Mouldy pepper

[happyhumph]

Found this in the greenhouse - any ideas? Plants bought from lidl. Plants growing well, although I do have a mild aphid problem - controllable by squishing. There are weeds under the plants which I haven't got rid of yet. Been feeding weekly (ish) with tom feed since fruits set.

[Guest]

Let them dry out between watering and make sure there is a good air flow. Not sure about the mouldy bit but seems like something similar to bacterial soft rot and the aphids won't be doing anything to help that

It is not all doom and gloom. I had several plants suffering. I striped off the manky fruit and shoved them outside to fend for themselves and (touchwood) I have only had one fruit with a tiny smidge of damage.

[happyhumph]

Thanks for that. Do you leave yours out at night? Still fairly chilly some nights here & had horrendous rain recently.

[Guest]

The ones that were suffering are out all night (it was a risk I was happy with as I thought they were that bad but didn't want to bin the plants). Where are yours at the moment? It is only in regards to air flow. Mine were in the conservatory but the door wasn't left open so it was a bit hot and stifling in there

[Penellype]

Looks like botrytis - the pepper has probably been damaged somehow and mould has got in. Remove the affected fruit and inspect anything it has been touching closely. Move the plant to a better ventilated area or outside and go over the other plants nearby checking them carefully. Remove anything that looks like going mouldy or has been damaged. Avoid damaging them if you possibly can. Water the soil and try to keep splashes off the plants.

Botrytis is hard to control particularly in warm, humid conditions. Advice is often to cut off lower leaves especially of tomatoes to improve air flow. Last year I had botrytis on french beans in the greenhouse (they didn't survive) and I cut the lower leaves off my tomatoes, hoping they would live longer as a result. Every single cut stalk developed botrytis which spread to the stems and eventually killed the plants. Therefore if you are going to try to remove lower leaves to improve ventilation, wiggle the leaves carefully from side to side until they detach at the natural joints. If they won't detach I leave them where they are.

[happyhumph]

Have just taken peppers outside & removed 2 more mouldy fruit.. will weed around base when I have time this evening. Thanks for all your help everyone

[happyhumph]

Well, I snapped some lower leaves off, weeded around the base, & put back in the greenhouse, leaving low louvre vents open all the time & put peppers next to it but turned pots as they had grown towards the glass. Squishing aphids has worked. No further problems, botrytis (touch wood) hasn't spread to anything else, so looks like I've saved them - yay

Thanks for your help guys

P.s - found out OH has secretly been watering greenhouse every day to avoid tough tomato skins. Thank him for his help & asked him to go easy on the peppers.....

[cilla]

I've got the bellboy pepper, so I assume smaller plant. I put the plant out since June and seem to have little peppers growing. Waiting for them to go red which I hope will happen. I have it in a pot. I do as I do with courgette and cucumber plants and water the base. First year growing peppers.

[happyhumph]

Mine were labelled pepper yellow & pepper red - not particularly helpful about 2 and a bit feet high not including pot. Water everything from base, but think they were a bit wet & not enough airflow. Grew peppers once before many years ago without much success.

Hope yours ripen nicely for you. Will grow from seed next year

[SusieG]

How's your peppers now happyhumph..?

I grew mine from seed, and potted on etc as and when necessary .... I've got 6 plants in 10 or 11 litre pots in GH. Apart from a bit of leaf damage where it looks as if something has had a bit of a nibble on them, they look good. They've grown to about 2 1/2 feet tall, and as yet ...........nothing!!!

I've checked them over and can see some tiny, really tiny buds forming, so hope they progress on to flower/fruit...... This seems to be really late, all my chillis flowered/fruited weeks ago ... and am surprised that the sweet peppers are so far behind .....

Is this usual...?

[Jungle Jane]

It sounds alright,they're different varieties so days to harvest might be different too. They should have enough time to produce peppers within this month & September,we have some nice weather in September,I remember them going back to school & it was like summer weather.

[happyhumph]

This is one of mine at the moment. Strangely, I've got some mystery plants I was given which I think ate chillis & they have only started flowering in the last couple of weeks. Think as JJ says different varieties

[Jungle Jane]

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Strangely, I've got some mystery plants I was given which I think ate chillis

I hope they don't eat all of them!

[happyhumph]

Strange things happen in the wild west!!