I'm no expert, but in your first pic, the one on the right looks like one of mine did when it was lacking nitrogen. Also, have you checked for aphids? They LOVE my jalapenos. The fruits in the lower pics look like they might be getting sun burned.

Joe

definately sunburn, on the pretty discoloration( it is a free radical flavonoid called anthocyanin, it is the plants defense against true damage, u will see it in stems also it is the plants reaction to high levels of direct sunlight as for the banana peppers, if they are true bananas they will turn yellow as opposed to the pale green, otherwise they are going to turn orange and then possibly red. as to the yellowing check to make sure it is not over watered, then if it is not try some epsom salt (magnesium sulfate)diluted in water(plants need both sulfur and magnesium to perform photosynthesis, the process of turning sugar to chlorophyl, the chemical that makes plants green :)
hope this has been helpful
paul

Check it out may be of some help http://www.learn2grow.com/gardeningguides/fertilizer/basics/understandingfertilizernumbers.aspx

Is the Sunburn going to negatively affect my peppers? Or maybe just make them hotter?
I dont think aphids or lack of nitrogen is the problem either. I haven't noticed aphids, although I havent specifically looked for them but the affected Banana Pepper is right next to the unaffected one as well as others and they are doing great. I have been fertilizing all plants the same and the last time I did so was about a week ago with MG 10-10-10. One thing I do know is that I will soon find out if this is heat related. We have warnings out already for heat from Sunday through Thursday. If it is any issue with heat, I can probably kiss that sucker good bye.
Habjolokia: That was a good concise article on fertilizers. Thanks.

I was just thinking? That plant is pretty loaded down with pods right now. Is there a chance the fruit production is taking away all the energy from the plant causing the leaves to suffer?

Hey! Great plants!

Are you fertilizing both plants the same?
I'd add some fertilizer. And if your fertilizer doesn't provide Calcium,
add a 1/4 teaspoon epsom salts to a gallon of fertilizer water. See if it works.

Secondly, that's just some beautiful sunburn. Don't worry, though, the pods will develop
normal color eventually (red). My peppers develop these purplish smudges on the sun side, too.

Most banana type peppers that I've seen have been red.
Hot wax, hot banana, sweet banana, et cetera.

Josh

Now I see your recent posts, Esox ;-)

Yes, a fully loaded plant will be making heavier nutritional demands.
Since you're using MG, I'm going to assume that it doesn't have Calcium added.

Josh

OK, sounds like Calcium is my next step. You are saying add Epsom Salts. Will that provide the calcium. I have bone meal but they are saying that takes weeks and even months to break down and become usable by the plants. I have been treating both Banana Peppers the exact same all year. From nutrients to water to sunlight, it has all been consistent. So, I dont know why one is suffering and the other is not. But then one person can catch a cold and the one next to him doesn't so I am going to try some Epsom Salts. I checked the PH and it was 6.8-6.9. Our weather is forecast for high heat the next five or six days so I hope that doesn't further stress my plants.

essox, the sunburn or as I said anthocyanin, will only add a bit of astringency to the flavor, or make them slightly more acidic tasting, hardly noticeable, however in many studies they have found anthocyanin is an antioxidant, thus is actually increasing the nutritional value of one of natures super foods, after all, peppers are already high in antioxidants vitamin A and C and capsaicin has been shown to help all sorts of maladies and prevent others, as it is an amazing boost to the immune system. AS far as the calcium
I have been using a product called CAL+ it has worked great when the chinenses start to curl between the veins of the leaves, but the tobascoes start to get alittle yellow every 3 weeks or so they are 4 1/2 ft tall and only in 5 gal buckets, but a tblsp of epsom salt in a gal of water for each and they perk right up and get super green within a day or so

I am going to start with the Epsom Salt. I will pick some up later today and use it this evening. I might find some of that CAL+ or a similar supplement to replace the bone meal I was using.

Wow 4.5 feet tall. Too cool. Is that normal. I might try one of them next year. My peppers are fairly normal size, I think except maybe the Bhuts. A couple of them are about 2.5 feet tall but probably 3.5 feet wide. Suckers are growing into each other after I planted them about 20" apart thinking that would be fine. I can't tell where one plant starts and another ends on two of them they are so intertwined. But doing great otherwise.

