A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Banana Peppers with mold on the INSIDE!!

Funny thing happened... we came back from being out of town and one of our banana peppers had started to turn orange. So we figured we'd pick it and see how an orange one tasted. Well it looked really good on the outside, but once we cut into it, (and thank god we did or I would have bitten right into it) the blossom end of the pepper had mold growing on the inside. it didn't look too bad, so we just cut that part off and ate it anyways. Some of the seeds were also a grayish-green color. I just can't figure out why in the world this would happen. I will now have to cut all my peppers up b4 I pickle or can them to make sure they are mold-free.

Does anyone know why/how this happened? Is the mold deadly or is it as harmless as cheese mold? I know I wouldn't pickle a pepper with mold, don't want to get botulism, but how harmful is the pepper if eaten raw?

I only ate one like that, but I am curious as to whether this is going to be a routine problem with the rest of the harvest. Thank you in advance.

Girlie: my experience with banana peppers has been that they tend to change colors as they age. I have had some over the years that have turned all kinds of colors the longer they stayed on the bush. About that mold on the blossom end...I can't imagine that it would be an ongoing problem...it sound specific to that particular fruit.Did you have a lot of rain or are the plants in the shade where they can't dry? See how the remainng fruits go. This is probably an isolated case.

Well I just went and picked a pepper off the plant, cut into it, and it had no mold! I think you are right, isolated case. The pepper I just sampled was still yellow though, perhaps I should not let them ripen on the plant too long? The orange one was low on the plant and had been there for a very long time.

The pepper plants are in a lot more shade than they used to be, as we are first time growers and the tomato plants got way more bushy than we had ever expected which is great, we just need to plan better next year. We have 8 veggie plants total, and each one is touching the plant next to it, so we surely did not leave enough space between them so they could get enough sunlight and breezes to ward off mold.

Thank you for your response, and hopefully this will not be an ongoing issue this year. As for nexy year, I have learned valuable lessons, and will change the way I do things accordingly

I've noticed bell peppers too can have this mould inside. I reckon it's just a natural part of the decomposition of ripe fruit, sometimes it may come in a bit early if the conditions are right, moist or whatever. I've bitten into a bell pepper and found it later. No wukkers. I didn't get crook. (Though some may say it has affected me cerebrally)

I agree, as I have found mold inside fully ripe peppers also, and I think it has something to do with being about to the point of over ripe...which I find peppers like this most often when I am letting one fully ripen to save seed from..but as long as the seeds have no mold, they tend to be fine for seeds saving.