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My garden is doing very well except for one Bell Pepper plant. Sunday I noticed that one of my Bell pepper plants looked like it was starving for water, it was all wilted, and since they had'nt been watered for five days I gave the whole garden a deep watering. It rained extreemly hard that night, and Monday morning the pepper plant looked pretty good again, but as the sun got stronger the plant began to wilt again. it rained real hard again Monday afternoon, and this morning the plant looked good again, but as the sun got stronger today, the plant has completaly wilted, do any of you have any ideas what might be going on, and should I pull that plant? Any advice will be greatly appriciated.
Thanks,
Paul

gundogblue wrote:My garden is doing very well except for one Bell Pepper plant. Sunday I noticed that one of my Bell pepper plants looked like it was starving for water, it was all wilted, and since they had'nt been watered for five days I gave the whole garden a deep watering. It rained extreemly hard that night, and Monday morning the pepper plant looked pretty good again, but as the sun got stronger the plant began to wilt again. it rained real hard again Monday afternoon, and this morning the plant looked good again, but as the sun got stronger today, the plant has completaly wilted, do any of you have any ideas what might be going on, and should I pull that plant? Any advice will be greatly appriciated.
Thanks,
Paul

It may be having trouble with the heat; how hot are the days there getting? I'm running into the same thing with some of my plants; they look fine in the late evening and the morning, but after a full sun hot day, I take a look out there and they're all droopy and limp.

You said one bell pepper plant. It's not quite clear to me whether that is your only bell pepper plant or if you have others that are not having this problem. If the latter, it would suggest it's not (just) the heat.

It sounds like the plant may be having trouble uptaking as much water as it needs. If you are thinking about pulling it anyway, you might consider digging it up and see if you can tell what's going on with the roots. If it got root rot, or if it got root bound (roots all going around each other in a circle) or if something (like grubs or nematodes) has been eating the roots, that could explain the behavior.

It is true that peppers, like tomatoes, don't really much like temperatures over 90. So if this is your only bell pepper and you are having 90+ weather, I would buy that as possible explanation.

Incidentally what is your soil like and is this pepper plant in the ground or in container? Plants in containers need MUCH more frequent watering than those in the ground, because the containers drain more and are more exposed.

I read a lot of comments on this forum from folks saying that Pepper plants don't really like a lot of water. So, I'm interested to hear more about your "wilt" issue, and whether you're able to determine the cause.

I've had decent rainfall on the garden this Spring, so I have not watered my Pepper plants at all (except for the first day or two, when I put the transplants into the garden). So far, all of my Pepper plants are looking great.

We've been getting some hot days here (low 90s), for the past couple of weeks. I have a layer of grass mulch around my Peppers. I suspect that mulch is keeping the soil from drying out too much, and is also helping to keep the soil from heating up too much.
I visited my neighbors garden yesterday, his Pepper plants had that "wilty" look; and he has been watering them. He did not have any mulch around his plants... that was my "lightbulb" moment
I am a BIG believer in mulch (where appropriate)!