So 1 plant in one pot. Conversion tells me that's 450 grams (1 lb) of fertilizer, which is a fairly high amount (I guess it depends how much you prune). (actually 1 lb of osmocote 15-9-12 per plant sounds really high)
I think the problem here is not the amount but the fact that you add it all at once. Bags of mix usually have on them how much N, P or K they have in ppm. And it's not little, at least here in Europe (something like 1000 ppm K is common).
It also depends on watering technique. If you top water, a lot of that nitrogen in the organic will be out in like 2 weeks, and may (will) leach. You can get away with high amount of organic much better in closed system like self watering, also because the water doesn't go straight through the fertilizer every time you water releasing all the nutrients.
So, start with much less, add often, especially after fruit set. It is somewhat difficult adding organic in the middle of the season, so you can switch to inorganic.
From my observations, excess nitrogen doesn't however generally cause flower drop (at least not generalized), it's usually a very delayed fruit growth, flower sits there not dropping and not producing (it sometimes starts after a long time, and the fruit is generally small).
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