Hi Mia,

It's the heat. Sweet peppers are very sensitive to hot temperatures. You'll get the best fruit set on sweet pepper plants when the nightime lows are 60 degrees or higher and the daytime lows are 85 degrees or lower. Here in Oklahoma, we have a fairly narrow window of opportunity when those temperatures exist while the plants are large enough to flower or fruit.

Some years we go from being too cold at night to too hot during the day in a very brief period, and in those years you may not get good sweet pepper fruit set until fall brings substantially cooler temperatures.

Hot peppers tolerate slightly warmer temperatures, but even they will slow down a great deal in production during the hottest summer weather.

Your plants sound fine and I don't think there's anything more you can do to "help" them produce except just be patient and wait for the temperatures to cool down a little bit more. Pepper plants can be very slow to recover from drought stress, much more so than most other veggies.

Even though we talk about what sort of high temps are 'too high' or low temps are 'too low' for fruitset, some research indicates that the more important factor is what the temperature averages out to for a 24-hour period, but that's the kind of info more useful to commercial greenhouse growers who can manipulate temperatures to some degree inside their greenhouses.

As for hand-pollinating, I've never tried it and don't know anyone who has. I'm sure if you Google you can find directions that tell you how. Like tomatoes, peppers have perfect flowers and pollinate themselves so they do not rely on pollinators for assistance. In general, all you have to do to help them is to gently shake the plants (gently, gently, gently because they are more brittle than tomato plants and break more easily) or thump the blossoms to cause the pollen to shed from the anthers.

Peppers are a little pickier about fruit set than tomatoes. Sometimes, even if you can get peppers to set fruit in very hot conditions----maybe because you had an extra-cool summer day with temps that they liked--they'll abort the fruit because the growing conditions aren't optimal for fruit development. For that reason, hand-pollinating doesn't guarantee success. And, oddly, peppers can be over-pollinated and develop a lot of scarring and look sort of defective if they're pollinated too much.

Patience, patience and more patience should pay off. If it ever cools off so temps are in the right range, your plants sound like they're poised to give you great production.

Dawn

I set my peppers out from late to very late. The NM Chile types have all set well. Several of the earliest are just loaded with fruit. I picked one yesterday. There should be a lot maturing starting in another 2 weeks. I can't complain at all. I had to pull one Nu-Mex Heritage 6-4. It had disease issues. The later plants are blooming and setting good also. My top setting NM chile type is a variety selected by a breeder/grower on the Arkansas Valley in CO a 150 miles from me. It loaded up during the intense heat. It was developed in a climate very similar to mine and maybe why it has done so well. Another variety that is right behind it is one from a reservation in NM. I have been very surprised by it. The first year I've grown it. Again maybe because it is native to conditions similar to what we've had. I know the heat has killed the pollen on many crops including field crops. I heard of some field corn that they are cutting for silage because the heat killed the pollen and there was little if any kernels on the ears. So overall I've been surprised by the fruit set I've seen on the plants. The sweet peppers were set out later than my first chile types. They were planted when I planted the second round of chile types. They have been slower to set but have noticed several plants starting to load up now. Again will be 2-3 weeks before I will be picking many many. I have picked one bell pepper so far. And I picked it so the plant would grown and set more. I've used some new fertilizers I will post more about from Fox Farms. Have also used their liquid organic bloom maker. I'm impressed so far. I haven't been happy with Tomato Tone since they changed it. This is a little pricey but results have been very good. Overall my peppers although a lot later are on course to do better overall than last year. I do have my plants right on the north side of my tomato plants which gives them some wind break.And some of my tomato plants have got so big and bushy they are starting to shade some of them a little too much.

I agree with Dawn's post and overall patience is the best. Don't feel there would be much use hand pollinating. You can brush the plants like you do tomato plants. I feel it helps sometimes. Like I mentioned in another thread. I fertilize a lot different than most. You mention your plants are over waist high. One possibility is too much nitrogen. Your plants went out 4-10 weeks earlier than mine. So another reason they are taller than mine. I use fertilizers high in P and moderate in K and lower in N usually. I strive for bushy strong plants that may not be as tall but have found that overall they produce more for me. Anytime I've had lots of lush tall plants and foliage I have found production drops off. One grower who I have learned a lot from and I followed his advice on how to grow garlic stated he felt most tomato plants if grown properly should be in the 5-6 foot range. With some exceptions on each side. I feel the same can be said about peppers especially the chile types. If you visit the chile fields in NM and CO you will seldom see plants much over 3 foot tall. Sweet peppers I feel will be some taller. Again not anything you can do now. But when adding manure and compost before planting I'm very careful about using anything with much N in it. Again just a personal practice developed over the years I've gardened. Jay

Thank you for the help and encouragement, Dawn and Jay. I'm not sure which varieties composed the mix, so I think that's why some plants are shorter and bushier and some are so tall. I think the shorter ones bloomed first. And since I'm just a bit over five feet, my "waist-high" is probably no higher than 3 ft, but I've only ever planted one or two Bells and they never got taller than a foot or so.

I'll save these variety recommendations for plans for next year, since if I get a good pepper off this batch I have no way to tell what sort it as the seed package didn't specify. Live and learn!

Ive had the same experience/question/problem as Mia...thanks for asking. Beautiful pepper plants...no peppers. I was wondering if they have "perfect flowers" like tomatos. Thanks Yall!