[johnkelly]

Anyone able to offer any advice here. My chilli plants grow well on the kitchen windowsill. They're covered in flowers but after a few days each flower turns light brown and then the stalk it's on drops off the plant resulting in no chillis. What am I doing wrong?

John Kelly

[Aidy]

Your doing nothing wrong mate, this normal for chillies, some zare worse than others for it, just keep at it and they will produce when good and ready, what are you growing?

[johnkelly]

I've no idea - in the trues spirit of cheapness I rescued a few seeds from a chilli we were going to put in the compost bin and tried to see if they'd grow.

Thanks for the reassurance. I'll leave them to their own devices :-)

[Fat Hen]

This happened to the early flowers on my chillis last year.  I reckon it's cos they ain't fertililsed.  Mine were all outside and it's still a bit early for active insect life.  I've seen bees but they're looking for some place to nest and not interested in flowers yet.

Some people tickle the flowers with a paint brush, although this works great with toms i've not had any success with chillis.

Another couple of weeks should see insect life beocming more active and your plants should start setting fruit.

If you can put them out against a sheltered south facing wall.

[emmalm]

It is probably because they are inside, once the insects get to them you'll be off and running

[Sheena]

I would concur with the other posters, that the plant need access to insects

I had the exact same problem with an Aubergine plant that I tended all summer in my porch, every single flower fell off. I eventually gave up at the end of August and stuck it out on the patio, 3 weeks later there was a small aubergine there!