What's wrong with my peppers ?

[Tony Hague]

This is a problem i see each year, and it is getting worse. On thick fleshed peppers and chillies, some in pots outside in a sunny site, others under glass. Compost - some are in homemade mix, some in the new formulation New Horizons. Patches of fruit skin go soft, then brown and necrotic, then dry out to leave a papery brown patch. The rest of the fruit can usually be eaten. What is it ?

On Mulato Mexican chillies:


On sweet peppers:




I also suffer from tomato blossom end rot a lot, despite watering by an automatic system. I do wonder if the two conditions aren't the same or related. Any advice beyond the usual "Erratic watering" much appreciated !

[oldherbaceous]

Evening Tony, it does look a lot as if they have been scorched.....Does this start after very hot temperatures?

[robo]

I would tend to agree

[Westi]

Methinks they are sunburnt - maybe water droplets on the fruit magnifying the heat? Water below direct in the pot & avoid the splashes?

[Elmigo]

I had the same thing happening to my peppers and the parts that were not burnt were still edible, only still green. I have no doubt that this is caused by the summer heat and light. Hot peppers like more heat than sweet peppers. All hot peppers here survived, just a couple of sweet peppers got this:

Screenshot_20190727-233855_Gallery.jpg (501.67 KiB) Viewed 5239 times

The burnt side was directly facing the hot sun, I think so much heat and intense light was just too much. I find it only a little strange that some of your peppers got this on the bottom side, so it might be water droplets hanging onto it or something entirely different maybe...

[Tony Hague]

Thanks for your thoughts. Scorching has been my assumption, it does seem to be worst on sweet peppers or fleshy walled chillies, and does seem to be worst in hot conditions, so particularly bad this and last year.

On the other hand, it is happening on plants outdoors as well as under glass. I will have another check, but it also seems to me to be not always on the parts facing the midday sun. On the glasshouse plants at least, there is no possibility of water on the fruits, they are watered in the top of the pot.

Anyone know if there are any conditions like tomato blossom end rot that could cause the cells to collapse ? In tomatoes it is calcium defficiency, usually caused by erratic watering or water uptake, so they say. On my tomatoes I add bonemeal to be sure there's enough calcium, and they still suffer despite being watered very regularly. I say regularly - but maybe not enough ? I try to avoid keeping them very wet for better flavour. I also was told in the case of chillies, that they resent overwatering as they need oxygen to their roots (advice from the owner of our local chilli farm).

[Primrose]

As implied by the others, i suspect scorching is the culprit, possibly the fruits becoming more vulnerable when the temperature rises very rapidly as has happened with the recent mini heatwave. As mentioned in another thread I now protect my outdoor peppers by covering them with an old white net curtain during the heat of the day when the sun is beating down direct on them.

It,s annoying because while the rest of the fruit can still be eaten you probably need to pick it early to prevent the damage to the flesh rotting the remainder of the fruit.