HELP! What's wrong with my chocolate bell peppers

12 years ago

Hi there. I'm growing several chocolate bell peppers from seeds I saved from peppers I purchased from a pick-your-own farm. They sprouted nicely, grew well, are healthy looking plants, and had tons and tons of blossoms. But now all of my fruit (about 70-80%, 20% are fine) have this issue shown in the pictures. Help, what could it be. It's not hot enough here yet to be sunscald, and I was thinking calcium deficiency but am not sure. Can someone lend suggestions of what might be causing this? It's only the top of the peppers that are like this, soft and mushy, where the sun hits. All the rest of the pepper is great.

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Comments (11)

jenandwya
9 years ago
Here are bell peppers that are sun burnt. Do they look similar to you?
jenandwya
9 years ago
Ack, sorry. Just clicked on unanswered to see if I could help anyone. Didn't pay attention to the date. Will look out for that in the future.
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Wow! All I can say is inspect the underside of the leaves for any sign of insects. Is this all of your peppers or just one plant? If it were a fungal type disease, usually they start at the bottonm leaves and work their way up..hard to tell from your pics, but it looks all over to me? Have you had cold snaps in the last couple of weeks?..Could be cold damage. Or...did you fertilize heavily recently?
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Thanks guys. I didn't think it was, because it's really not hot where they are. But I'll try and move them where they get shade from the afternoon sun. Another question: will these plants produce more fruit than just this season? Do I keep them around and prune them back? Or should I just let them die and replant again? I've read different reports about how long pepper plants will live in good growing conditions. Some people say a few years. Any thoughts?
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balloonflower
9 years ago
I wouldn't worry about responding to old posts. Maybe it will be helpful in the future if someone searched.
jenandwya
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Why thank you balloon flower. I was considering honorably falling on my samurai sword, from causing such obvious and irreparable devastation to the community from answering an old post, then I realized exactly what you said is right. It might help someone in the future with the same question and now they won't have to look far and might even want to join this forum! Yay!
zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin
9 years ago
Of course, once an old thread has been bumped, it once again becomes current...

Jenandwya, you can put away your sword. ;-) There are quite a few threads that get bumped up every year, which makes them all the more relevant. Different people get to weigh in, bringing their own experiences and points of view. That is a good thing, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Some of us who have been here awhile sometimes bump up some of the better old threads, so that they will stay visible to searches, and the accumulated knowledge will not be lost.

The only bumps I object to are those being done for commercial purposes, something that was banned on the old GW, but which is allowed by the new ownership. Oh well, guess the site upkeep has to be paid for somehow... it beats pop-ups.
jenandwya
9 years ago
Haha, thanks y'all. I'm sure not here to make waves. I do value the amazing information offered here. Hopefully I will not need to reference this particular post for any sunburned peppers this summer!
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
9 years ago
Perfect images of a common problem.....thank for the resurrection!

Zeedman.....spamming is still not allowed by the new GardenWeb. Even those with a PRO designation cannot spout advertising for their businesses. If you see such a post, click on the little flag in the corner of the offending post. It will disappear from your view. The admin. will review the post and yank it.......or not, if it's not spammy.

(I had this discussion with Tamara, who has been so helpful with the transition.)

Some of us don't like the PRO avatars, but most of the individuals have been truly helpful and interested participants.

If you see any spam or any other issue with a post, just flag it.
theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
9 years ago
What I can't figure out is how this thread went 3 and a half years without being answered (where the heck was it hiding?). It's an obvious example of sunscald.

Rodney
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
9 years ago
Anyone can do a GardenWeb search on a specific topic. It's encouraged, as a matter of fact, to avoid the constantly repetitive questions and as a way of obtaining some information from the past.
theforgottenone1013 (SE MI zone 5b/6a)
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The post being brought back up is fine. What I meant in my previous comment was that if a question is posted on this forum, it's usually answered within a day and usually even within the hour. So it's odd, or rather it's kinda inconceivable to me, that back in 2011 this post could have gone unanswered or have been skipped over when the answer was a simple one.

Rodney
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
9 years ago
Where were YOU rodney? ;)

As for me, The thread was posted on July 28, 2011... I was probably out covering MY bells with some shade cloth to prevent them from getting sunscald. :P

Kevin