I bought a purple fruiting pepper plant from a car boot stallmostly for the novelty of it,
It was fruiting nicely first pepper was the size of ? a decent sized tomatoe,
on checking the cold frame it was in i noticed a hole in the side of the pepper, Cut the pepper from the plant and it was hollow inside completely scoured out who do i blame or? who do i kill.
mrf94
Earwig, likely?
Thanks for that,I looked earwigs up and it seems that though nocternal there atracted to lights ,and guess what theres garden lights on the path by the cold frame, Err there was lights by the cold frame.
Again many thanks
mrf94
I am looking for clues in the info you give.
You say; on checking the cold frame it was in i noticed a hole in the side of the pepper,
Well for starters the fact that they are outdoors opens up a few possibilities e.g Birds, Mice, Slugs/Snails to name a few.
Were the sides of the hole soft?
If so it could have been a fungal attack, a bit like blossom end rot.
You also say; Cut the pepper from the plant and it was hollow inside completely scoured out
Can't understand what you mean here ??? Peppers are normally hollow ???
Can you explain your thoughts!
Ok the pepper was grown on in my cold frame ,on removing the lids for watering and inspection i noticed the pepper in question had a 1/2 inch hole in it i say half inch but didnt measure it, pepper itself was about 2 inch dia it had no seeds no? whiteish stuff inside that holds the seeds it was as smooth inside as out no rot, no teeth marks i could see as in mice, couldnt see any slime from slugs or snails not that counts for much.
mrf94
ps Im in Huddersfield as well
Half inch - probably not earwig.
Slugs and snails in my experience..
:-\
OK I am going to hazard another guess!!
It could well have been an earwig or similar but the hole was made when the fruit was first formed (possibly before you bought it in fact)
The situation works a bit like 'origami' i.e. a hole is made ( very tiny in this case) and as the fruit develops so does the hole e.g if the fruit doubles in size so does the hole.
As I say this is a guess based on what I know with dahlias.
As we all know dahlias & earwigs seem to go together but contrary to general belief when you see a dahlia flower that is in shreds this is not necessarily a horde of earwigs has invaded your plot.
What happens is; when the bud is formed every petal is formed at the same time. Initially these petals are microscopic so when an earwig takes a bite out of a bud it can damage dozens of petals in the process.
As the bud opens and the petals fall into place each of the petals that were affected when bitten have a lump cut out of them giving the effect that you have been invaded by earwigs when in fact the problem could have happened weeks ago.
If earwigs appear after the calyx has broken then quite like only the odd petal will be affected.
As I say this is an opinion!!
What do you or anyone else think ? do you think I may be right?
ps Where in Huddersfield do you live? If you want to keep that private e-mail me
You mean I might be on the right track?? It's usually wigs with us.
Hmm interesting stuff,im keeping a close eye on whats going on in the cold frame now, Normaly i start my plants off from seed,
This year ive branched out (if thats the correct phrase)and bought a few plugs here and there , garden centre , boot sales etc, noticed even the garden centre stuff came complete with slugs
So you could well be correct not knowing how things were grown afore i bought them, As for where i live im in Paddock and my names down on the
allotments below Paddock school by the railway, I have two greenhouses in my back garden a double glazed cold frame made from the doors of drinks cooler cabinets(The ones they have behind the bar in pubs) A small patch of soil and loads of black buckets seeing as the rest of the garden is a concrete hanging ground
mrf94
I'm from Honley plots are in Lockwood