Each year, I enjoy growing a variety of peppers in my raised beds—especially jalapeño, poblano, habanero, and bell peppers. As plants in the nightshade family, peppers are not the easiest to grow. Pepper plant problems range from insect pests to fungus, and viruses to bacterial infections, not to mention the hazards of too much or too little rain, MIA pollinators, and unexpected cool or wet weather. In this article, we’ll look at the most common challenges, how to identify them, and how to solve them. Read all the way to the end for a few of my tips for growing more peppers, too.

Keeping your plants healthy is the number one way to get the best pepper harvest. Solving pepper plant issues, in turn, keeps the rest of your plants healthy, preventing the spread of insects and diseases to other parts of the garden.

Identifying common pepper plant problems

When your peppers are struggling, start by identifying what the problem may be. For the most part, you can identify what’s happening by sight—maybe not the specific type of fungal infection, for example, but that it’s a fungal infection, which is the important part.

Yellowing leaves

Yellowing leaves are among the most common symptoms of several pepper plant problems. If yellowing leaves is the first sign you notice, consider it may be one of these:

• Powdery mildew: Yellowing on top of the leaf is accompanied by powdery white mold spores on the underside of the leaf.
• Mosaic viruses, such as tobacco or cucumber mosaic virus: Rather than turning a solid yellow, the leaves turn a mottled green-yellow.
• Verticillium wilt: This fungal infection shows itself with stunted plant growth and yellowing of the lowest leaves first, followed by shedding leaves and continued yellowing.
• Aphids: These tiny, pear-shaped insects feed on plant juices and spread disease.
• Herbicide contamination: This could happen from unintentional chemical drift from a road crew or neighboring property owner.

Wilting

Wilting is another common symptom of pepper plant problems. This is generally more concerning than yellowing and can be caused by:

• Verticillium wilt: Beyond leaf yellowing and shedding, this fungal disease infects the plant’s inner workings and inhibits water flow, causing the plant to wilt.
• Phytophthora blight: This fungus attacks the plant at the soil line, causing wilting.
• Southern blight: Infected plants wilt and die, having also been attacked by this fungus at the soil line.
• Lack of water: Pepper plants should be kept lightly damp, not too wet, nor too dry.

Pepper viruses

Peppers can become infected with viruses a few different ways. Viruses are spread by aphids, by infected seed, and in the soil. Pepper viruses include the mosaic viruses, tobacco etch virus, tomato spotted wilt virus, potato virus Y, pepper mottle virus, and others. The symptoms of viruses are varied, and this may be where extension agent or master gardener help comes in. Don’t be afraid to reach out to local experts.

The best way to avoid pepper plant viruses are:

• Use disease-free seed, which you can expect from commercial seed sources, and transplants from reputable nurseries.
• Deter insect pests, like aphids, which spread viruses.
• Rotate your crops so you don’t grow nightshade plants in the same place season after season.
• Remove all diseased plants and debris from your property. Don’t compost them!

Fungal issues

Fungal issues in peppers is a big problem in areas with humid conditions. Fungi cause many of the issues that lead to yellowing leaves and wilting plants. Just a few of the fungal diseases that affect peppers are verticillium wilt, Phytophthora blight, southern blight, leaf spot, and powdery mildew. Fungi can attack plants from the soil as well as by blowing in on strong winds.

These are some ways you can prevent and deal with fungal issues:

• Plant peppers with proper spacing.
• Prevent sunscald, which allows the damaged pepper to become colonized by fungus. Provide some shade from intense, direct sunlight, if the plant doesn’t have enough foliage to protect the pepper fruit.
• Start with certified disease-free seed and transplants from reputable nurseries.
• Don’t handle healthy pepper plants after handling a plant infected by a fungus.

Bacterial blights

More commonly known as bacterial spot, Xanthomonas euvesicatoria is the culprit behind bacterial blight. Infected with bacterial spot, your plants will develop lesions on the leaves and fruits. It will eventually drop its leaves and cause the peppers to scald from sun exposure. You’re most likely to see bacterial spot during hot and wet seasons, as the bacteria invades wet plant tissue.

You can prevent this bacterial blight a few ways:

• Plant certified disease-free seeds and transplants from reputable nurseries.
• Transplant only healthy seedlings.
• Handle plant foliage only when it’s dry.
• Remove diseased plants and debris from your property.

Pest infestations

As with other veggies, aphids, spider mites, thrips, and other bugs find pepper plants and peppers to be super tasty. For the most part, these insects aren’t something to worry about unless they show up in large numbers.

