Pepper plant help

[DisaronnoConnoisseur]

Hoping someone can give some advice to a novice gardener. I noticed earlier that I have what I'm hoping is the start of peppers on my plant, unfortunately It's also got some black on the stem. Is this normal or has the plant got some sort of disease? If it is disease, can I do anything to save it?

Looks like some kind of mould/fungal infection?

I’m no expert gardener but anything that looks mouldy/fungal I treat with a mix of powdered garlic, cinnamon & activated charcoal, which are all natural antifungals and not going to harm the plant, and it generally works for me.

Anything that looks insecty (aphids, blackfly) I spray with soapy water.

If I’m not sure I do both

My pepper and chilli plants are exactly the same as yours. I’ll watch the thread with interest.

Peppers can naturally have black marks at the joints/on the stems. That's what it looks like to me.

The plant itself looks in the peak of condition. Some peppers do have dark, almost black, streaks.

Sorry I thought the white/grey stuff looked fluffy like fungal growth you get sometimes when you have a humid atmosphere. Peppers are darker at branching points but none of mine have that white/grey effect on top of the darker colouration.

They are trichomes, tiny hairs @Lemonylemony

That's so good to hear that it sounds normal, I've never grown anything in my life so am just learning along the way. I thought lockdown was the perfect opportunity and I really can't wait for DS10 to actually get to eat something we've grown. I've got some better pictures in daylight rather than last night as the flash needed to be on so maybe that's why it looked a bit white.

I think the blackening is normal tbh.

My chillies are the same .

Phew, at least I haven't done something wrong.

No no I think it's fine.

I tried to take a pic for you to compare but my camera skills are so.poor that it wasn't clear.

Are yours sweet peppers or chilli peppers?

Where the flower dies and the pepper forms there is definitely blackening of the stalk and where it joins the main stem.

The black bits are normal! They're looking good, OP!

They are sweet peppers. We're currently attempting tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, lettuce, peppers, pumpkins, cucumbers and strawberries. If this goes well then I'm excited for next year already.

Sorry everyone, I don't know how to reply to individual posters. Thank you for your help though, I'm really glad that this is normal. Gardening can become a bit obsessive can't it, I check my tomato plants before I even go in the door after work.

Thank you for all your advice, we have picked our first pepper tonight and it was perfect.