I'm about to harvest the last of my ripe pods from my Caribbean Red plant. What's next for this plant? It hasn't produced new flowers for over a month and leaves are slowly and systematically turning yellow and dropping. Is this the normal life cycle of a pepper plant? When will it start flowering and producing pods again? I live in south Fl, so my grow season is pretty much all year round. Hope this isn't the end for this particular plant, it did yield a fairly decent amount of pods.
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harvesting Final harvest frim my caribbean red plant. Now what?
- Thread starter Lucifer
- Start date
Turn it to a bonchi
Lucifer said:
Totally.
Have you tried fertilising it? How old is it?
Has flowering and pod production slowed because of hot weather? If so, it'll probably pick up again in fall.
Not only has it slowed, it flat out stopped. It hasn't produced a new flower in over a month. Basically, all the flowers that budded about a month ago r now ripe. I'm about to harvest them today. Once I do that, thats it. The plant has no more flowers. I'm not sure if the weather has anything to do with it.dash 2 said:
millworkman
Extreme Member
Pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures. Please. 
I would post pics but there really is nothing to it. I just picked 40-50 pods from it, so all it is now is just a healthy looking plant with nothing on it but leaves.millworkman said:Pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures. Please.
I Would experiment with it, but it really is a healthy looking plant. I really don't want to kill it.juanitos said:
Lucifer said:
Please post some pics. We may be able to see something that you're not seeing or have been overlooking. Also, how hot has it been since it stopped flowering?
Lucifer said:
I agree. Without knowing what is the problem, doing something drastic could make it worse.
millworkman
Extreme Member
It's not a healthy plant if it's not producing in over a month. Post some pictures. A lot of them.
The pictures will probably tell us, but if it is in very sandy soil (planted in the ground) then my bet is on exhausted soil, that it desperately needs fertilized in addition to some cooler summer nights to get blooms to set, and stay till they turn into pods.
Either way unless the stems themselves go terribly limp or turn brown on the newer growth, there is still hope for this plant to produce later even if all current leaves are lost.
Either way unless the stems themselves go terribly limp or turn brown on the newer growth, there is still hope for this plant to produce later even if all current leaves are lost.
That looks really healthy to me. Picking all the fruit might induce it into producing flowers again. What really happens with some plants is that fruiting can inhibit flowering. This is not consistent for me among pepper varieties - some fruit and bloom continuously, others do better with an occasional pick-off-all-fruit event - and then they restart. With a short season, perhaps some plants would exhibit this phenomenon, but they don't get the chance. I've really seen this most dramatically on tomatoes (the determinate ones can be coaxed into a rebloom this way) - but some peppers seem to be like this too. You might also have a nitrogen excess - try cutting off or cutting down nitrogen fertilizer for awhile - and increasing P (mostly this) and K. Your pot is small (in ratio to the plant - but your plant looks just perfect) so the effects of this should be quick. Excess nitrogen is rarely a problem for me because of the low humidity, alkaline soils, and high level of sunlight - which stresses the plants so they can only take up so much nitrogen, but tomatoes can be sent on this path (though it's also a bit harder to do here than other places). I can't really see that you would have a heat problem in this location - on a balcony - unless you've had incredibly hot weather. Days over 95 F - for most of the day? I have a friend with a place down there and he say's it's not been that hot - though hot enough!
Lastly - stressing the plant a bit could help - though I would do this as a last resort. Let it dry out a little - till the leaves droop, then water. Just do this a few times, then back to normal. Sometimes this can induce flowering - but it's detrimental to flowering if it's already happening, so tread carefully. You have time there with great weather nearly all year - so no need to jump into drastic measures.
Lastly - stressing the plant a bit could help - though I would do this as a last resort. Let it dry out a little - till the leaves droop, then water. Just do this a few times, then back to normal. Sometimes this can induce flowering - but it's detrimental to flowering if it's already happening, so tread carefully. You have time there with great weather nearly all year - so no need to jump into drastic measures.