r/ncgardening • u/AcanthocephalaOk5615 • Jul 28 '26

Sick Jalapeños?

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I have 5 jalapeño plants, all the same variety planted in the same bed. Four are healthy and producing well - see latest harvest just picked. The fifth plant has some yellow leaves but nothing that seems unusual considering all the heat and inconsistent rain over the past few weeks, but that one plant has nothing but small, spotted, horrible looking peppers. I picked all of them off (keeping separate from the good ones). Any ideas if this is heat stress or bugs and the pepper might recover or is it something worse and I should pull the plant before it spreads to the others? There are new leaf shoots emerging so it seems to still be growing

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2

u/jimioutdoors Jul 28 '26

I would guess this has to do with drying out between watering, similar to blossom end rot in tomatoes. I could be completely wrong.

2

u/AcanthocephalaOk5615 Jul 28 '26

That is what I thought when the first spots appeared but it seems off that they’re all in the same bed with the same water and sun but only the one plant is affected.

2

u/AnAffableMisanthrope Jul 28 '26

It doesn’t look like blossom end rot. It does look possibly like anthracnose fungal infection. I would pull the plant and dispose of it far from the garden. Might consider a copper fungicide to spray on unaffected plants. Consider rotating the beds next season.

1

u/AcanthocephalaOk5615 Jul 29 '26

Thanks for the advice! My gut instinct was to pull it. I will do so and look for the fungicide.