Anyone know why my peppers are rotting?

This is my first time growing peppers; I planted red, orange, and yellow bells. I finally got plenty of peppers, the rain and cold finally stopped, and I've been waiting and waiting for them to change color from green. Unfortunately, it seems that every time I finally see one beginning to change color, it turns out to be rotten, even though they're not sitting on the ground. Anyone know why?

Sorry, cut my last post very short because the kids were demanding some attention. To give more details: we had a very cold, wet early summer, which finally turned into actual summer weather in mid-July, and finally high 80's to mid 90's the past few weeks. Everything is behind, but producing, but I've also had more fungal/bacterial/pest issues than ever before. The peppers are mostly still quite small; as soon as they start to get larger and turn color, I find that they're mushy and rotten at the bottom. I cut the first one open, and found worms inside, but that one had slumped over onto the wood of the raised bed, and was resting on it. I thought that might have had something to do with the worms. I haven't cut any of the others open, because I was too grossed out by the worms. I did have squash vine borer in the bed right beside the peppers, if that could in any way be connected....thanks for any suggestions on how to deal with this, or what it is.

Patterntracy, I hope someone knowledgeable about peppers answers your question regarding the rotten ends you've seen. I've had problems like this with my tomatoes this very cool summer (but no worms thank heavens), I think because I had a lot of Early Blight and the 'maters began to rot as they ripened.
I also had squash vine borer in my zucchini--eventually discarded the vine. I thought that the moth only laid eggs inside the stem of the squash.
This has not been a very good year for my veggie garden either ;-(

Hi capecodgardener,
Thanks for sharing; I remember seeing your post about blight a month or so ago. I've been lucky that my tomatoes set lots of fruit, despite the bacterial issues, and it's been much more flavorful than last year (although not cosmetically the prettiest I've ever had!) But this is the first year that I've looked forward to putting the garden to "bed" for the season. Anyway, I will be leaving my garden woes behind on Saturday, when we head down to your neck of the woods (Eastham, specifically) for vacation. Whatever I come back to--well, so be it.

Corn borers and corn earworms are common pests of peppers. If the peppers aren't totally dissolved to mush, you should be able to see a small hole.

Patterntracy,

I am so happy that you've posted this question. I have the same exact problem with my red/orange/yellow bell peppers! They are getting nice size and now hae started to turn colors but the bottom is already rotted. It looked like they were rotting from the inside out to me. Did you by chance also use Bonnie plants to start your bell peppers? My plants are gorgeous but the fruit are not surviving.

Sounds like blossom end rot maybe. I had it on my tomatoes and in my case it was caused by uneven moisture. I allowed my plants to dry out too often When I started giving even moisture the problem went away.
here is an article about it
http://www.examiner.com/x-346-Gardening-Examiner~y2009m7d6-Treating-blossom-end-rot-in-tomatoes-peppers-and-eggplants

Hmmm, it seems I'm going to have to go worm hunting in my peppers to solve this one. Yuck. Maybe I can get hubby to do it. Anyway, thanks for your thoughts, angele. I've had blossom end rot in my tomatoes before; I wish that article you linked had photos of it in peppers. However, it's been such a wet summer here that my gut tells me it's not that. Lovie2, I started my peppers from seed, with great anticipation and nurturing, got beautiful, tall plants that FINALLY set lots of fruit....only to have this happen. I'm SO disappointed. We should keep in touch on this, since we're both in Boston and so are dealing with the same weather conditions. I've heard that peppers are tough to do here, because they need so much heat. Maybe they just aren't getting the heat they need to change color, and wind up rotting instead?? I've started picking some of them green, so at least it's not a total waste. I'll post if/when I find worms--ugh. If I can figure out the rotting problem, I'm wondering if maybe I could get a cold frame around the plants to boost the temps....

Patterntracy, as the season goes on I keep hearing from many gardeners that this was just too cool (and wet) a summer in the North East for many of the heat-loving veggies like peppers and tomatoes to develop as they should. I have friends whose 'maters haven't turned red yet! Most of mine came down with early blight so I didn't get a chance to harvest many.
I am wondering if it's as simple as this--your peppers wouldn't have rotted if the temps had been warm enough, early enough?

I'm wondering that too, CapeCodGardener, so I want to see if I can rule out the worm thing. I rent space from a local greenhouse to start my seeds. If I do rule out the corn borers, maybe I can try peppers in large pots and leave them in the greenhouse for much later into the season, and/or try having a cold frame over whichever bed I put them in.
Or I could just buy the stupid things at the grocery store.
By the way, just got back from Eastham the other day--another great Cape vacation! And came home to more squash vine borers. I'm done with squash for the year...

I do hope you have better luck with your peppers next season--"the worm thing" sounds disgusting as well as disappointing. I can't help but hope that next summer will be different from this one: we'll all be harvesting fat, juicy, colorful bell peppers and we'll forget all about the troubles of Summer 2009. ;-) At least we can hope!
Keep us posted about what you learn about corn borers, etc. And I'm glad you had a good holiday in Eastham!

If I gave up and just bought the stuff at the store look how much money I would save .

Hah! Good point, eweed! But think of the experiences you'd miss--rotting veggies, nasty bugs, stressing about the weather and temps; would life really be as rich and full without that??!!

And then there's:

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden (Paperback)
by William Alexander

The title says it all.

I read that last year while lounging on the beach in Eastham--great fun!
OK, closer inspection of the peppers seems to be supporting the DISGUSTING corn borer theory. Yuck, yuck, yuck! I've read about beneficial nematodes on this site, and I'm gathering that next year, I should give my beds a dose of them very early on? and maybe another dose later? Once I have seedlings? This bug thing is really creeping me out--I want to stay as organic as possible, at the same time KILLING every one of these vile creatures.....

I'm no plant biologist, patterntracy, but I googled "corn borers and nematodes" and found an article that seems to indicate that an application of nematodes does help (well, the article was talking about corn, but I think it translates to peppers.)
I'm not sure about the timing. Maybe others on this forum could advise.

--Emily (who also tries valiantly to garden organically and is still licking her wounds with her tomatoes this summer.)

http://www.springerlink.com/content/5440r0601qk3801t/