There are several ways to protect your pepper plants from and deal with a pest infestation (more info can be found here):

• Cover young plants with floating row cover. Many insect pests hatch and go on a feeding frenzy in the spring, when plants are small and vulnerable to damage. Let the plants grow before exposing them to the pest pressure.
• Use companion planting to distract pests and attract pest predators. One example is to plant basil with your peppers to deter thrips.
• Remove the parts of the plant that are infested with clumps of the insects, especially aphids. This is an effective tactic unless the pests are covering the entire plant.
• Inspect your plants regularly so you can step in and stop a pest infestation at the start.

Deformed pepper plants

Another symptom of pepper plant problems is deformed growth. Curled leaves and misshapen fruit are common pepper deformities. These can be caused by:

• Mosaic viruses: Leaf vein deformations, especially on younger leaves, are a common symptom of the mosaic viruses. Aphids can spread this disease to plants.
• Tomato spotted wilt virus: Spread by thrips, tomato spotted wilt virus causes brown spots on leaves that become so numerous that the leaf rolls and wilts. The main stem of a small plant can grow over itself in a crook-like shape.
• Incomplete pollination: This might happen during times of stress due to very hot or cold weather.
• Herbicide contamination: This can come from a neighboring property or a landscape crew.

Blossom end rot

The same condition you may know from your tomatoes, blossom end rot, can also be found in peppers. This is easy to recognize, because it causes the tissue to die around the blossom end (opposite the stem) of the fruit. This happens when the plant cannot uptake calcium from the soil, such as when the pH is wrong or the soil is too saturated or too dry. Following the recommendations of a soil test and careful watering can decrease chances of blossom end rot in your peppers.

Fruits not forming

A pepper plant devoid of fruits could be suffering from a few issues. Unless you also see signs of a pepper plant disease, like those outlined throughout this article, the cause is likely environmental conditions.

Here are some of the pepper plant problems that could be causing a lack of fruits:

• The wrong balance of nutrients: A pepper plant that is getting a lot of nitrogen will have abundant foliage but will have trouble setting flowers and fruit. Plants need phosphorous and potassium for that. Check your soil nutrients with a soil test. I use an organic tomato fertilizer for my pepper plants as they have similar nutrient needs.
• Blossom drop: Peppers like hot weather, but temperatures of 90 degrees or above during the day and 60 degrees or above at night can cause the plants to drop blossoms. No blossoms means no peppers. There isn’t much you can do about the temperature, but you can be sure your plants are properly irrigated, and you can also put up shade barriers for the most intense periods of direct sunshine.
• Lack of pollination: Peppers self-pollinate, meaning the shake of the plants in the wind is enough to allow for pollination, yet research has shown that pepper plants visited by pollinating insects are more likely to produce more and larger fruits.

  

What if peppers are too small?

Because having small peppers is such a common problem, Niki wrote a whole article about why this may happen. Some factors include improper soil nutrients, weather that’s too hot or too cold, overcrowded plants, and improper watering.

Peppers not coloring up

The most likely reason your peppers are lacking color is that they haven’t reached maturity yet. Peppers start off green. While they’re edible at this stage, many of us prefer eating the sweeter, more mature, colorful peppers.
If your peppers are not getting their color:

• Check on the days to maturity for the variety that you planted. They may just need more time.
• Peppers need sunlight to fully ripen. Overcrowded plants and those with too dense of a leaf canopy may struggle to put on their color.

Tips for growing more peppers

Besides keeping plants healthy, there are a few things you can do to improve your pepper harvest, including:

• Be sure to plant peppers in full sun. These are tropical plants, after all.
• Provide adequate, consistent watering so fruits can develop.
• Choose the varieties best suited to your growing conditions, including the space available and length of season.
• Get a jump on your season by overwintering pepper plants indoors. Hot peppers are especially suited to overwintering.
• Use the right pepper plant spacing. This improves plant health and yield.
• Top your pepper plants early in the season to encourage bushy growth with more flowers, and prune your pepper plants late in the season to help fruits ripen before the frost comes.

The importance of overcoming common pepper plant problems

Healthy pepper plants means more and better-tasting peppers. This is one reason why it’s important to try and solve pepper plant problems as soon as you spot them. It’s also a good idea for the whole of your garden to maintain healthy plants, as pests and diseases can readily spread from one plant to another, especially within the same plant family.

So much of a good gardening practice stems from regular observation. As soon as you see you’re having pepper plant problems, act on them. When the pepper plant’s leaves are yellowing or wilting, you see suspicious insects on your plant, or you notice your peppers are deformed or not forming at all, return to this guide and consider a plan of action.

Learn how to solve other veggie plant problems

• Zucchini blossom end rot
• Caterpillars on tomato plants
• Tomato plant diseases
• Yellow green bean leaves
• Powdery mildew on squash
• Squash bugs
• Blossom end rot
• Cabbage worms
• Cucumber beetles