Peppino F1 Chillie

Hello Merfyn....welcome to GoY!
I'm having trouble with the flowers on my chilli plant dropping, stems and all! It's in my porch, I pollinate it, water, feed with Tomorite.....any ideas please?

Whoa! Somebody's asking me for advice? You must be desperate! I'm always looking for advice myself!

Anyway, thanks for the welcome; nice to hear from you and I'll do my best for you. All I can suggest is:

1. Tomorite is what I use as well, once every week - so nothing different there!
2. Mine are all kept outdoors in pots - could try that?
3. I water well every other evening when the sun has passed over the house and the pots are in shadow. Don't water in sunshine - ever!
4. Don't laugh, but I don't even know what people are talking about when they say "they've pollinated" something! (I told you I was new to this old gardening malarkey!)
5. Ummmm...........ahhhhhh.........mmmmmm.......well that's it really!

What you've said has not happened to my plants (so far), so I don't know what else to suggest. I'm a bit concerned about the stems dropping off though - are you sure something's not physically attacking them? Normally the flowers come out for a couple of weeks, and then the actual chillies start to sprout from the centre of the flower's bud.

Sorry that I can't be of further use to you at this time, but I will ask some 'mates' if they've ever suffered the same, and then I'll ge back to you (I'll add you as a favourite).

Just a thought - what did you plant them in, i.e. what potting medium? Sometimes that can have an effect I've been told. I just use normal compost from the garden centre and don't add anything else to it except for Tomorite!

Merfyn, your chilli plants look so good why wouldn't I ask the question?!

Potted in normal potting compost, I have not put it outside as my patch faces North West, and is very exposed. The wind and rain ~ that we've had almost all summer! ~ would beat it to death!

So, as no bees can get to it, when a flower opens I twizzle a cotton bud in it and all other open flowers to pollinate.

I water every evening. Feed once a week (Have I said that already?).

And I love chillies.....

I'll have to read up on this pollination business! Like I said, I hope to see a friend of mine who grows masses of chillies (but hates eating them - heathen!) so I'll ask him about your problems and get back to you. At the moment I'm stumped! I just bought the plant from the garden centre and re-planted it in normal compost outside - as simple as that! Watch this space!

Will do....thanks!