My Peppers... Gah!

[TorontoJoe]

My peppers produced really well this year but I've had this problem with most of my larger peppers. Nardello and all the spicy chili's are fine but Shephard, Chocolate Bell, Lesya and some others all get like this inside. Some people were suggesting it's blossom end rot but it's not at the blossom end. Not to mention that they get lots of calcium and the consistent watering of my irrigation system. Everything got fed well. It tends to happen just as they're starting to ripen. I just don't know what I'm dealing with here.
Has anyone else experienced this? Would you know what might be?

 

[ktrain]

Doh!

I was not aware that peppers can get blossom end rot...but why not I guess.
No critter holes?

When I grew them my biggest issue was bad spots starting on the sides.

Sorry to see that happening.

 

[ZomVee]

Are you locking out calcium in some way?

Have you ph tested?

Worm casting have what peppers crave.

 

[TorontoJoe]

Doh!

I was not aware that peppers can get blossom end rot...but why not I guess.
No critter holes?

When I grew them my biggest issue was bad spots starting on the sides.

Sorry to see that happening.

No critter holes. Yeah.... it's a bummer

 

[TorontoJoe]

Are you locking out calcium in some way?

Have you ph tested?

Worm casting have what peppers crave.

Most of them are in 5 gallon containers. Same way I've done for years. I had similar issues last year and thought calcium. This year ever pot got a good hit of pelletized chicken manure and bone meal to make sure the calcium was up there. Following that it got doses of jack's 20-20-20 early on then jacks 10-30-20 when they went into fruiting.

It's a shame. My worm casting guy got greedy and jacked his prices. Charges retail now. I wish I had room to make my own.

I've never had ph tested. Mix was mostly fresh triple mix from my dirt guy. Same stuff everything (except my figs) are growing in.

 

[ZomVee]

Are you locking out calcium in some way?

Have you ph tested?

Worm casting have what peppers crave.

Most of them are in 5 gallon containers. Same way I've done for years. I had similar issues last year and thought calcium. This year ever pot got a good hit of pelletized chicken manure and bone meal to make sure the calcium was up there. Following that it got doses of jack's 20-20-20 early on then jacks 10-30-20 when they went into fruiting.

It's a shame. My worm casting guy got greedy and jacked his prices. Charges retail now. I wish I had room to make my own.

I've never had ph tested. Mix was mostly fresh triple mix from my dirt guy. Same stuff everything (except my figs) are growing in.

Sorry man, I got my worms in some tote bin and my peppers in ground. I dunno.

 

[bushdoctor82]

I’ve never had it happen, but a possible cause is an early fungal infection on the flowers before fruit set. The infection stayed dormant and unseen until ripening began. I read this online, so don’t know if it holds weight, but something to look into.

 

[Figless]

@"TorontoJoe"#1 . LOL we had the afternoon agriculture Club looking at your pepper problem Joe.. Everyone agreed it kind of resembles Blossom end rot. The suggestions were several, first has stated above is your trace minerals and calcium being locked up in the soil due to pH? You might try adding Rock powder, and laying off fertilizing with pure synthetic Jack's 20/20/20 Etc Why not try a slurry test. Dig down a few inches below the surface and mix 50/50 distilled water and your soil then either use a pH droplet test kit, or litmus strips and test the pH of your soil. Just use something cheap don't get a soil pH tester they're always going out of calibration. The next idea was wettable sulfur. Maybe a light solution like one tablespoon per gallon suspended with yucca extract. How much Yucca extract maybe a teaspoon per gallon you could use a nectar of the Gods product, or something else. But you want to suspend the wettable sulfur in the water because you have your basement seed starter Center, and you're going to want to dip your starts once they get established in the sulfur solution before you plant them in the 5 gallon pots. Third idea is maybe you've developed a fusarium wilt in your soil. If that is your problem you might have to toss the soil in the 5 gallon containers where the plants are suffering from the symptoms. One way to check is to cut your stems on your pepper plants and see if the feeder tubes are blocked by the wilt. There's more than one type of wilt verticulum wilt will do a similar thing. Fusarian wilt is often found in indoor tomato cultivate when the Rockwell cubes are being reused and get too wet. The last guess is did you ever employ the predator mites for the thrips that was recommended by forbiddenfruit.garden? That's all I've got. I like dipping your pepper starts inwitable sulfur just has their being transplanted into your five gallon pots.

 

[TorontoJoe]

I’ve never had it happen, but a possible cause is an early fungal infection on the flowers before fruit set. The infection stayed dormant and unseen until ripening began. I read this online, so don’t know if it holds weight, but something to look into.

I'll look into this. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[TorontoJoe]

Curious that it's happening across all varieties of peppers that are; large, sweet and thick walled. Spicy and thin walled peppers seem unaffected.

 

[Figless]

@"TorontoJoe"#1 it does kind of make sense that the sweeter peppers with thicker walls would be affected, and spicy hot thinner walled papers would be unaffected. Less sugar content. Still is there any way we could check in with forbiddenfruit.garden see what his take on this is. When it comes right down to it he's growing a whole bunch of pepper starts. Also his Predator Solutions Rock.