My pepper isn't doing anything!

dday

dday

Ok, so I'm a serious novice grower.
 
I decided late spring I wanted to start growing peppers for fun and to eat, of course.
 
So my wife picked me up two 8-10inch plants from a nursery, and they were both doing great, then one just decided to get weird.
 
I don't really know the type, I threw away the tag that came with it. It is a mild, fat long pepper, as you can see in the photos below.
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My problems with this pepper are that once it got two peppers growing, all of the rest of the flowers and very immature peppers (1-2 days after the flowers fell off) fell off as well!
 
So I have just 2 fat peppers growing on this plant.
 
I noticed early on that there were these white crystalline type things on a bunch of the leaves and from looking around like a standard amateur it seemed I was watering it too much.
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So I really went long between watering, paying attention to how the leaves were acting to know if it needed water or not. This didn't seem to help, so I pruned some excess leaves (not too many) and a few of the budding areas to help focus the power into the remaining budding areas.
 
But the remaining buds just fell off a few weeks later with no peppers on them
 
The fat peppers look to be full size, but they are now not looking so great.
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They have that weird yellow green sick color, some wilting towards the top and feel spongy vs solid and strong like my other plant.
 
Also, at the bottom of the pepper is what looks like a stretch mark or something...
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I see this on a couple of my other pepper plant pods, and those are super healthy so I'm not too worried, but can anyone tell me maybe what it is caused by?
 
So... lots of questions, but I hope I have put it into a new presentation that makes you want to help me :D
 
Oh, I live in Germany and started my plants indoors, but have in the last few days scratch built a 1mx2m greenhouse so they can soak up the full sun all day.
 
Then I added a calita red habanero, and an apache (no idea, it's what the tag says) as well as a two tomatoes. I have some tester seedlings but they don't seem to be too happy, they have had a rough childhood and I've learned some lessons about seeding and growing. Next round, it will go better!
 
the bottom stretching / rotting is probably blossom end rot (BER) and is fixed by adding a calcium supplement (magical calnmag calmag dolomite (googleit)). 
 
do the white things on bottom come off or move or squish? or are they just like goosebumps? look closer do they look like crystals?
 
As for the bottom of the leaves, they do not really come off/squish when I rub my finger on them. They just stay there.
 
The bumps on the leaves are edema, caused by excessive watering and poor airflow. Do you have an oscillating fan? If the leaves cannot transpire, and are also overwatered, the water blisters will start to form. The soil for peppers should be evenly moist, and watered maybe once a week or two once the plant is established. The yellow color and withering are also caused by poor airflow, and overwatering. The plant is struggling to keep the pepper alive to ripen it, but it is taking some of the water from the pepper flesh to facilitate faster ripening and allow the seeds to remain viable. I have had that happen to peppers indoors late in the season when I am ripening the last few on the plant.
 
As for the stretch mark on the pepper, cracks and scarification of pepper skin is quite common, and I would not worry about it. Blossom end rot looks very different from that, more like a brown soft spot on the tip, which you may see flecks of mold growing on the inside of that membrane of rot.
 
Your plant looks like it may not have enough potassium, if the blooms are not setting. Once a plant is established like yours, try a plant food tailored to peppers and tomatoes. It should have decent nitrogen (for foliage), and a higher potassium (for bloom/fruit set). Also make sure that the plant food has a moderate percentage of trace minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, which are all integral to proper plant/root/bloom/fruit development in varying quantities as the plant grows.
 
The crystals on the bottom of the leaves are edema, which is harmless. Flowers fall off all the time, even on healthy plants, but unfortunately I'm not sure why your immature peppers would fall off. That is a sign of stress. Do the plants have proper fresh air, and air circulation?
 
Roguejim said:
Describe your potting mix.
 
Bumps are oedema.  Nothing to worry about.
 
Peppers look similar to Anaheims.
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Roguejim, thanks for the info! The potting mix is tomato soil, with a slightly higher Phosphorous then Nitrogen and Potassium, I don't have the exact numbers on hand. I have fertilized it one time in the 3 months it's been growing, with a fertilizer called bio composan, it is a tomato mix with Guano, again higher P content then N or K. I'm an amateur so I don't have the exact ratios on hand, I'll learn with time I'm sure.
 
 
 
Hendrix1326 said:
The bumps on the leaves are edema, caused by excessive watering and poor airflow. Do you have an oscillating fan? If the leaves cannot transpire, and are also overwatered, the water blisters will start to form. The soil for peppers should be evenly moist, and watered maybe once a week or two once the plant is established. The yellow color and withering are also caused by poor airflow, and overwatering. The plant is struggling to keep the pepper alive to ripen it, but it is taking some of the water from the pepper flesh to facilitate faster ripening and allow the seeds to remain viable. I have had that happen to peppers indoors late in the season when I am ripening the last few on the plant.
 
