Extension > Garden > Diagnose a problem > What's wrong with my plant? > Vegetable > Pepper > Spots/blotches on fruit
Pepper > Fruit > Spots/blotches on fruit
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Bacterial Spot
Xanthomonas campestris pv. Vesicatoria
- Fruit has raised corky brown spots
- Occurs in warm wet weather 75° to 86° F
- Leaves have round brown spots with a dark edge
- Leaf spots often start and are most severe on the lower leaves
- Difficult to see bacterial streaming
- More information on Bacterial Spot
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Blossom End Rot
- The side or bottom of the pepper turns tan and soft, then black and sunken
- Affects only fruit
- Secondary rot from fungi or bacteria may occur on affected fruit
- Fruit may look short or stumpy, not fully expanded
- Common when water levels vary from irrigation or drought followed by rain
- More information on Blossom End Rot
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Anthracnose Fruit Rot
Colletotrichum coccodes
- Fruit spots are sunken and round
- Infections are visible only on ripe and over ripe peppers
- Mature fruit spots have a black center
- Fruit spots produce pink spores with moisture
- No visible spots on leaves and stems
- Also occurs on tomato and eggplant
- More information on managing diseases in the home vegetable garden
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Sunscald
- Fruit turns tan or white on exposed side, may dry out and appear wrinkled
- Affects fruit, young leaves and stems
- Occurs only on tissue exposed to the sun
- Young leaves of transplants turn grey with irregular bands on the lower side
- Young stems of transplants turn white on exposed side only
- More information on Sunscald
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Virus
Cucumber mosaic virus, potato virus Y, tomato spotted wilt virus and more
- Fruit may have yellow blotches, mottling or brown rings
- Leaves are mottled with yellow and light green patches
- Leaves may be misshapen; unusually long and thin like a shoestring or curled and deformed
- Plants are stunted even when neighboring plants look healthy and tall
- More information on managing diseases in the home vegetable garden
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Phytophthora Blight
Phytophthora capsici
- Soft water soaked spots form on fruit
- Water soaked to tan bleached spots may form on leaves
- Fruit wither but remain attached and become coated in white fungal growth
- Entire plant wilts and turns brown
- Dark sunken spots form on stems, all leaves beyond this spot wilt
- Disease spreads very rapidly in cool wet weather
- More information on Phytophthora Blight
- More information on managing diseases in the home vegetable garden
