like you're doing something right.

Anybody have any suggestions on pepper varieties that would be more likely to do well in 5b? It gets hot in the summer, but not Texas hot, by any means.

Texas hot is indeed HOT! LOL It's 103º right now at 5:15pm.

dividedsky, we are in the same zone. I would have thought since Indianapolis is so much further south than me, you'd be in a warmer zone.

I think they create the map based on average temperatures and a number of factors other than distance from the equator play into that. The line isn't too far south of here, though.

I got some big box store peppers hanging in a pouch. Somehow I had the good luck that they went on half price sale yesterday and I got 2 for the price of one! Masn, I almost went crazy with that sale!!!

We just harvested one red and 2 yellow peppers this morning. One of our reds is loaded with new babies!

Looks like a tiny blossom is forming...

. . . on your store-boughts?

doh! just kidding with ya. congrats.

The store boughts came with blossoms and peppers already on them. They are hanging ones in those green pouches.

This tiny blossom is on one of mine.

:o)

big smiles.

Woohoo!!

I picked my first green sweet pepper last evening, stir fried it with some onions, soybeans and green beans.

All my hard work is finally paying off :)

That's great, Honeybee! It's so satisfying eating something you've grown, isn't it? We ate the last red pepper and the 2 last yellow peppers we'd harvested last night with our chicken fajitas. They were very tasty!!

False alarm, no blossom...

Well, boo hiss! Sorry about that.

bolino - hope you have blossoms soon :)

stephanietx - yes, I agree. Homegrown veggies always taste so much better than store bought - even when there's specks of dirt on them 'cause you can't wait long enough to go back to the kitchen faucet and wash them!

I've been picking cherry tomatoes every morning for the past week, and not one has made it out of the garden.

yes, they do - and they're safer.

I've read that grocery store bell peppers in particular have a lot of toxins. www.whatsonmyfood.org

I read a interesting article on thriftyfun.com I said to get used shier curtains from yard sales and make a frame for them and put it over the plant that needs shade in the hot times, the rain or the water from the sprinkler goes through and they get the moister and the shade from the sun I sent it to my brother who live in Texas.
I live in Spokane WA and we only have a very few days of "hot" weather.
I hope this helps the folk it the Hot areas

I guess if your sheer was dark enough that would work, but most sheer curtains are lighter and wouldn't provide an ounce of shade!

Ditto! I keep a closed white sheer over my double door in winter and I start all my seedlings there without any lights until they have first or second true leaves. Then they go to the GH and never miss a beat. I don't notice any difference in their growth with or without the sheer.

I need some shade cloth by next summer and I'm debating what kind to get. I'm trying to extend production on my squash, cukes and tomatoes that just give up in the blazing heat.