Anaheim Chilis... "Help"
Forum Archives
rudedog11
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: Jul-06-2009 at 5:13pm
Hello everyone.. My chili's are getting big, ugly brown spots on them. I water every day, could i be watering to much? I give them a pretty good soaking.. I'm pretty much a rookie at gardening.
Thanks Monte..
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: Jul-07-2009 at 1:05pm
I suspect that it is blossom end rot. See:
"Blossom-End Rot of Pepper"
Gary
Olympia, Sunset Zone 5, USDA Zone 8
rudedog11
Location: Oregon, Willamette Valley
Posted: Jul-07-2009 at 1:53pm
Thanks for the reply Gary. I think I've seen that before many years ago at my first attempt at gardening. All my tomatoes got these black spots on them that looked a lot like those pictures. The spots on my peppers seem to be different.. They are leather brown and seem to form only on the inside of were the pepper curves into a hook shape. It may be that the problem is'nt advanced enough to look as bad as the pictures. Can you tell me a good way to check the ph of my soil. Is there a meter available for this at a local gardening center?
Thanks Again.
gary
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: Jul-08-2009 at 6:52am
Monte,
Yes, there are some cheap meters at many garden stores; and some low cost test kits. On the west side of the Cascades, we can almost count on having acidic soil unless it has been recently limed (heavily). I've seen tests about 5.5 pH on two friends' lawns last year. I'd advise spending your money on a soil test instead(see below).
I've had friends 'cure' blossom end rot in tomatoes planted in pots by dumping a lime/water slurry on the soil and watering "through" it. I did it once in garden soil.
You didn't say how you were watering. You may have noticed that overwatering is one of the possible causes (you've flushed the calcium). Reduce your watering to a few times per week and KNOW that you are only applying about an inch per week (in the JJA months). You'll add 30% in a hot week like last week and deduct if we get REAL rain.
I have a simple hose bib timer set for 3 days per week - DIG Models 9001D (or 7001 for large gardens). A manual start or stop gives me 30% more or less water with one touch. I use two days per week before May 20th and after August 25th. Individual vegetables, like my shutdown garlic now, need to be varied, shut off, etc. according to their growth cycles. Young plants begin about 30-50% of the maturing plant water needs (varies with whether you'll be eating fruit, seed pod, leaf).
Back to your peppers and assuming BER. If your plants are in garden soil, I'd scratch at least a half cup of ag. lime (Lilly Miller Super Sweet) around each plant. You can use Dolomite Lime (L-M Soil Sweet) if your soil is sandy but you need to almost double the quantity (weight) to get the same amount of calcium into the ground (& you may not need the magnesium).
If it is something else, the PNW Ag schools have developed an online guide for us to search. Here are their listings for peppers:
"Online Guide to Plant Disease Control - Peppers"
If you plan to continue vegetable gardening, I strongly recommend that you:
- get a copy of Steve Solomon's Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades - either the 2000 5th edition or the 2007 6th edition.
- get a complete soil test including all the micronutrients like copper, zinc, boron, and cobalt which Solomon tells us on page 36, "Maritime Northwest soils are commonly a bit deficient in."
What you do after you get your soil test results is a whole other large topic.
Gary
Olympia, Sunset Zone 5, USDA Zone 8
Ethele
Location: Washington, Puget Sound Corridor
Posted: Jul-13-2009 at 4:04pm
Gary - thanks for the mention of Steve Soloman's book. I'm already a fan of Territorial Seeds, and have added this book to my wish list.
Gardening for the Homebrewer: Grow and Process Plants for Making Beer, Wine, Gruit, Cider, Perry, and More
By co-authors Debbie Teashon (Rainy Side Gardeners) and Wendy Tweton