Brown Spots on Peppers Not Disease. Don't Spray!

Large brown spots on peppers are not a disease problem and we don't want you to spray because of them. However, there are some things that you can do to prevent these brown spots from happening.

We had some spots develop on our bell peppers in our raised bed test gardens. The brown spots we had were due to sunburn on the fruits. This happens to bell peppers in our hot desert climate. Try to get as much foliage on the pepper plant as possible before it starts to flower. That is difficult now because they have been breeding peppers to be more productive earlier in their lives which means they have less leaf biomass to cover the fruits and protect them from harsh sunlight.


Peppers are not the only vegetables affected by sunburn. Tomatoes can also develop sunburn.

Not a very good picture of tomato but they also will develop a brown, leathery spot on the side toward the sun.

A problem very similar in looks to sunburn can happen on tomato, peppers and eggplant fruits. This is due to irregular water content in the soil; the soil gets wet then too dry, then wet again and too dry.

It is believed this affects the uptake of calcium by the plant and causes a sunken, brown, leathery appearance on the BOTTOM of the fruit. This is called blossom end rot. We suggest that you mulch garden soils prior to hot weather to help keep the soil more evenly moist and prevent wild swings in soil moisture that contribute to blossom end rot.

Blossom end rot of tomato.

An excellent product to do this, better than straw, shredded paper or grass clippings is fresh horse bedding. This is a pine product that is shaved very thin and stays put when you apply it to the soil. We tested it this summer on our test beds and containers and it performed beautifully!