[Grubbypaws]

In the last few days I have noticed that one of the peppers in my poly tunnel was wilting. I gave it extra TLC but black rotting areas appeared at the junctions of the stems and the plant died. Does anyone know what I am dealing with here? I have a number of other plants in close proximity which are fruiting well.

This year the only gardening expertise I seem to have gained it learning how to identify diseases first hand   

[allotmentann]

I have this too and was starting to worry that I was going to lose them all. Everything I can find on the net seems to suggest it is quite normal and that as long as the plants and peppers look healthy it is nothing to worry about. I would be interested to know if anyone can shed any more light on it though, as it does look bad

[mumofstig]

black markings are normal for pepper plants - black rotting is not 

[Grubbypaws]

This is definately not normal as it killed the plant. The wounds at the stem junctions were open, black and rotting. It looked as if some fungal disease had entered where small non thriving fruits have fallen off. No pictures I am afraid as the plant got totalled the moment I saw it this morning!!!

[Dr_Pepper]

Almost 100% sure this is Fusarium. A common fungal pathogen of peppers. If you snap the stem of one of the plants you'll probably see a black ring where all the vascular tissue is dead; therefore no water uptake, therefore wilting and death. Very common in a lot of soils, but it is a weak disease, able to infect only already-stressed plants - e.g. when they are carrying a lot of fruit and/or light levels are low. We see it a lot in our organic peppers at work from this point onwards in the season.

[Grubbypaws]

I have 7 other plants in close proximity to the one that died. Is there anything that I can do to stop them succumbing as well? I am keeping them well fed and watered.

[Dr_Pepper]

I'd keep the plants on the dry side, don't feed too heavily and, if possible, thin the fruit a bit. This should all encourage the growth of new, resilient, healthy roots and hopefully discourage the growth of any pathogenic fungi.

[Debz]

That happened to one of mine too about 3 weeks ago.  None of my others appear to be affected yet (touching wood).

[savbo]

dr pepper sounds like a useful new member!

sav

[shokkyy]

Something a bit weird happened to two of my pepper plants this year, one sweet and one chilli. The top couple of inches just went crispy and brown, like they'd been burnt. Rest of the plant still looked ok but they never regrew the growth tip and stopped growing. Apart from that, they had nothing in common - one in a pot, one in a bed, one in the tunnel and one in the cold greenhouse.

[Grubbypaws]

In another thread about greenfly Dr pepper identified one type of greenfly that may be causing your problem

-glasshouse-potato aphid (long legs, pear-shaped, hides low down and injects a toxin when it feeds that makes the top leaves shrivel up),


I have the same problem and have been putting it down to this. I presume it makes the plant look less appetizing for herbivores.

[devonbarmygardener]

For the first time ever, I also lost a pepper plant this year

It was wilting badly and was convinced that it was underwatered for some reason. It seemed to perk up a bit but was always wilty. A couple of tiny red fruits but they didn't grow and swell.
It was touching the other pepper plant and that one is fine so it's not a communicable disease and there's no pests present on the plant so I dunno