Small Bell Peppers

[AMKuska]

My husband has a question for the gardening forum:

He says, "I have one bell pepper plant where the peppers are turning red before they reach any kind of size. Is there any way to encourage it to produce larger peppers? The other ones are fine."

 

[flowerbug]

it could be that the root system did not grow properly, got tangled together, there's an obstruction in the soil, or... sometimes things like this do happen.

i've never had a place indoors where i could dig up such a plant and then root prune it and see if it could regrow - it may or may not recover and continue growing.

it is too late up here for us to expect much at all from the gardens now other than some onions, dill or dried beans.

 

[digitS']

I would guess also that the plant may be genetically disposed to having small fruit. If it is a hybrid, and since peppers are self-pollinating I believe, a mistake may have been made during the crossing work. I think that this mistake happens quite often and all of the genes of the maternal parent results.

Or, that there may be too many flowers/fruits on that plant.

Steve

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Personally I think its choking at the root. Try a cactus mix sometime. Give it way more drainage and breathing room than normal but do it in something that can allow that deep root to grow into a coolness. Our clay does that to them.

 

[AMKuska]

Personally I think its choking at the root. Try a cactus mix sometime. Give it way more drainage and breathing room than normal but do it in something that can allow that deep root to grow into a coolness. Our clay does that to them.

This could be! He talked about whether a cactus mix would help. I'll pass this on, thanks!

it could be that the root system did not grow properly, got tangled together, there's an obstruction in the soil, or... sometimes things like this do happen.

i've never had a place indoors where i could dig up such a plant and then root prune it and see if it could regrow - it may or may not recover and continue growing.

it is too late up here for us to expect much at all from the gardens now other than some onions, dill or dried beans.

I doubt there is an obstruction, but could very well be root bound. I'll mention this. He may end up chucking the whole thing so experimenting with root pruning may be worthwhile.

I would guess also that the plant may be genetically disposed to having small fruit. If it is a hybrid, and since peppers are self-pollinating I believe, a mistake may have been made during the crossing work. I think that this mistake happens quite often and all of the genes of the maternal parent results.

Or, that there may be too many flowers/fruits on that plant.

Steve

Well, if pruning/potting up/changing soil doesn't work, this is probably it!

 

[flowerbug]

we don't know if the plants you put out were started by you from certain seeds or if they were plants you purchased? in my case i'd planted a bunch of plants that were grown from certain seeds that the plants were uniform in appearance when i put them in but i also did not dig the last foot of the row i planted to give the pepper plant an easier time of growing. it grew stunted and the peppers it produced were not very big or well developed - every other pepper plant in that row did well enough.