Note that epsom salt is magnesium sulphate, and will provide your plants with magnesium, not calcium. To get calcium at this point, you'll need to find a calcium supplement, such as calcium nitrate or bonemeal.

Joe

Crap. Now I gotta buy some more stuff. These peppers eat better than I do. Where do I get that Calcium Nitrate stuff?

Joe, Surprised you havent seen one of those Japanese Beetles. I have seen them in my area for 4 or 5 years at least. By the way, I feed and water birds year round too. I love to watch Bluebirds sit on a branch and then fly down to grab a bug. I watched one tussle with a quarter dollar sized butterfly for about 5 minutes one morning. Funny as heck.

I noticed something that has me a bit concerned. I see sun scald on the leaves and the leaves are curling up. I see this happen in my Hyrdo units when there is either too much water or not enough nitrogen.

I also wanted to point Something else out. You have brown spots on your leaves and a mosaic like pattern on healthy leaves. I do not think its TMV for you would see wilting. This reminds me of how unhealthy roots can effect the leaves. I have seen this in Hydro due to not enough oxygen which basically translates to over watering in soil. How often do you water the plants? Do you let the soil dry out before you water?

Do not jump too far ahead of your self when trying to fix this. Start with the basics. Water, Light, Ferts, Temp. If one of those is out of whack (Mainly water and temp) it will cause the Ferts that are available to the plant to swing and lock out.

I honestly doubt the plant has a calcium deficiency. You would have flower drop and blossom end rot. I see purples showing up in peppers when there is a watering issue or too much sun.

This is what I would do. Move on to more drastic measures if it doesn't work.

*Move the plant to where it receives good morning sun but shaded from late afternoon sun.
*Let the soil dry out and wait for the plant to show signs of slight wilting. Water with enough water that in a few hours the soil should be damp not too wet. Rinse and repeat with this watering cycle.
*Purchase some Mircale Grow ferts that are made for tomatoes. Add 2 to 3 small scoops to one gallon of water and water with the next watering cycle. Wait 5 days then do it again.
*Keep doing this till the plant recovers.

If all goes well the plant should perk back up in a week or two. If you see positive signs in the plant then up the fert to every 3 days with that mixture. Pepper have such a high demand on ferts when they are fruiting. They like to fruit and grow/flower like mad.

Give them what they want and you will have a heavy pepper set on the plant. Wait for the plant to tell you what it needs. I usually wait till I see a little drooping before I water then I go back to ignoring my outdoor potted peppers. Too much love can be a killer.

jmoore3274:
Those turned up leaves are on the Charleston I believe. The fist pick is the photo of the two Bananas. One of which is yellowish and has leaves falling. That is the one I am most concerned with. The Charleston has looked yellowish and droopy since it was 4" high but it is putting out some nice pretty fruit.
I think I am going to use a little Epsom Salts as suggested above and also I can get a Miracle Gro general tomatoe fert with added Calcium. http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?proId=prod10600024&itemId=cat70048&tabs=general
I will also use that at next watering which should be a couple days. We are scheduled for a long string of 90+ degree days with 70+ dewpoints. Along with that, some strong storms predicted for monday.
I have moved my plants from where they get about 10-12 hours of sun to the garage. I hope to keep them shaded during the heat wave and keep them out of any harsh storms. I may move them to an outside shaded area after the threat of storms is over and then back to their original spots after it cools down a bit.

essox,
to answer your question, as far as I know, tobascos normally turn in to big bushes, Jamie posted a pic of 2 he had last year that were 6ft high and several ft wide w/ hundreds of pods, but his were in the ground in florida and mine are in five gal bucketsi n North Carolina, but yeah all 3 of my tobascos are about 4 1/2 ft high and about 2 ft wide, the oldest one has about 40 pods or so w/ a couple dozen more flowers, the middle one has about 15 pods and several dozen buds and flowers and the youngest one has about a dozen flowers and several dozen buds, they have been growing like weeds, every since I transplanted them, plus I absolutely love pickled tabsco peppers, been eating them since I was a little kid, my mom and I used to eat them on saltines for a snack when I was a kid,and we used to scramble them up in eggs, I lost her a few years ago and the tobascos growing kinda make me feel like she is close.
so emotional tangent aside I would highly recommend growing them, they only have a bit of heat about 30k-50k scovilles, but they have a fantastic flavor and make a pretty decent hot sauce ;)

