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One of my pepper seedlings suffered a broken stem from tipping over a week ago or so. I've staked it with a kebab skewer. I thought it was healing, but it's not, however the plant seems quite happy.

Is there any chance for me to save this guy? Can I plant it deeply, like a tomato? They'll be going in the ground in a couple of weeks.

I think the wound is gapping because you haven't really securely stabilized it. The weakened stem is being weighed down from the plants own weight.

If you have grafting tape like parafilm-M tape, use that, but you can use regular scotch tape. First wrap tightly around the bamboo, then just below the wound - snug. Then do another one just above. You have to splint it. Then take a small piece of clear food wrap and wrap around the wounded stem -- only one or two layers. You want to let it breathe. Eventually, bark like callous will form along the edge of the wound. You can take the food wrap off once the wound is closed and you will need to make sure that the tape above and below are not getting too tight and strangling the stem. (Using parafilm-M, you can tape and protect the wound at the same time, and the plant can grow -- it's great stuff) A month or so should be enough, then the tape can be removed, but you may want to continue to support with a more snug-but-loosely attached splint -- I would use the spongy rubber coated wire or Velcro tape used for supporting tomatoes.

I might spritz the stem with rubbing alcohol before wrapping if fungal issues is any concern.

Now, start adding sandy potting mix up the stem about 1/2 inch or so at a time, may be twice a week when you water. Peppers can be buried but they don't readily grow roots along the stem like tomatoes, and they are more prone to soggy stem so it's better to do this gradually. If you don't stress it, peppers will grow roots up the stem. It helps to keep the root zone warm as peppers are notoriously slow to grow roots in cold soilmix.

FYI --

Subject: 2012-2013 Winter indoor tomatoes

applestar wrote:
This morning, I came downstairs in the predawn hours to turn on the plants' lights and give them their morning mist spray and found that one end of the Winter Wonderland 4-tube T-8 light fixture had fallen during the night.

This Zarnitsa in the 2.5 gallon black pot on the left -- my biggest and (had been) loaded with floral trusses and green fruits took the blunt of the crash. Despite suffering broken stems and leaves, she held up the heavy light fixture so that none of the other plants, except the little avocado which had been knocked down to the floor and lost 1/3 of the potting mix (but had been otherwise uninjured) were damaged.



After extensive emergency repairs with parafilm-m tape, during which 1/3 to nearly 1/2 of the upper foliage and branches that were hopelessly detached had to be amputated, she looked like this:


I even tried to repair two fruit trusses that were bent but not broken:


After surgery, she was given some day-old AACT and thorough misting. Her condition remains critical and fate of her numerous green babies is uncertain....

Thanks for all of that helpful information, applestar. The reason it looks so bad is that I mistakenly thought it had healed, and removed the stake. Bad move.