Blossom End Rot in Banana Peppers?

allmypeppersliveinTX

allmypeppersliveinTX

Hey guys,
 
Having a little trouble with this banana pepper.  I have only pulled a couple off this plant, and all of them have had this soft, brown spot that takes over the bottom of the pepper.  I thought it was BER, so ive treated with cal-mag last week.  It does not look like that worked.  It is hot here in texas, upper 90's, and I water with soaker hose every other day.   The plant itself looks great.  Any help is greatly appreciated. 
 

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     It is a common myth that BER is often caused by Ca deficiency. It's almost always a product of big swings in soil moisture. When you water, try to really soak the roots. A quick sprinkling won't cut it. Deep mulch will also help a lot. I like to use straw for summer because its light color reflects a lot of the sun's energy, keeping soil temps down. Consistent soil moisture levels will allow your plants to properly absorb and transport Ca to the tissue that needs it (the rapidly dividing cells in fruit). 
     Good luck!
 
Got to agree with all of this.

Heavy rains are always a killer for me. In early summer, I usually get set back about 3 weeks, between the combination of heavy rains and sudden temperature change. (which also give way to a brief, but heavy insect infestation - but that's another topic)

Don't do anything too hastily. As previously stated, your first priority should be to make sure that your watering is in check. Then, watch, and wait.
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
     It is a common myth that BER is often caused by Ca deficiency. It's almost always a product of big swings in soil moisture. When you water, try to really soak the roots. A quick sprinkling won't cut it. Deep mulch will also help a lot. I like to use straw for summer because its light color reflects a lot of the sun's energy, keeping soil temps down. Consistent soil moisture levels will allow your plants to properly absorb and transport Ca to the tissue that needs it (the rapidly dividing cells in fruit). 
     Good luck!
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Thanks for the advice.  I run the soaker hose for an hour around 4am every other day.  Its pushing 100degrees so by the second day it needs water again.  I have grass clippings around all my plants for insulation.  Should I up it to 2 hours?  every other plant looks great, and its only the fruits of this one that are affected...
 
allmypeppersliveinTX said:
Thanks for the advice.  I run the soaker hose for an hour around 4am every other day.  Its pushing 100degrees so by the second day it needs water again.  Should I up it to 2 hours?  every other plant looks great, and its only the fruits of this one that are affected...
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     Hmm. I'm not much of an informational resource for soaker hose operation. But I would recommend checking to see how deep the water penetrates after watering to get an idea of how much water is being delivered. Maybe you need to run it more often to prevent the soil from drying out. Juanitos would definitely be a guy to ask about that. He lives in Oklahoma (also hot and dry) and has had a lot of experience using them with his grow. 
     Another thing to consider is that maybe this variety is just more susceptible than others. I grew four Hungarian wax plants last season and had to toss about half of the fruit they produced. Granted, they were in 3 gallon pots (way too small for a pepper plant, imo) so their soil was drying out all the time. I chalked up my failure to the small pots, but maybe it's an issue with the variety.
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
 
 
     Hmm. I'm not much of an informational resource for soaker hose operation. But I would recommend checking to see how deep the water penetrates after watering to get an idea of how much water is being delivered. Maybe you need to run it more often to prevent the soil from drying out. Juanitos would definitely be a guy to ask about that. He lives in Oklahoma (also hot and dry) and has had a lot of experience using them with his grow. 
     Another thing to consider is that maybe this variety is just more susceptible than others. I grew four Hungarian wax plants last season and had to toss about half of the fruit they produced. Granted, they were in 3 gallon pots (way too small for a pepper plant, imo) so their soil was drying out all the time. I chalked up my failure to the small pots, but maybe it's an issue with the variety.
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ya, I really dont think it is the water.  Like i said, all my other peppers and tomatoes (japs, habs, tabasco chilis) all look great.  I have a feeling it is the variety.  Probably should do a soil test to understand the PH among others.  Also, all plants are in 8-10in raised bed.  
 
You can't just make a blanket comparison of one pepper type to another. And for what it's worth, an hour sounds like a hell of a long time for watering a raised bed. I understand that we all live in different environments, so that's not an absolute proclamation. But when a plant has been overwatered, the side-effects tend to show up suddenly, in most cases.

If your plant looks good, and the tips are rotting, PH isn't the first place that I'd look. Again, I don't know what your standard of plants "looking great" is, but I suspect it may be different than some of ours. "Looking great" can mean that you've grown a phenomenal ornamental plant, that isn't fit to bear a bounty. No offense, but I never give the benefit of the doubt with statements like that.

Personally, I think that your answer is in the document that juanitos posted, but with what little info is available, it's all just guesses.
 
Bout an hour every other day (depending on how much water comes out) on average is what I did with a soaker hose in a raised bed this time of year. Then when it hits 100 its more or less every day sometimes twice. Whereabouts in N Texas are you?
 
Chewi said:
Bout an hour every other day (depending on how much water comes out) on average is what I did with a soaker hose in a raised bed this time of year. Then when it hits 100 its more or less every day sometimes twice. Whereabouts in N Texas are you?
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McKinney
 
  My plants have plenty of Calcium. And I have seen this on a few of my pods this summer. I simply pull those peppers and usually the next round is fine. I think some just get burned on the end from the sun and possibly to much moisture within the pod itself.
 
I have an overwintered plant that has all wrinkled and Ca deficient looking leaves, but there are like hundreds of flowers and new leaves seem to be getting healthy again. Finally! There's one pod on it that has some signs of Ca deficiency as well. Other plants in the same raised bed are growing OK. Looks like that overwintered chili is just extremely slow to adapt.
 
SvtCobra said:
  My plants have plenty of Calcium. And I have seen this on a few of my pods this summer. I simply pull those peppers and usually the next round is fine. I think some just get burned on the end from the sun and possibly to much moisture within the pod itself.
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I had a bell pepper and a New Mexico big jim show same symptoms.  Plants look very healthy, so Im hoping they turnaround like yours did. Ill keep you posted. 
 
jalapenos and habaneros are unaffected and flourishing.  
 
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