What's wrong with my peppers?

[wyogardener]

I have three sweet pepper plants in my garden this year and they have been blooming for a couple of weeks, but they don't seem to be setting fruit. The blossoms look great, then wither and die like you'd expect, but so far I don't see a single pepper developing. Is there something wrong with them, or am I just being too impatient. I would think I'd have seen something by now. Everything else in the garden is doing great (except the cucumbers, but that's another story) but I'm worried I'm not going to get any peppers.

[MoniDew]

I can't wait to hear the answer myself! I asked virtually the same question last week, and so far, no one seems to know the answer! Best of luck to you!

[kitsapFG]

During that same several week time period that the blooming was occuring... what has the weather been like? Were the plants adequately (over/under) watered? What is the sun exposure levels where they are planted. What fertilizer (if any) have these plants received and when?

All of those factors play into a diagnosis of what is happening.

[Ozark Homesteader]

I'm thinking along the same lines as the third poster. Hot weather, that nearing 100 degrees F, can keep peppers from setting fruit. If you got all that unusual cold, wet weather instead, your pollinators like bees may not have visited your plants. Over-fertilizing can also produce good leaves but few fruits on some plants.
Come back and tell us: was it the weather?

[shebear]

Most of the solanaceae family like to produce fruit when temps are between 65 and 85. Pollen isn't very viable outside of those temps. So if it gets too cold or to hot, the plant stops producing and waits for better temps.

[wyogardener]

I was out of town for a few days so sorry I didn't come back and offer up more info sooner. Thanks for all your replies.

Let's see. Weather has been pretty variable. First it was cool and wet, then around the end of June it warmed up (70's mostly, a few days in the low 80's - pretty typical for us in the summer. Night time temps generally are down in the 40's - could that be the problem?). We have a short growing season, so I planted a short season hybrid that I thought would be better suited to my climate. I haven't fertilized them and I was watering by hand daily, but now I have a drip system that runs daily. They are planted in full sun. I'm not sure about the bee situation (I've hand fertilized a few of my zucchini just to be safe), but I thought peppers were more like tomatoes in that they just need a bit of wind to get fertilized. My tomatoes are doing great, but I was just gone for a week and still no peppers forming. How sad.

[kitsapFG]

Peppers and tomatoes are in the same family of plants - both like warmer temperatures - but of the two, tomatoes are more forgiving of cooler night time temps than peppers. 40's for the night time lows is too cold for peppers to set fruit. If you hang in there, and the weather moderates soon, then you may still get a decent crop before the fall chill arrives.