A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Baby Bell Peppers falling off

Hello, everybody. While in the garden today, i noticed that a few of my bell peppers have been falling off the plant before the pepper is mature. There are 10 or so peppers on one plant, all just a little larger than a golf ball. There are no signs of physical damage, the break from where they are supposed to be broke off. The break is clean, so i'm sure the pepper was not meant for a squrrils' lunch!
Does anybody know why this is happening, if the baby peppers that have fallen off are eatible, or how to prevent this?
Maybe just the bad weather or lack of sun from all the rain is causing this...
Thanks you for all your help!

I have the same problem happening with some of mine too Mark...and like you, they are clean breaks, and no sign of animals getting to them and some of mine have been a little larger in size too?
Let me know what you find out.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt...
All you can do is to cage the pepper plants.

ok, Thank you Deborah!

thanks Deborah

You're welcome !

Hang on, I just re-read both of your posts.
It probably IS a squirrel, as they nip off cleanly at the stem and do NOT eat the pepper.
They do the same thing to my baby lemons.
I thought your posts were suspecting squirrel damage. (I need to read more carefully !)
I'm guessing that once a squirrel gets a taste of peppers and lemons (from biting the stem) they aren't interested and so leave the fruit. Argh !

:p :p it is so maddening..
Why cant they just eat them then...it wouldnt seem like such waste!!!!

well, Penny... I've been taking the peppers off the ground (because they are intact) and eating them myself! I don't find anything wrong with them, and, of course, i clean them throughly.

I saved the seeds to plant next year, just to see what happens, so they aren't a COMPLETE waste...

I've had the same problems with my peppers--and sometimes they baby peppers would just disappear! I did find a dozen or so in the pocket of my daughters which would explain the missing ones. I wonder though if the squirrels (we've got a little squirrel family close by) are also picking them!

Thats what we did lastnight too Mark,....picked them up and washed them and into a salad they went, but even some of the tiniest ones are coming off...I'm talking the size of a pea...who knows?????

Squirrels carry salmonella in their mouths.
PLEASE be careful, OK?

Interestingly enough, wild types of peppers drop their fruit very easily. It's a reproductive strategy, as it makes seed dispersal by various creatures more likely. So, somewhere in the gene pool of our domestic peppers there is a trait for dropping fruit. I would not be surprised to see this behavior with mini-peppers as they are most likely closer genetically to wild peppers. Also, some fruit drop may occur due to high heat. Be that as it may, I would harvest the fallen fruit. There shouldn't be a thing in the world wrong with them.

Excellent point, Mr. Clint.