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Florida Gardening

Um....what's the deal w/my bell peppers?

15 years ago

My bell peppers are tear-drop shaped and small - like the size of a golf ball. That's as big as they grew - and in the weird shape. They are ripe - left them on until they turned red. But, they are deformed. The leaves are pale..not dark green. Cut one open and it smells like a pepper.

What the heck!?!?!...I have a misting system that runs twice a day...I added lots of cow manure. Humus. Fertilizer.

I do not get it.

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Comments (7)

corrie22
15 years ago
You know, you're description is almost the total opposite of how I grow bells.

I pick the hotest, dryest part of the yard.
Grow them in pots in last years tomato dirt.
Do not mix any manure or anything that will hold water.
Very little fertilizer.
And plant three to a 7gal pot so they are crowded.

I found if I grow them more like cactus or succulents
they grow like weeds.
SaintPFLA
Original Author
15 years ago
Sheesh...maybe you are right? Maybe if you baby them, they do not like it.

I'm probably going to have to start over...
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I've been growing peppers in containers for many years and generally found that they don't seem to need as much fertilizer as other members of the nightshade family (tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes). I do use about 1 tablespoon each of Tomatotone and Osmocote Pro (with all the micronutrients) per gallon of potting soil because we often have four to six weeks of heavy rain in the beginning of the season, and I want to make sure to start them off right. This works out to a N-P-K formula similar to using Foliage Pro. Once the plants are fruiting heavily, I plan to start feeding them lightly with each watering. I plan to use the Foliage Pro then, while also adding Protek, which is similar to reducing the amount of Nitrogen. Al discussed the issue of reducing the amount of Nitrogen to induce fruiting in the thread linked below. I should add that I have been a pretty successful container gardener for many years, but this is my first year using Al's 5-1-1 mix in my containers along with Foliage Pro. I'm already seeing excellent results, but we're only a couple weeks into the season. Here is a link that might be useful: When should I induce N deficiency
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I would just recommend try different plants and see what you prefer. Some are called "frying peppers" and for "pickling" for a reason, depends on what you want. For bells I like "Golden Summer", very large plants that have light green peppers that are good tasting even before they ripen beautifully. "Flavorburst" is somewhat similar, with light green unripe peppers that are good also. "Big Bertha" is a very nice hybrid to red bell. "Corno di Toro" and "Carmen" are excellent bull horn peppers, sweet peppers at their best. "Giant Marconi" is a very nice long pepper, Burpee's "Big Daddy" is a vigorous ripen to yellow Marconi type pepper.
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I am not an expert although I have over 20n bell pepper trees in my garden and all doing very well except one or two peppers drop down injured by FUNGI which I am successfully fighting with all my weapons arsenal. I thing may be your pepper needs pollination by bees. I see an army of bees hanging around my pepper eggplant and squash and okra trees. Jumping from one flower to the other. I love to set and watch that nature action.
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Two of them look totally dead. One is hanging on. The hot pepper plant (can't remember which it is, but I think it's Serrano) is doing fantastic. I think maybe the bells needed a light set up for the winter (something I don't think I want to spend the money on...but then, I have to use lights to start a new batch of seeds anyway). We've been remodeling and I just now had time to move my lights and stuff to another room. I'm thinking of putting the plants that look dead under lights just to see if it helps them, while I start a new batch. Would you believe my Datura conked out too? I overwintered it last year and it bloomed nicely outside, in the ground late summer. The stalk had turned to wood outside, I transplanted it back into a pot to overwinter indoors. It was doing great for weeks and then it just dropped all signs of life :-( If I had known that would happen, I would have Summer Sowed more. Ah well...adventures in overwintering... Thanks for asking, PV :-)
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junkyardgirl
15 years ago
Yep, too much water. It stunts their growth. Peppers like it hot and dry.
SaintPFLA
Original Author
15 years ago
Nope...turned out it's not that at all.

Something is eating it. The underside of the leaves have this black 'stuff' which looks like pepper. Some kind of sucking insect, I think?

I'm yanking it out soon and starting over. I think it's a goner. The beans are on their way out too....

Honestly...I think I may stick with flowers. This veggie thing just does not work out well for me.
corrie22
15 years ago
there's a fungus among us ;-)

sounds like Cercospora Leaf Spot from staying too wet.
or any one of many other fungus

saint, try growing them drier next time, without the twice daily misting that gives them fungus and makes them rot

Now is a good time to plant bells here BTW
SaintPFLA
Original Author
15 years ago
I think I will try container planting for the peppers instead of in the ground. This way, I won't over water.

Killing it with kindness, I guess!....
dangsr_grow
15 years ago
I think you must have gotten a mix up in your seed. I grow my whole garden in self watering buckets ang have 3 large pepper plants that are covered with peppers from those turning red to a lot of all size down to a lot of blooms and they are always in wet soil. over watering is not your problem.

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