75% of my jalapeños look like this in some form or another. They’re in a raised bed with other peppers but none of the other pepper varieties are having issues.

by nzed35

14 Comments

  1. Could be blossom end rot. Cal mag is what you need if it is

  2. captnspock

    Are the jalapeno touching the soil/mulch? I have had that happen to the ones that grow too low

  3. darktideDay1

    I’m guessing blossom rot. I have had this issue with both peppers and tomatoes. A little oyster flour in the soil when amending in the springs stops it. Haven’t had a problem since I started doing that.

  4. basement-thug

    I’ve had this before. I treated it as a calcium magnesium deficiency but it didn’t clear up before end of season, and that was the season I decided to just stop keeping a large garden.

  5. Blossom end rot is caused by calcium deficiency BUT its often caused by inconsistent watering/moisture in the soil. Jalapenos/capsicums/tomatoes need more calcium than other chillis/cherry tomatoes because they have a thicker skin. Dumping extra calcium can cause other issues, if theres too much it’ll struggle to uptake magnesium, and will still have issues if moisture is the problem.

    If you have them in ground, drip or using a soil wetter to help get the moisture in the soil evenly will help heaps. If in a pot, bottom watering so you know the moistures being absorbed and not draining out of the pot before it absorbs into the middle portion(roots make it more difficult for water to penetrate but if it wicks it up it holds it better also).

    First year growing capsicums and tomatoes the internet told me to dump calcium and certain fertilisers, but ultimately it came down to water. Calcium is difficult for a lot of plants to uptake fast, and its one of the few nutrients that heavily depends on mass flow(moisture pulling nutrients) to get to the plants. New fruit will be fine and even if not save the plant if its healthy and they overwinter well if you take care of it, can get a headstart on the next growing season

  6. pseudosysadmin

    I have 2 jalapeño plants doing this right now, they are each 2 foot tall and loaded with fruit and it’s because they are way too small for the amount of fruit at this time, the roots don’t have the capability of feeding every pepper on the tree ,if I don’t let it have 30 peppers growing at a time and pop a few babies off it doesn’t happen until I forget about it. My banana peppers do this occasionally too if I forget about picking

  7. speppers69

    It’s blossom end rot and it’s caused by inconsistent watering. The plant can’t absorb and process calcium properly if you don’t water consistently. Adding something like Cal-Mag can help. But watering on a regular basis will help more. Spend the $10 on a water meter and make sure you’re watering properly.

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