I finally had a fair amount of ripe habs to harvest yesterday and almost half of them on one plant have vertical soft spots/cuts in them. Most of them are just affecting the surface but some are all the way through the pepper. My first thought was some sort of pest, but the two plants (One west indian yellow, and one Harold st bart) are literally touching and only one is affected so I'm leaning towards something nutrient related. I've attached some photos, anyone have any ideas?
-
Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.
Marks/cuts in habeneros, nutrient deficiency?
- Thread starter badmoon692004
- Start date
I was going to post the below yesterday, but though,, I'm probably wrong and its something else. Below was auto saved in editor. Nice feature of this forum to auto save for later...
'Mine do that same thing when I leave them on the plant to long... over ripe..?'
From my limited experience with peppers, Jala seem to do 'heat/stress cracks' when fully ripe. Some of them develop beautiful checker board patterns of 'cracks, adding a contrasting color tan/brown crack that looks cool. Other peppers also do similar when ripe/over ripe.Other peppers do more like the Habs. Not sure what gnarly dimpled peppers do when they get ripe as this is my first year growing them and so far none are ready imo, but almost.
Good news is, your cracked' peppers probably are the sweetest, most flavor, hottest they can be at this point as long as they don't go rotten on ya...
Knowing when to pick a fruit for its maximum ripeness is something I'm still perfecting. You'll never get that at the grocery store. They have to pick them early so they don't spoil by the time they get to us...
Guess thats the beauty of growing and picking your own, as a store bought pepper will never have the vine ripe flavor sweetness and heat of a properly picked pepper.
Meanwhile, I've got the opposite problem as you. Seems like I'm waiting for years for these baccatum to ripen this time of year here in sFL.. I'd love to see a couple of ripening cracks. Worse than watching paint dry,,, lol.
jmo
'Mine do that same thing when I leave them on the plant to long... over ripe..?'
From my limited experience with peppers, Jala seem to do 'heat/stress cracks' when fully ripe. Some of them develop beautiful checker board patterns of 'cracks, adding a contrasting color tan/brown crack that looks cool. Other peppers also do similar when ripe/over ripe.Other peppers do more like the Habs. Not sure what gnarly dimpled peppers do when they get ripe as this is my first year growing them and so far none are ready imo, but almost.
Good news is, your cracked' peppers probably are the sweetest, most flavor, hottest they can be at this point as long as they don't go rotten on ya...
Knowing when to pick a fruit for its maximum ripeness is something I'm still perfecting. You'll never get that at the grocery store. They have to pick them early so they don't spoil by the time they get to us...
Guess thats the beauty of growing and picking your own, as a store bought pepper will never have the vine ripe flavor sweetness and heat of a properly picked pepper.
Meanwhile, I've got the opposite problem as you. Seems like I'm waiting for years for these baccatum to ripen this time of year here in sFL.. I'd love to see a couple of ripening cracks. Worse than watching paint dry,,, lol.
jmo
Attachments
the waxy exterior of the pod grows at a lower rate
the interior flesh grows faster
pressure builds up until, pop, split
then it starts getting mushy as the waxy exterior is no longer protecting the pod from water loss so it dehydrates or gets bacteria inside and rots.
prevention:
pods grow the outside/shape mostly during early fruit development. as they start to ripen they are not growing as much.
consistent water levels
if you get wild water swings early growing large fruits then running out of water during ripening usually causes blossom end rot.
if you are low on water early, the fruits will not develop large size, then you get lots of water later the pepper's interior growth can outpace the outside causing split.
consistent temperature
heat stress will divert more water to leaves (highest transpiration need), causing pod issues.
cold stress will reduce overall water flow, causing pod issues.
fixes:
none, once they are split rip
the interior flesh grows faster
pressure builds up until, pop, split
then it starts getting mushy as the waxy exterior is no longer protecting the pod from water loss so it dehydrates or gets bacteria inside and rots.
prevention:
pods grow the outside/shape mostly during early fruit development. as they start to ripen they are not growing as much.
consistent water levels
if you get wild water swings early growing large fruits then running out of water during ripening usually causes blossom end rot.
if you are low on water early, the fruits will not develop large size, then you get lots of water later the pepper's interior growth can outpace the outside causing split.
consistent temperature
heat stress will divert more water to leaves (highest transpiration need), causing pod issues.
cold stress will reduce overall water flow, causing pod issues.
fixes:
none, once they are split rip
interesting... I was gone for the weekend and picked these when I got back so they may have been a few days overripe. I guess it just presented differently than the other ones I've seen. I've had a few bells get sun burn/split and they had a round soft yellow spot where they'd gotten too much sun. I've also had a handful of other plants that got overripe (although now that I think about it they were all annums so that may be a difference) and they just start getting wrinkly and soft. These peppers all still felt quite firm other than the soft lines/splits in them.
Thanks all for the feedback and I guess I'll have to be a little more diligent on picking now that they're all starting to ripen up. After waiting what seems like months for them to ripen it sucks to be worried about having to chuck some because they have issues. Glad to hear the problem seems to be with me and not with the plant.
Thanks all for the feedback and I guess I'll have to be a little more diligent on picking now that they're all starting to ripen up. After waiting what seems like months for them to ripen it sucks to be worried about having to chuck some because they have issues. Glad to hear the problem seems to be with me and not with the plant.
juanitos said:
Great info Jon, didn't know that!
I find it weird one hab variety fine and the other problematic. Damn pepper genetics!
badmoon692004 said:
The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
My Red Dominican Habs are absolute worst about this. They are NOT forgiving. When then turn, I pick.
.
I'm guessing this may be part of the reason why you always seen half ripe peppers in West Indian and Caribbean food, restaurants, and markets.
.
Smooth skin peppers are also the worst about this. Probably the bumpy varieties have enough extra surface area to overcome it. When you think about it, smooth skins peppers have bumps on the inside...
Agreed... Especially because they're the only two plants I have that are so close I have trouble telling the peppers apart after they're picked... and they're in the same mix, watered by drip feeders when the rain is slacking, and right next to each other, so pretty much every factor is the same... the other plant that didn't have the splits actually has pods slightly bigger on average, but did start ripening a few days later, so that may be the difference.The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
Anyway... glad I found this place as I honestly would have never guessed that was the issue and was thinking about dumping more fertilizer or trying to get rid of some pests before I got the feedback.
This year, these issues have been worse than normal here in Eastern Kansas. With our way above normal rainfall; which I believe has also increased insect population/activity, I'm harvesting at mid turn. I'm seeing Bhut and Hab pods turning from green to full color in a day. If I wait, I'm at the mercy of the splitting and the insect invasion. I've also had way more BER than normal. My current pods seem to be doing better than my early ones but I'm harvesting earlier.