I know seeing your bell pepper turning black may be frustrating to you, I have been in a similar situation myself, but not when I knew the reasons behind it, after that, all the things seem normal to me like it is nothing.
The reasons behind your bell pepper turning black is either the sunlight exposure is too much, or your vegetable experiencing a part of mature process, sometimes cold weather, and in other cases it can be happening due to diseases like root rot end, by the end of day, it may just be because aging of your bell pepper.
The good news is no worries need to be carried, all the previous causes can be handled with simple solutions and in no time also.
And for this specific reason, we have gathered all the information that you may need and wonder about, regarding bell pepper turning black, and what is the best practices to solve this issue, without further ado, let’s go to the details:
Table of Contents
1 How to identify the real reason behind bell pepper turning black:
As we mentioned previously, the reasons may vary according to the companion conditions, to identify causes, it is better to follow some kind of steps to know what is wrong with your bell pepper and what makes it turning blackish, or pattern as I like to call it, following this specific pattern will make it even easier by eliminating reasons one by one, here’s how it will be:
Visual observation:
The first thing to do is standing in front your bell pepper, and take a look at it, what you want to focus in this part is the location of your bell pepper, meaning by that the planting location, where it is exactly, theoretically what you need to identify is the path of sunlight and how it hit your plant.
While you do that, ask these questions: is the sunlight facing your bell pepper directly?, does it face your plant all day long in its bath?, is there some barrier that blocks sunlight from hitting your plant? Is it thick or translucent ? Is there too much cold at night ?.
When you ask yourself these questions, you will find the answers in front of you, if it is exposed to the direct sunlight, it is most likely the reason behind black color, if not, test with thermometer the temperature of soil, it must range between 65-80 F° (18-27 C°), if you found these numbers, then you have eliminated the cold weather reason, after that it is time for the next step.
Touch observation:
By reaching this step you are ensuring that your bell pepper that turned black is not related to temperature or sunlight exposure, which will lead us to touch by hand observation, simply put the fruit in your hand and take a deep look at it, at the same time, feel it with your thumb and squeeze a little.
We will follow the same pattern as we did earlier, which is asking specific questions that will help us know the problem, and those are: is the black color hitting all the fruit or in just on specific places? , is it like strokes or like black rings? Is the black spot on the bell pepper firm or soft?, does it look like rot?.
If you find rot in the bottom of the fruit, then it’s blossom rot-end disease. read more.
If there are black rings on the skin of bell pepper, then it’s experiencing Fungal Problems during the ripeness process.
If you find that the skin is firm and solid and look like there are no wrong with your bell peppers despite the black color, then it’s probably a part of mature process and there is no need to worry about, another thing to take into account is the bell pepper variety, you may have a black pepper variety that is basically natural thing to pass on it.
2 How to solve the issue of bell pepper turning into black?
When you finish the diagnostic about the reasons behind your bell pepper turning black, it is time to solve the problem from its roots according to the reason, which means when you know that your vegetable suffer from direct sun exposure, then the solution is by putting a thin barrier or move your plant to shady place, this will solve the issue in matter of few days.
When you know the reason is cold temperature, you will have to provide a heat source or remove your plant into a warmer place in the range of temperature mentioned previously.
When you know that your plant is suffering from blossom rot-end, you will have to cut affected fruit, the same as a fungal problem that will lead you to enrich the soil with calcium to prevent it from happening ever again.
Other than that, when you know it’s a part of the ripeness process, or it’s a reason related to bell pepper variety, then only time will be the saver and there is no need for action on your behalf.
3 Can you eat a bell pepper that turns black ?
You should be aware that you can eat bell pepper that turns black when it comes to the natural reasons such as ripening process and cold weather and also sun exposure, the black bell pepper varieties are also safe to eat, and it can be used without any worries.
Other than the previous, when the black color is occurring due to blossom end-rot or fungal problem diseases, it is better to avoid the affected fruits and plants, instead you should focus more on solving the problem and parenting it from happening, which will lead by doing that to healthy bell pepper that produce good fruits all year long.
4 Conclusion:
To sum all things up, there is multiples reasons behind bell pepper turning black, and those are: Direct sunlight, Cold temperature, Age of the bell pepper, Part of mature process, Bell pepper diseases, to identify the real reason behind that color, it is better to follow the inspection pattern like visual and touch observation.
In addition, to solve this issue from its roots, if it’s direct sun exposure, move your plant into shady place, if it’s cold weather then provide a heat source or transplant it into warmer planting site, if it’s some kind of disease like blossom rot-end or fungal problem, then it is better to remove the affected plant first, and then solve the issue by enriching the soil with calcium, other that it’s all natural causes and the time is the best healer.
Moreover, you can eat bell peppers that turn black if the reasons are natural, if not it is better to bypass the affected fruits and plants and throw them away.
Furthermore, if you’re already growing it in your garden then good for you, if not you should consider and think about growing bell pepper in your garden space or in your home indoor or in any space you can think that is suitable for it, because honestly, nothing can beat the taste of your own vegetable, not to mention as an exciting experience, feel free to drop your opinions and questions if you have ones down below, other than that happy gardening.
