I planted a new variety of peppers last year(freebie seeds) and they were excellent. I ordered some seeds for this year and all of the first peppers on EVERY plant, I had some planted in two different locations, had either blossom end rot or these brown spots. when we planted we added lime and fertilizer, just like every other pepper in the garden (all 150 of them) and these were the only ones to do this. Any ideas on the brown spots? they are the same texture or maybe a little dryer than the ripe flesh. I assume they are heavier calcium feeders than the rest of the peppers, hence the blossom end rot. They are mild to med hot peppers, also. ( photo / image / picture from carolyn keiper's Garden )
Carolyn--did you ever discover what this was? I have to say it looks bacterial to me, but I can't confirm that from here. I am curious though. If you did find someone there who knew what this was, let me know, would you?
http://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/circ549.html#D not sure this link will work. . but it may help you identify the problem
Carolyn that is always what I get when I planted peppers. My lot size is very much smaller, max 4 plants and it is always the same story. My last experience I got so frustrated with it that I trimmed the whole plant almost naked. When new shoots appear I sprayed them with the usual garlic, onions, dish washing combo but added something extra, red wine .... yes red wine. After that the peppers were beautiful and I had 100% rot free peppers from that batch. The red wine was from my mum's collection and the cork had turned bad and I guess the wine must have had turn sour and was contaminated some funny white stuff in it. Now I have 1 bell pepper but I think it is going to be problematic. Let us know when you have a cause and solution ya!
Hi Sjoerd, I did not find any answers to the "disease". I harvested next to none of this crop before the first frost. I will not grow this variety again, even though it was a very good flavored pepper, I think it must need a hotter and drier season than we have been having here. May be that it was a nutritional deficiency for that specific variety. I have no idea. But no more wasting the space when I could be growing Yummy peppers. Luke, Thanks for the link, I did not see anything that I thought was indicative of the problem I was seeing. Thanks, though, I appreciated it. I hadn't seen this page before and it was interesting though. NN, I have already cleaned up my garden for the year. I didn't harvest much if anything at all from these peppers. I picked only a few of them before they froze from the first really cold weather. sorry. I posted this way back in the summer and no one seemed to know anything then, either.
Hi S, On all of the peppers the color was the same through the flesh. It was not soft or mushy, probably more towards the same texture or marginally harder than the good flesh. So I really am not thinking it was a disease as much as a nutritional deficency. Not 100% sure, but that is only my opinion. I suppose there is the possibility, if it is a disease, that the seeds were diseased before I received them, even thought they were from a commercial seed supplier. I would assume their whole supply would have been contaminated and they would have caught that when the fruit was being processed since the fruit was what was affected not the foliage itself. The plant looked healthy. And since it was all of my NuMex peppers in different areas of the garden and high tunnel either possibility exists. Good thing we didn't toss the entire lot on my compost in case it was a disease. I didn't even think to tell whoever was dumping the loader where to put it and it all ended up on the donot reuse compost pile. YAY!!!
I see, Carolyn. Well, it is an interesting thing--that illness. Say, why don't you write to the seed company that produced the pack of seeds along with a pic or two and your story of what happened. You could get a voucher for another packet of seeds of your choice. It isn't crazy to do that. I do that all the time and I always get a new packet of seeds or a voucher. Sometimes they are aware of the problem already and it goes even easier for you. Obviously if something happens to veggies ot flowerong plants and it is my fault or Mother Nature, I do not complain to the company, but this does seem like a bad batch of seeds. Just a thought, Ms C.
