Dark black joints on pepper plants?

[Jerseygardengirl]

What causes this? I noticed on a lot of the plants the dark or black joints and I also noticed that where they are, the blossoms have a tendency to drop off. Is this bad and if so, how do I get rid of it? Thanks in advance!

[rainbowgardener]

This is frequent/ normal doesn't mean there's a problem. Here's an earlier thread about this that has some pictures of what it looks like:

www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9387

(you have to read past the beginning posts in this thread, read it all the way down).

If the blossoms are falling off without setting fruit, that's a different issue unrelated to the dark joints. It's called blossom drop and if you type that into the search box at the upper left of most pages, you will find a lot that's already been written here about it. It's basically a stress reaction; when the plant is stressed, it sheds the flowers to focus on plant survival. Lots of different things can cause the stress...

[Jerseygardengirl]

Thanks for the link, going to check out the posts now. Incidentally, I do have quite a few peppers that are growing, but I thought the slight droppage might be do to that black. Glad to know it isn't.

[splat42069]

I have this too... But thought it was probally normal because all 6 of my pepper plants have it..

[img]https://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu336/splat42069/100_2635.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i661.photobucket.com/albums/uu336/splat42069/100_2612.jpg[/img]

[Jerseygardengirl]

Yep that's exactly what it looks like. Glad to know it isn't harmful!