As for the stretch mark on the pepper, cracks and scarification of pepper skin is quite common, and I would not worry about it. Blossom end rot looks very different from that, more like a brown soft spot on the tip, which you may see flecks of mold growing on the inside of that membrane of rot.
 
Your plant looks like it may not have enough potassium, if the blooms are not setting. Once a plant is established like yours, try a plant food tailored to peppers and tomatoes. It should have decent nitrogen (for foliage), and a higher potassium (for bloom/fruit set). Also make sure that the plant food has a moderate percentage of trace minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, and sulfur, which are all integral to proper plant/root/bloom/fruit development in varying quantities as the plant grows.
Click to expand...
Hendrix1326, thank you for all the tips. the soil/fertilizer is a tomato with added Guano for the Phosphorous content for the pods. What was confusing me is that one of the plants is booming, while this one only has 2 pods that are huge, but not totally happy, and no other blooms/pods have lasted very long before falling off. While the other plant has like 40 pods growing happily.
 
I did just move them outside, so I think that before they didn't have enough airflow and direct sunlight. Now things are different. They are outside with good airflow in the green house and lots of sun. I'm hoping to see a turn around in the plant in a few weeks...
 
SichuaneseFoodFan said:
The crystals on the bottom of the leaves are edema, which is harmless. Flowers fall off all the time, even on healthy plants, but unfortunately I'm not sure why your immature peppers would fall off. That is a sign of stress. Do the plants have proper fresh air, and air circulation?
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Thanks! The fresh air and circulation is now taken care of that they are outside. I'm sure it was too stuffy for them inside.
 
IMO, what you've got is a slightly scraggly plant, with not a lot of leaf area, that is trying to produce at least two fair sized fruit.  The plant looks fairly healthy, but it's expending nearly all its energy into growing the pods.  Until they get picked the plant will probably stay 'stalled' and scrawny.
 
You can either wait it out and pick when ripe, or pick some/all of the pods now.  Once relieved of its load, the plant should resume growing and developing more foliage.  Until it bushes out, you might want to actively snip any flowers that develop to avoid a repeat.
 
Hendrix1326 said:
As for the stretch mark on the pepper, cracks and scarification of pepper skin is quite common, and I would not worry about it. Blossom end rot looks very different from that, more like a brown soft spot on the tip, which you may see flecks of mold growing on the inside of that membrane of rot.
Click to expand...
I agree it isn't BER, the term for the cracks and "scarring" is also called corking.  Corking is genetic from what I understand, some people love corking and others don't really care for it all that much.  I had a jalapeno plant last year with some major corking and I thought it looked pretty cool!  Didn't affect taste or anything as far as I could tell, purely cosmetic.
 
Thanks everyone. I would really agree the plants did not have enough airflow and direct light. Looking in on them again today, I was treated with my first bright red pepper from my other plant! I'll add some photos later, it's a good feeling. Yesterday it was maroon and today it's beautiful lips red. Time to cut it tomorrow and eat it!
 
Also, my big pepper seems to be getting more solid, so it's possible it's finally recovered and there is a new flower bud growing, so maybe I'm over the hump.
 
I am thinking about topping the plant once I cut the peppers because the thing is very tall, but the problem is with such a long stem, and no leaves near the bottom, it might not be a good idea to cut any foliage off of the plant until more leaves grow at the bottom.
 
I like the shorter, fuller plants vs the tall, skinny ones. I'm guessing that if the pods are long hanging ones, the plant will tend to grow taller so the pods don't drag on the ground?
 
Don't be scared of topping Dday--it will force the plant to grow leaves elsewhere to make up for the loss. Another trick to promote growth in bare areas is to provide strong light where you would like to see more new growth.
 
I just think I'm a little late for topping at this point. I will surely top my big pepper, since I'm disappointed in it's yield this year.. only 2. LOL.
 
As for topping the other plants, if I do that now, all the pods that are on the places where I want to top.. well, they won't live any more! So I should have gotten them early in their growth cycle. The plan is to try and overwinter all of them (except the big one), so they will get not a topping... but a bottoming.
 
I've read that to overwinter, I should chop the stem about 4 inches up, keep em in a cool temperature and water every 2-3 weeks as required. so next year, they should not be so long and produce peppers fast!
 
But I'm learning, and I should have a nice start for next year when what I've picked up so far.
 
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