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03 Jan 13 Barbara Campbell (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

I grew capsicums very successfully last year, but have planted more seeds and all I am getting is leafy bushes with red leaves at the top of the plant, and not a capsicum in sight. What am I doing wrong?

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17 May 13 Alison McGregor (Australia - sub-tropical climate)

Hi Barbara, I had the same thing happen last year, those plants somehow survived a very hot wet summer and through autumn produced masses of fruit and are also now producing masses of new fruit after I pruned them back hard and started applying a vegetable targeted liquid plant fertilizer with seaweed included. I also added lime around the plants and sprayed the leaves with a bit of epsom salts dissolved in water around the time I pruned them. Don't give up on these ones give them a prune at the end of winter and they will come back for you, if you live in a cooler area you may have to wait til spring but if you get no frost they will come back bigger and better when the weather warms up later this year, caps do last longer than one year and I find they produce much more in the second year than the first, when they put most effort into producing strong stem and branch to support the weight of the following years fruit. Honestly one plant that did this weird year long wait had about 11 fruit on it in March. Sometimes it's better when they start out slow, good luck mate.

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