I do not know what happened here. The pepper was doing fantastic and then I looked and it was completely drooped. Not dead, just ALL leaves were limp. Water level was fine. (Earth box) and then I looked and found this on the bottom of two peppers. There is a possibility that too much Epsom salts were sprayed on them by a well meaning helper, could that have done this?
Looks like blossom end rot to me- peppers do get it as well as tomatoes. The plant should outgrow it.
I've never heard of BER effecting the way the plants look?
What Jo said...BER...
Here is a link about blossom end rot. But, there may be more going on here because you said the plants were drooped and all the leaves went limp. So it could also be over fertilization as mentioned in the article.
http://hort.uwex.edu/articles/blossom-end-rot
Thank you, it may be the excess magnesium from Epsom salts.
Thank you, it may be the excess magnesium from Epsom salts.
I always wondered how earth containers flushed out excess salts. Top-water until the reservoir overflows?
Push a siphon tube down into the water reservoir and siphon it out?
Wet-dry vac ?
Tip the whole bucket on its side and pour?
Just had a thought is there anyway there could be a Stalk Borer in the main stem. They cause those symptoms. I've never had one but I've heard of them.
I learned last year that peppers like bone meal as if it is crack cocaine. Just a bit (maybe a tablespoon every two weeks) -- they FLOURISHED - and I had a bumper crop. I haven't seen BER on peppers, but often fight it with my tomatoes - I always thought it was because the fruit got wet when it was setting.
Bone meal is phospherous which is good for roots and fruit. BER is do to a lack of available calcium.
But that wouldn't have anything to do with the plant drooping.
This message was edited May 8, 2013 8:06 PM
Thanks for that tip on the bone meal, happygirl345. Good to know.
