Never heard of over or under watering would cause blackening. I'm still going with sunburn. Although, the aperture of the sun right now in the southern hemi is low, all it takes is real bright days for them to burn. With a lot of varieties of peppers, the foliage protects the fruit, but bells stick out there exposed. if you're seeing the black only on the side of the fruit that the sun hits, it's sunburn. Regarding watering --- Peppers like water just like any vegetable, but they hate WET feet. So, your watering schedule should be drench, dry out, drench, dry out, and so on. Do the finger test. Stick your finger in the soil about 2 inches If it's dry, water. If moist, don't. Or you can let the plants wilt in between waterings. You'll get the hang of when they need it. Kevin

i agree with smoke as with some ornamentals some do have purple leaves, stems,stalk as well as fruit, i have bolivian rainbow very much like your pearl,also hot equidor, all have purple feature, there are a few more that do also, so yes its perfectly normal, ive seen black pearl and they are purple, there a nice plant!! hope this help some your friend joe

@ajsmama, I'm glad to hear your bird is ok. woohooman wrote: Actually, I believe BIRDS are the only vertebrates that are immune to the pain of capsaicin. Wow, that's interesting. Sluginator wrote: Pepper plants are totally safe for cats. Stay away from lillies, though. Ok, thanks. Not an issue for me currently, but I'll try to remember that (and of course it's good for anyone else reading the thread to know). ajsmama wrote: yeah, she really likes the dried peppers...the yogurt she's asking for (she asks for mac and cheese too That's really funny. I never really thought about birds eating any of that stuff (except for seagulls maybe). What kind of bird is she? @Bill_Missy that's a cute cat. I saw a cat that looked like that a while back and thought it would be interesting to see what the kittens of a cat like that and a bengal like this one would look like. Good to hear she's suffered no ill-effects from nibbling on the plants. zackey wrote: I don't agree. My cat didn't know it shouldn't munch on my tomato seedlings which are in the nightshade family. I don't know about those plants being harmful or not to cats, but I agree with you: I don't trust my cat to be smart enough or whatever to know what it can / can't eat safely. Like I said before, it's constantly trying to eat things like rubber bands and plastic. Sluginator wrote: Zackey, you are tarring a large plant family with a broad brush. Tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and eggplants are all in the same family. These are important foodstuffs that are grown all over the world in the presence of cats. Petunias are also in the same family. Not all members of the Nightshade family contain dangerous amounts of alkaloids. Tomato leaves are poisonous to humans in sufficient quantity though, right?

Hi, I faced a similar problem and most of the forums did not help. Finally I did the following 1. I used purified water to obviate chemicals in the water. 2. I did not embedded the seed in the mud but gently pressed it on the surface of the mud so that the seed was exposed. 3. I allowed the seed to take root naturally. The plant is flourishing. Hope this helps u guys.