Red Peppers Turning Black Instead of Red

Question

My red peppers are turning black instead of red. Is this a blight? Anything I can do?

Answer 1

There are some varieties of peppers that ripen to black. If the flesh seems healthy and firm, you may have gotten a plant that was mislabled and the peppers are fine to eat. But if the flesh feels soft and the skin is wrinkled, they are likely not edible and may be affected by some type of disease. There are several pepper diseases that can do this. They include early blight, spotted wilt virus, necrotic spot virus, and bacterial canker. All of these persist in the soil and will reinfect pepper plants if they are repeatedly planted there. Unfortunately, all of these diseases are best dealt with by disposing of the infected plants.