Thanks Chili Freak: I think I might grow one next season. I have been thinking about some of the varieties I might like to do next year.
I have another question for you or any one else. In the first photo of this thread, showing my "Hot Banana Pepper" plants, are they really Hot Banana Peppers or Hungarian Wax Peppers? I have been doing some reading and many sites use both names for the same pepper, some say it is the same pepper some say they are not the same. If they are not the same, can someone tell me what kind I have. The biggest ones are about 4" long or so. Also, the pods begin growing straight up but as they get bigger, they bend over and begin to hang as most of them are doing now.

as far as I can tell they are the same type of pepper, just that bananas are yellow hungarian wax,where the others ripen to orange and red, I may be wrong on this, it seems to me that people are so willing to use interchangeable names for things, the green fruit beetles I HAD(hehehe)are called junebugs around here(one of the farmers int the area told me) but I have always known junebugs as small roundish brown beetles, scotch bonnet for another example how many times have you seen or heard reference to habaneros called scotch bonnets, who knows?

Yah, that happens with a lot of things. Fish are the same way. In one part of the country/state a fish is called a Sheephead, in another, it is a Drum. What the heck? I have always known june bugs to be those huge black beetles that buzz around the lights in the early to mid summer. Sometimes they die while clinging to a screen in a screen door. Some are almost an inch long. But back tot he peppers. I am pretty sure my peppers will be going the orange/red route to ripening. One of my most mature has developed a pretty orange streak along it. So, what do I have, Hungarian Wax, Hot Banana, ?????? Or are they truly the same thing?

Well, it's a good question, Esox....

The Hungarian Hot Wax and the Banana are different varieties, although often confused.

In my experience, Hot Banana peppers hang downward and are longer and more pointy than Hot Wax,
and they also tend to have a more pronounced curve. Hot Wax start out straight up, then begin to droop
and hang as they develop. Both peppers will ripen to red, however.

So, from the pictures, it would appear that you have Hungarian Wax...
but with all the hybrids out there, I can't say with full certainty.

Also, I've eaten Hot Banana peppers that were just as hot as Hungarians.

Josh

OK, thanks Josh. So The Hungarian Wax are pretty hot compared to hot Banana. I was hoping for a relatively mild pepper so that I could actually eat something, without suffering that I am growing. My peppers definitely started all growing pointing up and eventually they tip over so I am going with Hot wax. One is getting an orange streak in it so I will find out soon just how hot they are. That reminds me, I still have that Ghost Pepper I picked a few days ago. It looks pretty much fully ripe now. There is no one around to test it for me..........ummmmm, well...........

Be careful with that Ghost... ;-)

The heat of Hungarian Hot Wax and Hot Banana is very similar, from what I've tasted.
The Sweet Banana is the milder variant.

I think you'll enjoy the Hungarian heat, but if it's too much just strip out the seeds
and the membrane. That's what I do when I cook them for my dad.

Josh

I have noticed similar stress on alot of my plants. It usually happens when the temps reach a melting point and only on the plants that have tons of peppers on them like this one!

Usually what happens with this one( he is a year and a half old and has done this at leat 4 times) is he looks super healthy,produces a bunch of pods,I eat the pods,then the cylce repeats. I would not do much other than harvest,keep in shade and it should bounce back strong.It does not look like a calcium defeciency to me!

