Hey guys, this is my first year growing peppers in earnest and I'm still learning a lot. I have about 40 species growing now with good looking plants for the most part. I had trouble with flower drop with the horrible heat and humidity here in South Carolina, but most of my plants have set at least some fruit so far. Likely will get much more once the temps drop some. At any rate, my question pertains to what I'm going to call pepper rot.
It seems like most of my peppers look great while growing and when green, but then once they ripen start to get mushy. this has happened with my cayenne, shishito, sweet bananna, and now my bhut. I must admit that I have left the ripe peppers on for roughly a week or so in the past, and from some reading here have found that that is probably not the best idea. maybe that is my issue. However, I check my pepper EVERY day for bugs, etc, and notice that two bhuts on the same plant were beginning to turn orange yesterday. From the pics I've seen on this site, I thought that I was supposed to wait until they were red to pick so I thought nothing of it. Then today, I started inspecting them closer and found soft spots with a brownish/grey color on the bottom. I picked them and cut them up to find no insects inside, but really mushy flesh around the affected areas. I was able to salvage the seeds and the top halves of the peppers for the freezer, as well as a devilishly hot tongue lick of the inner placenta...OMG that was hot. What do you think these mushy areas are? Should I be hitting my plants with some insecticide? Is this a fungus or bacteria that only attacks ripe fruit since all of my green ones look awesome? I don't want to have babied these things all year to find rotten fruit just when they ripen.
Also I found my first real pest that I know of. A huge freaking hornworm that tore apart the top of only one plant....thank God. He is now swimming with the fishes! I seem to have a lot of baby lizards in my garden as well. I'm assuming that's a good thing since they will probably eat up a lot of the bugs....or so common sense tells me.
Please help with any comments on these issues. I know most of you guys have probably been there and seen that.
Thanks in advance and sorry I don't have pictures. I was so excited to try my bhuts I forgot to get some evidence first.
It seems like most of my peppers look great while growing and when green, but then once they ripen start to get mushy. this has happened with my cayenne, shishito, sweet bananna, and now my bhut. I must admit that I have left the ripe peppers on for roughly a week or so in the past, and from some reading here have found that that is probably not the best idea. maybe that is my issue. However, I check my pepper EVERY day for bugs, etc, and notice that two bhuts on the same plant were beginning to turn orange yesterday. From the pics I've seen on this site, I thought that I was supposed to wait until they were red to pick so I thought nothing of it. Then today, I started inspecting them closer and found soft spots with a brownish/grey color on the bottom. I picked them and cut them up to find no insects inside, but really mushy flesh around the affected areas. I was able to salvage the seeds and the top halves of the peppers for the freezer, as well as a devilishly hot tongue lick of the inner placenta...OMG that was hot. What do you think these mushy areas are? Should I be hitting my plants with some insecticide? Is this a fungus or bacteria that only attacks ripe fruit since all of my green ones look awesome? I don't want to have babied these things all year to find rotten fruit just when they ripen.
Also I found my first real pest that I know of. A huge freaking hornworm that tore apart the top of only one plant....thank God. He is now swimming with the fishes! I seem to have a lot of baby lizards in my garden as well. I'm assuming that's a good thing since they will probably eat up a lot of the bugs....or so common sense tells me.
Please help with any comments on these issues. I know most of you guys have probably been there and seen that.
Thanks in advance and sorry I don't have pictures. I was so excited to try my bhuts I forgot to get some evidence first.
