Anaheim Problem - Anthracnose, BER, or...?

[mattie g]

Today I pulled three sickly-looking Anaheims from their homes because they weren't doing all that well. These are the fourth, fifth, and sixth peppers to have this issue. No peppers have yet to make it to full maturity (I.e. turn red). I'm hoping someone could help me identify it so I can either 1) do something about it or 2) know there's nothing I can do so I'm not disappointed when the other peppers start coming down with the same affliction.

Thanks!

Three Anaheims in various stages of ugliness

UglyAnaheims.jpeg (18.03 KiB) Viewed 1241 times

[valley]

Hi mattie g, Thanks for taking the time to put up a picture. Is that dark area soft like mushie, does it have a not so good smell. I'll look for your answer.

Richard

[imafan26]

It could be a couple of things. I do not think it is BER.

It could be anthracnose, but it affects the leaves as well as the pepper. You haven't said there was a problem with the leaves.

If it has been very hot where you are and the peppers do not have very good leaf cover, it might be sunscald. The first fruit has that soft pale look of sunscald. After the fruits are scalded, secondary infections will set in and cause the fruit to rot.

Try shading the peppers with 35%-50% shadecloth or bagging the fruit. Most of my peppers are in pots so I can move them or move other plants around them to provide more shading.

[mattie g]

Thanks both valley and imafan for your replies...

Hi mattie g, Thanks for taking the time to put up a picture. Is that dark area soft like mushie, does it have a not so good smell. I'll look for your answer.

Richard

It's actually not particularly mushy, and there was no noticeable smell. I cut the peppers open afterwards and there wasn't any rot on the inside. The green portions are still in good shape.

I think imafan may be onto something...

It could be a couple of things. I do not think it is BER.

It could be anthracnose, but it affects the leaves as well as the pepper. You haven't said there was a problem with the leaves.

If it has been very hot where you are and the peppers do not have very good leaf cover, it might be sunscald. The first fruit has that soft pale look of sunscald. After the fruits are scalded, secondary infections will set in and cause the fruit to rot.

Try shading the peppers with 35%-50% shadecloth or bagging the fruit. Most of my peppers are in pots so I can move them or move other plants around them to provide more shading.

Nope...no problem with the leaves, other than some wilting when it gets hot and sunny. That's pretty typical, as they're in pots and I try to let my peppers suffer just a bit (by not watering them too much) to try to increase the heat a bit.

About which...we haven't been particularly hot this summer. Of course, we get our 90+ degree days here and there, but there haven't been as many as usual. That said, the leaf cover does seem a little sparse compared to my jalapenos and habaneros. I'll try covering them somehow - or maybe moving them into a little leaf cover - and see how that turns out.

[mattie g]

I moved the pot in among my tomato plants, so hopefully it'll help if it was, in fact, sunscald.

For posterity and future reference, here's a picture of one of the peppers cut open at the point of the blemish. Each one that wasn't rotted to the point of drying out looks similar.

image.jpg (33.38 KiB) Viewed 1206 times