HELPPPPP Is this bottom rot

nobody · Jul 18, 2012

Here is a pic of the brown/black spots i found on my Ghost peppers, If this was a tomato plant i would call it bottom rot and use "land plaster" or calcium to the soil but i have never seen this on any pepper pods before.

sorry if i posted this in the wrong place

should i harvest any pods with this?
will this clear up?
what should i do to clear this up?

sorry the photo is bad ill try to get a better one.

3/5King · Jul 18, 2012

yup, that my friend is BER. Sucks.

treat it the same way you would treat a tomato plant. It's the same thing.

nobody · Jul 18, 2012

Thanks King your da man.

In your opinion is this from to much water or low calcium?

jedisushi06 · Jul 18, 2012

3/5King said:
yup, that my friend is BER. Sucks.

treat it the same way you would treat a tomato plant. It's the same thing.

U need some Calcium.

3/5King · Jul 18, 2012

prune any stems or leaves that are hanging at the bottom and could or are touching the ground. The bacteria lives in the soil and usually gets onto the plant by water splashing up from the soil. Clip any leaves that have lesions on them (brown spots that look leathery.) Take off any pods that have those spots on them. Usually if it's not too bad you can cut that part off and eat the rest of the pod. That would be your personal decision though.

Also the spores grow in the lesions and blow onto the other leaves. Causes are usually from low calcium and irregular watering. I would clip the bad shit, prune the bottom growth and foliar feed with some calmag or get some fertz with a high calcium content.

theghostpepperstore · Jul 18, 2012

Definitely BER, I have lost at least 2000 pods to it this year already. My problem was not enough water so it can go both ways. I knew it wasn't calcium because I made sure their was plenty in the soil to begin with. Not enough water means not enough uptake of nutrients and then, BER.

jedisushi06 · Jul 18, 2012

theghostpepperstore said:
Definitely BER, I have lost at least 2000 pods to it this year already. My problem was not enough water so it can go both ways. I knew it wasn't calcium because I made sure their was plenty in the soil to begin with. Not enough water means not enough uptake of nutrients and then, BER.

s]I heard that sometimes the plant doesn't absorb the calcium resulting in ber.

theghostpepperstore · Jul 18, 2012

jedisushi06 said:
s]I heard that sometimes the plant doesn't absorb the calcium resulting in ber.

Yes, that is basically what has happened. The plants weren't drinking so they were not absorbing any of the calcium that I had ammended into the soil resulting in BER. As soon as I changed my watering regime it has gone away. I think I managed to pick the remaining bad pods last week and haven't seen any since.

Edit * I should thank FarmerGuy for the advise that led me to fixing the problem. We all worry about overwatering. I had no idea I was underwatering considering the plants were not wilting even in this heatwave we have been having.

nobody · Jul 18, 2012

YOU guys are great, Thanks for all the info. This is one of the reasons i love this site.

Dave2000 · Jul 18, 2012

If the rot dries out to form a scab you can leave it on the plant, that won't produce spores and the fruit will receive the sustenance it needs to keep from dehydrating over the next few weeks it may take to ripen, but keep an eye on the scab and remove the pepper if it gets much bigger. Anything mushy should definitely be pulled off immediately.

Either way when the time comes to pluck them off the plant I just cut the damaged area off and eat the rest, though if it was mushy I cook the pepper before eating it just in case the bacteria spread inside.