Pepper BER Question

[alamo5000]

I have had a question lingering on my mind for quite some time.

This last year I grew tons of bell peppers. I had yellow, Orange, Red, etc...I probably had a dozen plants or so.

My plants all got big and looked seemingly healthy. The peppers it produced were all big and thick walled too.

The only problem I had was on 80% or more of my peppers a 'soft spot' formed and ultimately created a hole in my peppers. It looked like that one spot on the fruits were rotten, but the rest of the pepper was great.

This last season I grew everything in containers and that included my peppers.

Just for future reference what actually causes the rotten spots to form and how can I combat that? I had someone tell me its called Blossom End Rot but to be honest my pepper farm was experimental only so I didn't fiddle with it all that much.

I had most of my attention honestly on my tomatoes.

[franzb69]

it's the same with every other fruit bearing plant. lack of calcium and magnesium. epsom salt spraying and some sort of calcium amendment in the soil will help fix your problem. =D

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by franzb69

it's the same with every other fruit bearing plant. lack of calcium and magnesium. epsom salt spraying and some sort of calcium amendment in the soil will help fix your problem. =D

Much research has been done in the last 20 years or so to show that lack of Ca++ in the soil is not the major cause of BER. Rather, it's maldistribution inside the plant that can be caused by several insults to the plants that can induce it/

http://victoryseeds.com/information/carolyn_ber.html

Above is a link to BER in tomatoes, which is the same as BER in peppers, squash, cauliflower, you name it, that Mike Dunton at Victory Seeds asked me share with him, so I did.

If you have any questions, please just ask them in this thread.

[alamo5000]

Carolyn,

Thank you for the link!!!

I think I hit on what may have been my problem. I think my soil was too rich. When I potted everything up I used straight store bought soil. It was stuff I bought at the local lawn and garden shop, not anything bagged.

Like I said, my plants grew really well. The stalks were as fat as my thumb.

I didn't know that I should have picked the fruit off though. From what I recall the BER in my peppers tended to happen late, as in about the time the fruits went from green to orange or yellow or....

I wonder if I grow them in the ground this coming year if that will be better?

[franzb69]

i see. thank you for shedding some light into the subject.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by franzb69

i see. thank you for shedding some light into the subject.

Glad to do so.

Alamo, those who grow tomatoes and peppers, etc., in containers usually do have to add some Ca++ to the growing medium, depending on what it is. That's b'c Ca++ leaches out of the medium b'c of the larger amount of water that folks have to use with container growing.

I'm not one who grows much in containers so if you want to continue to do so I suggest asking those in the Container Forum what they use.

I would think that your peppers would do better inground as to BER. But b'c there are so many stresses that can induce BER inground or otherwise, it's hard to tell what might happen from one season to the next, as is true with tomatoes as well.

[Mark0820]

Interesting article. When my tomato plants experience BER, it most often is a problem with the paste type tomatoes. This year, all of my BER problems were with a paste variety (Big Russian Roma).

The Big Russian Roma plants were very slow to develop. The plants grew, but the main stem remained thin and spindly. The stem became thicker, but it was well into the season. I had the same growth habit problem the one year I grew Amish paste.

Based on the article, I'm guessing the slow plant development contributed to the BER. Is there any research that suggests paste types are more susceptible to BER, or is this just my own experience (as well as paste type plants being slower to develop)?

I didn't care for the Big Russian Roma's, but that is another story.

[carolyn137]

Based on the article, I'm guessing the slow plant development contributed to the BER. Is there any research that suggests paste types are more susceptible to BER, or is this just my own experience (as well as paste type plants being slower to develop)?

*****

it's not really a matter of reserach, but just from observation but YES, most paste types are MUCH more susceptible to BER as they are to Early Blight ( A. solani) as well. No, I'm not suggesting that EB and BER are causally related, I'm just saying that both are known to afflict paste types.

I looked back at that article and while I said that some were "horrible" in terms of BER I never said anything specific about paste varieties.

Again, just by observation it's known that transport within a plant can differ greatly amongst different varieties. if for some reason your plants are under water for several days, I mean maybe not totally, but the bottom parts of the plants are, some will survive and some won't.

And that means that water absorption from the roots is probably not the same and that transport of the extra water is not the same. Plants will first wilt, then foliage turns yellow, then brown, then death of the plant. But different varieties go thru that sequence differently and not all are killed.

Finally, I don't consider Amish Paste to be a paste variety/

Far too juicy, far too many seeds. Sometimes varieties were named just on shape alone, and another one that has paste as part of the name isn't a paste tomato either and that one is Lillian's Red Kansas Paste.

And so it goes.

[Mark0820]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

Finally, I don't consider Amish Paste to be a paste variety/

Far too juicy, far too many seeds. Sometimes varieties were named just on shape alone, and another one that has paste as part of the name isn't a paste tomato either and that one is Lillian's Red Kansas Paste.

And so it goes.

That was one of my issues with Big Russian Roma. Too juicy for a paste, and my taste buds found it to be quite bland.