Early flowering in peppers sometimes happens. Some gardeners leave the flowers alone, but others prefer to pinch the early blossoms so that the plant can focus on developing a good root system before focusing on fruit production. Blossoms may drop if the plant is stressed, such as too hot (above 85F or 90F day) or cold (below 60F night), or not enough or too little water. Peppers are particularly sensitive to temperature, and like daytime temps of around 70 to 80F. Transplanting may also stress the plant for a little while, but they should recover. Petals of a successfully pollinated flower will drop after a few days–look just near the area of the petals to see if a little fruit is forming. Hope this helps!

Hi Megan,

The two most important factors that can affect growing peppers with thick walls are the days to maturity and the amount of water given. If peppers are not given adequate time to reach full maturity, they will have thin walls: this is especially noticeable in hot regions. Try not to be impatient when waiting to harvest your peppers and it will pay off. As for water, the growth of peppers can be drastically influenced by an inconsistent watering schedule. Peppers like well-draining moist (not wet) soil, so be sure to water pepper plants evenly and consistently, and to water more or less only when temperatures or humidity change drastically, as they will affect the amount of water evaporating into the air. Good luck with your crop of peppers this coming growing season!

Peppers can drop their flowers for a few reasons, including temperatures that are too cool or hot, inadequate pollination, or some other cultural stress, such as too little or too much water, humidity too high or low (which can affect the pollen), soil too rich or nutrient-poor. Sudden changes in temperature, such as what might happen when moving them indoors, can also stress the plants. Some insect pests and diseases can also cause flowers to fall off. Best guess, since your plants seem otherwise healthy, would be that your plants are either just adjusting to their new environment and should eventually recover, or the flowers aren’t receiving enough pollen (peppers are self-pollinating, but wind or insects help the transfer of pollen). Since your plants are indoors, away from wind and insects, you might try gently shaking the plant a tiny bit, to mimic wind, to encourage pollen to fall onto the flower stigmas. Or, you can gently gather pollen onto a cotton swab or small paint brush (just brush the pollen-coated anthers of the flower) and then transfer the pollen to the flower stigma, in the center of each flower. Hope this helps!

If the weather’s been especially hot (which peppers prefer), the peppers may have thought that it was Summer Part II and thus, time to produce more peppers! It’s unlikely that they’ll make it to full maturity at this point in the season, but you could try to give them a couple extra weeks by employing row covers. 

Insects and diseases might cause such symptoms, but it may actually be sunscald. Bell peppers are susceptible to sunscald, which occurs during high temperatures, especially during humid conditions, and direct exposure of the fruit to sunlight during its development. It can appear as faded, papery, blistered, or gray-white sunken areas on the fruit on the side that has been exposed to the sun; the areas will later dry and possibly develop black mold. It is best to have the fruit develop under the leaves; you can provide shade cloth or use row covers to help protect them. Staking plants as they grow also helps fruit to remain under the leaf canopy. Good watering and fertilization at the appropriate times help to develop a good canopy. Hope this helps!

It’s OK to keep “potting up” peppers are they grow. They’re quite adaptable. That said, we usually stop transplanting peppers once they have flowers and fruit as the fruit and blooms may die with transplanting. A 3 gallon pot (14-inch diameter) would be suitable for a couple pepper plants.

Hi Bella,

The 18 to 24 inches of space is a recommendation. 12 inches between each plant should be plenty, so don’t remove any plants. As long as the area where your pepper plants are growing is in full sun, you should be fine. Thanks for writing!

Peppers are heat-seeking vegetables which are well suited for desert climates. That said, some pepper varieties do better than others. Jalapeños do the best, especially when grown in full Sun. Ancho and sweet banana peppers do very well, but produce even more yield when grown under shade cloth. In desert regions at around 4,000 feet of elevation, sweet bell peppers often fail to develop a thick fleshy wall, especially upon ripening, and their quality can be poorer than store-bought bells.