Pepper Question

[Garrett]

Last Spring I put out 6 Bell Pepper plants, 3 Yellow and 3 Purple....The Yellow Bells seem to be doing fine, getting big and still green but the Purple Bells are turning Purple too fast and bitter to taste....they are also getting some bad spots on `em....could this be from them surviving a late freeze?

[BestoFour]

What I know about peppers is that too little water can make them bitter and that bad spots are usually caused by being sun scorched.

[Pharmer Phil]

could be water shortage, or just hot weather..I know the first peppers we get every year are not as nice as the ones that come on and mature when the night time temps drop to a cooler temp/...as for the spots that could be B.E.R. (blossom end rot)

But Bro...I havta say sometimes the chocolate, purple...the "off" colors do funny thangs..
one year we raised a purple cayenne pepper...it looked odd..tasted odd...looked like &#$% when Ya pickled it...

next year we tasted some that another had grown...and it was Good...

Peppers have most of their roots near the top of the soil...try a little hay/grass...some sorta mulch to conserve and level out the moisture they are getting

[jerseycub]

Peppers when stressed will not mature well, either to much water or to little can stress them.....this is mainly seen with sweet (Bell) peppers. Also if they were hit with frost early that can explain soft spots and small fruit. High bred verities are much more susceptible to stress then others. Also peppers need to be fed, check your soil condition this fall and next spring so you can rule that out. This season you can call the county agent and have him take some tissue samples of the plants to see how they are doing with the uptake of nutrients. Better to know then to guess.


If you are organic, try mixing a formula of kelp and fish, apply every week to soil and foliar feed as well.

If conventional side dress with 10-10-10.

Those are shotgun approaches to your problem if you don't do any testing.