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Help With Hungarian Wax Peppers

9 years ago

Hi there. I have harvested 1 Hungarian Wax pepper 1 1/2 weeks ago from this plant before going on holidays. Get home late last weekend only to see it with many new peppers on the same plant. I was happy. Yesterday, Tuesday, I came home to the same plant in a very wilted state. Peppers were still on the plant, just that it has had something happen and I am not sure what. The soil was a bit dry on top. It is in a raised pepper bed, with many other peppers present as well as another Hungarian Wax right beside it. This is the only plant with these symptoms. So I gave it some 1/2 strength ferts then watered the whole bed lightly and sparingly, followed by a freak rainstorm. Any help in figuring out what may be going on would be greatly appreciated as I would really love to save this pepper. Thank you.

Comments (6)

esox07 (4b) Wisconsin
9 years ago
Well, after watering, if that didn't perk it back up within a day, then I would say something more serious is going on. Maybe a disease. Maybe something below ground has gotten ahold of the root system...insects, animal???
It clearly looks like a water uptake problem. I see it still has blooms and otherwise looks nice and healthy.
How long was the photo taken after it was watered?
Keep us posted.
Bruce
kuvaszlvr
9 years ago
I have had the same thing happen to me this week. My aji Amarillo. Doing fine, in a raised bed surrounded by other pepper plants, go out one day and it's dead. It had fruit on it, I'm not sure what happened but very similar to your plant.
Pam
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Once your HHW peppers start turning orange, they will go to red relatively quickly. They start out more of a green yellow but soon turn to yellow as they grow to mature size. They then will sit in the yellow stage for some time even after reaching mature size. Then you will go out one day and notice a subtle coloring change on a pod or two. And within a day or so, you will notice a definite orange tinge appearing. It will go to a bright orange and then a week or so later will begin its change to a beautiful Red with a slight orange hue. It will stay that way for a good two weeks before you would have to pick it. The actual length in each stage is hard to nail down due to differences in soils, temps, sunlight, nutrients, etc... but they sit in the yellow stage for a long, long time. If you want max heat, you will just have to wait, but they are still quite stout in the yellow stage. Here is a photo of some of my HHW peppers from last year in early August. It shows all the color stages pretty well. Oh, and one other thing I have noticed about HHW peppers is that it seems like the smaller peppers ripen quicker than the larger ones.
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Classic Hot Hungarian Wax. They grow straight up and will continue to do so until the pepper becomes too heavy and it will drop. At this point, I would suggest that you snip the pepper. It will allow the plant to put more energy into growing the plant itself which in turn will result in more peppers over all. Right now, it isn't ripe, but it certainly is edible. HHW are my favorite eating pepper and I typically pick them when they are full size but not yet ripe. They will turn orange to red when ripe but it takes too long for them to go red. I pick them when they are still yellow/green so the plant can get started on putting out new peppers. They will get hotter and bit "sweeter" when you let them go ripe, but to me the difference is insignificant. They can take several weeks to actually go red from the time they are full sized. I love them sliced up on salads. I cold can what I can't eat fresh and refrigerate them for use through the winter. Good luck, Bruce
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djoyofficial
9 years ago
I have seen wilting like that when a plant goes into a super, conserve water mode, Hopefully it perks up with the water. With all the extra pods it might need a little more water than you are used to giving it.? Be carefully with the fertilizer until you see how the added water works.

Is there anything unusual on the base of the plants stem... can't remember.... think it was blight that causes a ring to form around the base then the plant starves from lack of h2o and croaks. If that's the case... study up.
dj

This post was edited by djoy on Thu, Jul 10, 14 at 20:25
obchili
Original Author
9 years ago
@esox07
"Maybe something below ground has gotten ahold of the root system..."

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. I believe I found the problem today. I was inspecting it a bit closer and found that it was really loose in the soil. I carefully dug around it and the roots a bit and it felt like the main limb/trunk had broken or snapped. It is still in the ground but very wobbly. So I carefully staked it up and am now hoping this strong guy of mine will pull through. I am suspecting a gust of wind had hit it just right. Thank you all for the help.
woohooman San Diego CA zone 10a
9 years ago
Hopefully it will grab hold again. Last year, gophers got a couple of my maters and peppers. I normally would've just pulled and trashed, but I said, "self. why don't you try this?" So, I pulled the mater, dug a hole 2 feet over from the original, put a milk crate in the ground, placed the mater plant in the crate, and replanted. That plant put out many a mater! Whoda thunk with a mater??

The pepper, they're a bit more resilient, but I pulled it, placed in a half gallon container with some 5-1-1, nursed it back to health over the next month or so, replanted it, and it produced plenty the rest of the season

It's the main taproot that I think is key. Too much damage too close to the stalk and it'll be tough to right itself.

Good luck.

Kevin
seysonn
9 years ago
IMO, that plant needs intensive care to make it.
Try Kevin's method and hope for the best. You never know.

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