Hmmm, good advice from both Josh and Romy.
Josh: funny enough but ironically, I am growing those bananas for my dad too. He said he wanted some milder peppers for sandwiches. I have a couple pods just entering the orange phase now. I suppose I should pick them just to get things going. Then I can test the heat too.
Romy6: I already put some MG with calcium around my plants last night. Got about a 1/4 inch of nice slow rain overnight so it should start filtering down in already. We are in that huge heat wave going on right now so I will probably keep the stressed one as well as the others from getting full sun over the next few days. The plant doesn't seem to be continuing its demise so I dont think it is on a terminal course and in fact is still putting out robust blooms. Several of my other plants have nearly quit producing blooms. I am sure that is due to them being heavy with fruit and as I start picking ripe pods, I am sure they will push out some more blooms. But it is starting to get to the point where new pods might not have enough time to ripen before the growing season is over up here. Oh, Josh, when you say: "strip out the membrane", are you talking the outer skin or is that on the inside of the pepper?

The inside. The seeds / membrane is where the highest concentration of heat is.

OK, thanks tsheets. I will keep that in mind if it is too hot. I had a tangle with a Ghost pepper earlier today. I am not in the mood to mess with any of his cousins right now.

A tangle with the Ghost....

Do tell!

Josh

Well Josh, It went like this:
I broke down and actually tasted a Ghost Pepper today. I sliced my original pepper and took a slice about half the size of a penny and about 1/16th inch thick and chewed it. It took two chews and about 5 seconds to realize I was making a mistake. I instantly spit it out in the sink and washed my mouth with tap water before reaching for the milk jug. I drank about 32 ounces of milk over a 10-15 minute period before I felt comfortable again. I could tell the way the heat (no burning) came on so quick that it was going to get bad. I am sure I only experienced a small sample of the potential of the Ghost Pepper. But I did experience enough to know that I will never be completely eating a whole one or even a piece of one. I mean, the burn is a burn, not like really hot pepper on a pizza or in some other food. It was pain, not just a hot taste. I did it with no one around so there wont be any Utube videos or photos hitting the internet. I grow 'em, I don't eat 'em.

haha!! Haven't grown anything that hot yet. I understand you want to know how it tastes how hot etc, so you have an idea what you want to do with them. I ain't ready for that yet!!

Oh, man, that is a great experience!
Now you have an idea of what the Ghost pepper can do...
Hungarian Wax won't hold a candle to that.

Josh

esox07 - Send 'em my way, I'm at the end of my rope waiting for my Bhuts to ripen...

Probably another month based on your time line - I can't take it!

tsheets: yes, my idea of what to do with them is give them to people and watch them eat it. hahaha

Josh: Yes, I ate an Hungarian Wax and was about as hot as I care for in eating a raw pepper. It was only slightly orange however so I guess I can expect a little more heat from a fully ripe one.

mbellot: Yes, it is agonizing waiting. Seems my Bhuts were right with my Cayenes and others in how fast they started ripening. At least one plant. The other two Bhut plants are taking their time. One of the other two is just starting to ripen a stunted pepper and the last plant still isn't close to putting out anything orange or red. The only other plants that hasn't started to put out any ripe pods is my Charleston. It has some great looking pods (some with a cool purplish sunburn) but they are all still very yellow/green aside from the sunburn.

Update on the Banana (Hungarian Wax) Pepper in my original post:
I mentioned earlier one plant was looking a bit sickly. I have tried several remedies but have been unable to rid it of its yellowish and droopy leaves. I decided it was the intense heat wave we have been under even though my other plant looked fine. I had basically quit worrying about it since it wasn�t getting any worse and was still carrying a good load of fruit. In fact, a lot of the pods were turning orange and even pushing red. But, I may have figured out the problem today. I was looking at the plant and a pod looked kind of shriveled up. I squeezed it and sure enough, it was very soft and wrinkly. I cut it off and discarded it but then I noticed several others were soft too. I quickly started to think that this was the end and it was finally dying. But then I realized that NONE of the pods that were ripening were soft. Only the yellow ones. I came up with the theory that maybe the plant had too much fruit and was simply allowing some of the pods that were not close to ripening to die off giving it more energy for bringing the currently ripening fruit the rest of the way. I figure that is why the plant was looking sickly the whole time. It just couldn�t support all the fruit and finally gave up. Well, I picked about 20 of the non-ripe soft pods and left a good two dozen still on the plant. I hope to see the plant rebound in the next several days to a week now that it�s load has been lessened dramatically. If not, I will be picking the remaining pods as is. Many are already near fully ripe while others are orange or just getting an orange tint. There are still quite few that are yellow too.

