John W_in_Indy
New Member
Well darn, after getting my green bean issue resolved (I have three plantings up and doing VERY well now with the first in full bloom, the second filling in nicely and the third just popping up with nice healthy looking seedlings and 100% germination).
My pepper plants FINALLY started growing and branching off about mid May and have nearly doubled in size in the last thirty days. I had a couple of the plants bloom really early about a month ago, but I removed the fruit as soon as it set in order to allow the plants to continue to grow and branch out more first. A couple others bloomed really early, but dropped their blooms prior to fruit set which I really didn't worry about since I would have removed the fruit anyway.
One of the plants that bloomed really early (an orange bell pepper plant) dropped a couple of blooms and I removed two tiny fruits one from the first branch and another from the second.... is at the head of the class so far as far as height and total branch clusters. It's easily 24" tall with five branch clusters and four of those looking as though they will branch again. Late last week, two blooms set and had tiny fruit. Then I noticed yesterday that right at the point where the fruit forms (in the branch of stem and leaf), it was black (or VERY dark brown) and this morning.... both fruit stems had yellowed and as soon as I touched them, they fell off.
We've had an incredible amount of rain this spring. Averages for Indianapolis are April: 3.7" - May: 4.0" - June: 3.5". So far this year we've had April: 6.98" - May: 7.0" - June: 3.52" (with two weeks to go). We've also been a bit on the cool side most of the spring with only a few days in the high 80's.
My soil was already pretty good, but I incorporated composted cow manure, sphangnam peat moss and organic top soil into the bed at planting time covering/mulching everything with shredded leaves. I've added a 50/50 mix of organic top soil and shredded leaves as a top dressing three times (when I've fertilized with organic Tomato Tone) since the first planting at the end of April. The last time I fertilized and top dressed was probably three or maybe four weeks ago.
This fruit drop is only happening on my largest plant so far, but the others are catching up in size and branch clusters with blooms getting ready to pop all over the place. So, I'm hoping to catch any problems (or maybe something I'm doing wrong) early.
Thanks in advance for your time and sorry for the long winded post. But, I wanted to give the experts here all of the info I could.
My pepper plants FINALLY started growing and branching off about mid May and have nearly doubled in size in the last thirty days. I had a couple of the plants bloom really early about a month ago, but I removed the fruit as soon as it set in order to allow the plants to continue to grow and branch out more first. A couple others bloomed really early, but dropped their blooms prior to fruit set which I really didn't worry about since I would have removed the fruit anyway.
One of the plants that bloomed really early (an orange bell pepper plant) dropped a couple of blooms and I removed two tiny fruits one from the first branch and another from the second.... is at the head of the class so far as far as height and total branch clusters. It's easily 24" tall with five branch clusters and four of those looking as though they will branch again. Late last week, two blooms set and had tiny fruit. Then I noticed yesterday that right at the point where the fruit forms (in the branch of stem and leaf), it was black (or VERY dark brown) and this morning.... both fruit stems had yellowed and as soon as I touched them, they fell off.
We've had an incredible amount of rain this spring. Averages for Indianapolis are April: 3.7" - May: 4.0" - June: 3.5". So far this year we've had April: 6.98" - May: 7.0" - June: 3.52" (with two weeks to go). We've also been a bit on the cool side most of the spring with only a few days in the high 80's.
My soil was already pretty good, but I incorporated composted cow manure, sphangnam peat moss and organic top soil into the bed at planting time covering/mulching everything with shredded leaves. I've added a 50/50 mix of organic top soil and shredded leaves as a top dressing three times (when I've fertilized with organic Tomato Tone) since the first planting at the end of April. The last time I fertilized and top dressed was probably three or maybe four weeks ago.
This fruit drop is only happening on my largest plant so far, but the others are catching up in size and branch clusters with blooms getting ready to pop all over the place. So, I'm hoping to catch any problems (or maybe something I'm doing wrong) early.
Thanks in advance for your time and sorry for the long winded post. But, I wanted to give the experts here all of the info I could.
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