How to Grow Green Pepper: Growing Guide to Planting, Care & Harvest

Capsicum annuum

Growing calendar

Typical timing for central Japan (Kanto region). Shift it for your own climate, and record your actual dates.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Sow / plantGrowingHarvest

Guides

Common problems

Start from what you can see on the plant.

Wilting Yellow leaves Leaves dying White powder Leaf spots Pests Fruit problems Poor growth

Pests and diseases (57)

Problems recorded for this plant, most serious first.

Thrips

MajorPest

Silvery white to brown scarring spreads over leaf and fruit surfaces. Flowers discolor and drop, and fruit is left with keloid-like scar tissue.

Tomato Spotted Wilt

MajorDisease

Brown necrotic spots and ring patterns appear on the leaves and the growing tips shrivel and darken. Fruit develops concentric yellow rings that make it unmarketable.

Helicoverpa Bollworms

MajorPest

Round holes are bored into fruit and buds, the inside eaten out and packed with frass. Rot spreads from the entry hole, leading to fruit and bud drop.

Tobacco Mosaic Virus

MajorDisease

New leaves show a clear light-and-dark green mosaic, become wavy and stay small. Growth stalls and fruit fails to size up properly.

Pepper Mild Mottle Virus

MajorDisease

Leaves become faintly variegated and mottled and crinkle slightly. Fruit stays small, is bumpy and unevenly colored, and fewer fruits set.

Bacterial Spot

MajorDisease

Small water-soaked spots appear on the leaves, later turning brown with yellowing around them. Fruit develops water-soaked or scabby spots from which rot spreads.

Sunscald

MajorDisorder

The sun-facing side of the fruit bleaches white to pale yellow, then dries into a sunken leathery patch. Rot organisms enter easily through the damaged tissue.

Leaves wilt while still green during the day and recover in the morning and evening; after a few days of this the plant dies. Cut the stem and stand it in water and a milky white bacterial ooze streams out in threads.

Late Blight

CommonDisease

Dark green water-soaked lesions appear on the leaves and expand quickly into brown dead tissue. White mold forms on the underside and at the lesion edge, and dark brown lesions spread to stems and fruit.

Cucumber Mosaic Virus

CommonDisease

New leaves show a yellow-green mosaic, crinkle, and the whole plant becomes stunted. Fruit colors unevenly and grows misshapen.

Blossom End Rot

CommonDisorder

The blossom end of the fruit turns water-soaked, then dark brown, and sinks in. It is most common on fruit in the sizing stage, and secondary rot often follows.

Potato Virus Y

CommonDisease

Mosaic, crinkling and vein necrosis appear on the leaves and the lower leaves die back. The plant is stunted and yield falls; some strains leave necrotic rings on the tuber surface.

Asian Corn Borer Stone Fruit Disorder of Eggplant Puffy Fruit Tomato Mosaic Virus Twenty-eight-spotted Ladybird Fusarium Wilt Powdery Mildew Bacterial Canker Sclerotinia Rot Southern Blight Anthracnose Damping-off Bacterial Soft Rot Root Rot Root-knot Nematode Gray Mold Verticillium Wilt Leaf Spot Ring RotNecrotic MosaicNecrotic MottleZonate Necrotic SpotNecrotic Ring SpotNecrotic RingspotFalse Black MoldCalyx End RotMosaic DiseaseFruit RotFruit RotPlant-parasitic NematodesGray Leaf SpotWhite Leaf SpotSeptoria Leaf SpotFusarium Wilt and Damping-offBacterial DiseaseRugose Leaf MosaicBacterial Leaf BlightVein YellowingAscochyta BlightChlorotic NecrosisChlorotic MottleChlorosis DiseaseBlack MoldBlack BlightBlack Dot Root Rot

Written byYasuGrowing vegetables and fruit in Chiba, Japan, and building Gadenin. Corrections are welcome. 15 years of growing.