Here is a photo of the plant showing many of the pods from yellow to near red.

{{gwi:1195862}}

And here are the peppers I harvested from it tonight:

{{gwi:1195863}}

Just wanted to keep everyone updated on how this is going. Especially all of those that have given me advice on this and other issues.
Bruce

Be sure to keep us posted. I always heard that the plant won't set more than it can handle (which has been my experience). But, I guess conditions could have changed and this one bit off more than it could chew. The recent heat wave may be the culprit.

tsheets, I will do that. I went out this AM and picked all of the orange to reddish pods along with few more yellow ones from both of the plants. I dont want to pick all the unripe pods as the orange ones are pretty cool looking. I want to get a few red ones too. The sickly plant doesn't have very many left now at all. I hope that gives it the relief it needs. My growing season is probably not going to let it give me any more ripe pods this year but maybe some more nice yellow ones.
Bruce

Beautiful pods, Bruce.
How do they taste?

Josh

Josh:
Actually those were very soft peppers. But I went out this morning and picked all the orange/red ones along with a few more yellow ones from both of my plants. I picked at least as many today as I had in that picture above. Plus they were nice and firm. Anyway, I sliced them all up and put them in canning jars with a Vinegar, water, salt, black pepper and minced garlic mixture. I came up with 7 and a half jars worth. They are 8 oz jars. They are kinda pretty in there. Oh I also added a bonus Cayenne pepper to each jar just for a little variety.

{{gwi:1195864}}

{{gwi:1195865}}

I hope now the plants can get back to vigorous growth and start putting out some more blooms.
Bruce

Nicely done Bruce.

Those look awesome!

Rick

Looks great on the jars Bruce. I'm interested on your recipe for canning. Can you post them here? How much of each for the mix. Thanks! Ed

Tivo532:
Sure I can post the recipe however I cannot take credit for it. It is from another list member taken from one of his posts. here it is:
=============================================
RE: Dried Peppers/frozen peppers
� Posted by shoontok NY (My Page) on
Fri, Jul 22, 11 at 20:51
Hey Esox
Not sure if it was mentioned or not, but another good idea for them Hot Banana Peppers may be to slice em into rings and put em in a jar and fill with vinegar and put em in the fridge. They should last quite a long time like that also. Ya could even go with a 50/50 vinegar and water mix and add salt and other seasonings into the solution as yer taste desires.
Jim
=========================================
I used that recipe however I adjusted the amounts for 8 oz jars. It looks like Shoontok used a quart jar. I also added about 2tsp of minced garlic in each jar and I used whole Black Peppercorns instead of ground pepper.
Basically for my recipe, I did this:
I used 3 parts distilled white vinegar to one part water, with a couple teaspoons of minced garlic, a couple teaspoons of black pepper corns and a teaspoon of sea salt. I also added a bonus Cayenne pepper to each jar for a little variety. I then sliced all my peppers and put them in the jars with the other ingredients. I came up with 7 1/2 jars worth with each jar holding 8 oz.
Bruce

Great! Thanks Bruce.

Ed

Thanks, Bruce!
Whole peppercorns...that's a good idea.

Josh

Very nice!!!!

Yeah, i like that whole peppercorn thing too!

Jim

UPDATE: Just ate the first of those canned peppers. Better than I expected and I won't be giving any more away.....Mine, all mine. If you like a little bit of hot and big kick to a sandwich, this is your answer. I would think you could use a hotter variety of pepper if that is your thing, but I am as new to heat as I am to growing the peppers themselves so Hot Hungarians or Banana peppers are just fine with me. They also give you a great range of colors from bright yellow to deep red to make your jars of canned peppers look yummy too. I now have some good red ones to go with the orange and yellow ones. My next batch should look really cool in the jar...better on the sandwich.