Chilli never bloom but buds turn green

Question

My chilli plants never bloom, instead it becomes some green bud and that’s it. What is happening??

Answer 1

Those are abnormal growths, not flower buds. Normal flower buds on a chili plant look like this:

(image source)

Normal chili flower buds have a bit of air space in them, so if you squeeze one gently you can feel it compress. I suspect if you squeeze one of the growths on your plant, it would feel hard because it's solid plant matter all the way through. A pepper plant usually only makes one or two flower buds per leaf axil, whereas your plant has clusters of many bud-like growths.

Your plant is diseased. The bud-like growths in the leaf axils of your plant are tumorous growth. The rest of the plant looks unhealthy as well - many of the leaves are curling or drooping. I don't know what disease it is; none of the common chili pepper plant diseases I looked at suggest they might make this kind of tumor. The cause could be a virus, fungus, nutrient deficiency, over-abundance of a nutrient, or chemical contamination.

This plant is probably a lost cause, but if you can identify the cause, you can prevent it happening to your other plants. This article lists some common issues that pepper plants can have; look it over and see if you see any of the other symptoms listed. You could also look over the other questions on this site about chili pepper plants. Note that some diseases are spread by insects, so you should watch out for any bugs in and around your plant. If you can figure out what kind of disease it has, and it turns out that disease is curable, go ahead and cure it.

Failing that, I recommend discarding the plant, removing the soil, and thoroughly cleaning the pot to kill any pathogens. Don't compost the plant; bag it up and send it to a landfill. You don't want to contaminate your compost with whatever pathogen or chemical is causing this issue. (If you knew for sure what the cause was, it might be safe to compost it as long as you know your compost pile gets hot enough to kill the pathogen. If you don't know the cause, the safest course is to not compost it.)

If you want to be very frugal you could heat-treat the soil and re-use it. Heat treating would kill any pathogens, but if the issue is chemical contamination heat will probably not solve it. If you choose not to heat-treat the soil, bag it up with the plant and send it to the same landfill. To heat treat soil, put the soil in a sturdy plastic bag (eg a quart-size or gallon-size freezer bag) and microwave it until it gets very hot. The microwave method requires some soil moisture to produce steam, so if the soil is bone-dry add some water to the bag. Keep an eye on it as it heats, and stop the microwave if it looks like the bag is going to pop from the steam. Or spread it out on a baking tray and bake it in your oven.

To clean the pot, first brush off all the surface dirt and remove any stones. Then clean it with hot water and soap, diluted bleach, vinegar, or baking soda, or run it through the dishwasher. This article has good detailed instructions.

Once you have a clean pot and fresh potting soil, go ahead and try again. Even if you never figured out what went wrong this time, you can still succeed. Read up on how to grow chili peppers. You may find out some ways you can improve your setup. Anything you can do to make your plants happy and healthy will improve their ability to resist disease and increase their chances of thriving.