What causes brownish blotches & dents to peppers?

[Brown Thumbs]

Picked these peppers to pickle and they either have brownish blotches or dents. What causes this? Looks like I'll toss them since they don't look too good for eating.

[AnnaIkona]

Pepper blossom end rot. It is mainly from calcium deficieny in the soil. Maybe add a bit of organic matter that's high in calcium such as egg shells or leafy greens.

Overwatering is also a possibility. Where do you grow these peppers? If in potting soil in a pot, I wouldn't recommend watering more than once a week, as potting soil keeps a lot of the moisture.

You can spray the pepper plant itself with epsom salt water. I have no idea why it helps, but it just does

[gumbo2176]

Looks like sun scald to me. I see you are in the South and it is hot down here this time of year. I have the same problems with some of my peppers right now.

[rainbowgardener]

I agree. BER would be more on the end, darker, and more mushy:



It does look like sunscald. But the top most one on the right is a pure picture of sunscald. All the little dents and scraped areas look like something has been chewing on it.

[AnnaIkona]

Ooooooo- ya! As both gardeners above mentioned, it may be sunscald. If the dark soft stuff is mainly on only one side (side that receives the most sun) then I'm guessing it's sunscald too!

[Gary350]

Pellet lime or wood ash either one will solve the BER problem it takes about 2 weeks. Work it into the soil surface in a donut circle around the plants. Water late in the day every day for a week.

[rainbowgardener]

It is NOT a BER problem. Wood ash is very alkaline and raises the pH of your soil, which may or may not be a good thing depending on the pH you started at - but most veggies like soil on the slightly acid side.

You didn't show a picture of your plant. Sunscald like that may be happening if your plant is not as leafy as it should be. Ordinarily the peppers are grown sort of under the leaves, which protect them.

And you need to check carefully, see if you can figure out what kind of critter (maybe an insect) is gnawing on your peppers.

[Brown Thumbs]

Here's my plants. I haven't seen bugs on my fruit but occasionally see leaf hoppers on the plant stems. I agree brown blotches look like sun scald after looking it up online. No idea on these dents though...it occurs on older fruit, not young ones.

I have bell peppers at the end of my row. All fruit have this. I water them daily, or more like every other day, when dry because if I don't the plants wilt big time. Not the best soil probably part of my problem.

[AnnaIkona]

Still looks like blossom end rot to me.

[applestar]

What variety of peppers are in the OP?
Did you cut them open to see what they look like inside?

I'm wondering about pepper maggots. Do you see any tiny hole on stem end just under the calyx? I believe they preferentially use sweet peppers and ...maybe Serrano peppers?

Also Stinkbugs could be sucking on them to cause the sunken spots, though I'm going by vague memory from last year. Thankfully, I'm only seeing small juvies yet and not in massive invasion -- no doubt that will come later.

[Brown Thumbs]

Bonnie plants - jalopeno and green bell peppers.

Nothing on inside of the jalopeno peppers. I threw bells away.

[rainbowgardener]

The pepper in this new photo looks like a combination of sunscald, the tan area, and blossom end rot, the black area.

The plant itself does not appear to be thriving. Not as leafy as I would expect and not as ... perky? Leaves are hanging down a bit.

This picture is a comparison of an unhealthy and a healthy pepper plant:


Are your plants getting enough water and nutrients?

You said you are in the South. I'm in No. Georgia and with the weather we are having (excessively hot and dry), enough water means watering deeply at least every other day.