What Causes Pepper Blossoms to Turn Brown After Flowering?

Pollination

• When pepper flowers turn brown it means the blossoms are dying before they have a chance to develop into peppers. You'll need bees around, since they're nature's pollinators. If it is not obvious that you have plenty of bees doing their work every day, you'll want to help your pepper flowers by hand-pollinating, using a soft artist's paintbrush to move the pepper flower pollen from one flower to another. Help attract more bees to your pepper plants by growing bee-attracting flowers near your peppers. Bee balm, zinnias, rudbeckia and penstemon are ideal bee attracting plants.

Water

• When a plant is under stress it begins to eliminate energy-consuming parts of the plant as a mechanism of survival. One of the first part to be eliminated are the flowers, particularly if the flowers are to later produce fruit. When a pepper plant receives either too much water or not enough water over an extended period, the pepper flowers will begin to brown, die and drop from the plant, even if the flower has been pollinated. Make sure your pepper plant is not in soggy soil but is growing in evenly moist ground that is regularly irrigated as needed.

Nutrients

• Lack of needed nutrients for your pepper plant can cause a stress on the plant. Additionally, because the flower is the start of a pepper fruit, without sufficient, vital nutrients to feed the development of a pepper, the flower will brown and die. As flower buds develop on your pepper plant, decrease the amount of nitrogen while increasing the phosphorus and potassium feeding. A formulated fertilizer of 5-10-10 is a common mix to use once flower buds appear and through fruit development.

Climate

• Climate can impact the flowers on your pepper plant -- too hot, too cold, too dry, too humid, too cloudy; any atmospheric circumstance can affect your plants' growth. Like any other stress producing situation, the pepper flowers will brown and drop from the plant to save the plant. During pollination, pepper flowers are particularly sensitive to temperature ranges and can drop, brown or not pollinate when temperatures drop below 58 degrees F or exceed 85 degrees F.