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Talkback: How to grow sweet peppers
Hi, I planted some sweet pepper seeds at the beginning of June on my south facing windowsill in pots. My first pepper started to grow last week but after about 2 days, the tip went purple. After another 2 days the whole pepper is completely purple. I also noticed that the stem and stalks have purple running through them. Any ideas what is the matter?
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hi Peppery i think you may have overwatered it ow is the rest of the plant looking?
thank you, i did wonder about that so have not watered it for the last 3 days - the leaves have not wilted yet! Apart from the purple running through it,it looks good I think. There is one more tiny pepper starting which is green but has a purple tip. - the purple doesn't seem to be spreading so that's good I guess. I also repotted it about a week and a half ago with multi purpose compost which was a different kind from what it was originally in,so I'm not sure if that's affected it too? I haven't grown anything before and saw some pepper & tomato seed pots cheap in the supermarket and thought I'd give it a go!
keep going and just water when soil looks like it needs it good luck!
Peppery, is the purple only on the stems or the leaves as well? Some peppers do have some colour in their stems. A purple tint to the leaves can mean a lack of nutrients. As budlia says, though, only water when it's needed rather than by rote. Peppers are like tomatoes, wet feet are bad for them.
hi, the purple is in the stem and runs down the central vein in some of the larger leaves but the rest of the leaf is green. Purple seems to collect around the joints too. And the pepper is so purple it looks like an aubergine!. And the purple is now spreading on the smaller pepper
I have about 5 plants and the others look ok, and are flowering but only one has a minute pepper on it - this looks dark green, but the purple ones started off a much paler green/yellow colour. thanks for all the help and advice 
The colour in the area where the leaves join the stem - and on the stem itself - is normal. It can be dark brown, black, purple. It's just pigmentation.
The central vein in the leaf could be the same thing. It could also mean a lack of nutrients. Have you fed it?
I've been feeding it once a week with tomorite. Here's a picture of it.
Mmmm. Far from lacking nutrients, it's probably getting too many. Once a week is too often. What variety is it? Some variegated varieties will produce colours like that.
Is that its normal position? How much light is it getting?
The trouble with being a first time grower is that I threw away the packaging after I repotted the seedlings,so I don't know what variety it is. The picture looked like the yellow and red ones you see in the supermarket. That's not the normal position, I just moved it to take the picture. It normally sits on the windowsill which is pretty much south facing so gets sun all day, albeit Scottish sun!