First time pepper grower needs advice please

I can't stand peppers, but my daughter likes them so I'm having a go at growing some (Bellboy) for the first time.

I've probably done everything wrong up to now, but I've got 3 growing in a grow bag in the greenhouse and basically, the instructions said to treat them much like tomatoes, to water them regularly and feed with a high potash liquid fertiliser once the first fruit had set and that they would need to be tied in.

Well - they went in at the same time as the tomatoes and have finally meteored up to the grand height of ..... about 12". One plant has a number of tiny white flowers on it, one has a couple of flowers, whilst the third which at one time was covered with white fly, (which I 'dealt with'), looks healthy enough, although the leaves whilst still dark green and glossy, have curled over on themselves and there is no sign of any flower.

So - that's what I've done wrong, what (if anything) can I now do to redeem the situation? Should I pinch out the growing tips? Will the 'sad' one recover? And one last question - the leaf axils (on all the plants) have a distinctly black tinge to them, it doesn't appear to be having a detrimental effect, by which I mean the leaves seem healthy and aren't dropping off, so is that 'normal'?

Any advice gratefully received.

 

They sound OK to me (could be better maybe, but my plants get plenty of neglect due to time pressures, and sound much the same as yours ...)

Pretty sure they need insect pollination, so if the insects can't easily get to them, or aren't doing, you might want to use a child's paintbrush (or something similar) to pollinate the flowers to encourage them to set

 

Thank you Kristen, I'll have a go with the paintbrush. I think I expected them to grow taller and just generally be 'bigger' plants, the fact that they haven't has kind of 'thrown' me. But I shall persevere - even 1 pepper will be 100% increase on previous years!

 

Mine ain't doing that well either, have noticed a total lack of Bees over the last couple of weeks, We're assured though that we will get 2 days of summer at the end of the month? FAT CHANCE!

 

What 2 whole consecutive days?

 

They never grow as tall as Toms, but like similar conditions or even a bit warmer.
Just the usual tap of the flowers at mid day is good enough to provide pollination.

I wouldn't pinch them out it delays flowering.They flower then branch, so you need to get them to form the first flower.

I wouldn't worry about any black tinge at the leaf axils.

The weather has not been good but under glass they should be doing OK.

 

Thank you Pete - everything I wanted/needed to know in a nutshell.

Going on what's there at the moment, if all the flowers were to develop into fruit, I'd have - oh! about ... 7!! (It's a start! )