GrowingHQ
Physiological disorderFruit

Natural fruit colouring

The dark purple, brown or near-black stage that many chilli and sweet pepper cultivars pass through on the way from green to their final colour. It usually starts as a patch at the blossom end or on the shoulder facing the sun, spreads over the fruit, and then gives way to red, orange or yellow. The flesh under it is firm and normal, which is what separates it from everything that is actually wrong.

What brings it on

Anthocyanin pigments accumulate in the fruit skin of many capsicum cultivars during ripening and in strong light, and are then masked as the ripe carotenoid colour develops underneath. Whole cultivar groups do it as standard — jalapeño, Hungarian hot wax, and every variety sold as a purple or chocolate pepper — and bright sun on the exposed side of a fruit brings it out more strongly.

source

Sourced guidancemoderate confidence

  • Royal Horticultural Society: Chillies and peppers — growing
  • OSU Extension Service — Oregon State University: Peppers — fruit ripening and colour

Checked 2026-08-13

Usually seen: July, August, September, October

Preventing it

Ordered by how much difference each measure actually makes, not by how often it is repeated.

  • Nothing to prevent. Where the dark stage is unwanted on a particular plant, it is a property of the cultivar rather than of how it is grown, so the choice is made at the seed packet.
    source

    GrowingHQ editorial positionhigh confidence

    A prevention entry here would imply the colouring is a fault to be avoided.

    • GrowingHQ editorial synthesis — GrowingHQ

    Checked 2026-08-13

Dealing with it once it is there

  • Leave the fruit on the plant and look again in a week or two. A darkening fruit that is firm to the touch is ripening; the colour under the patch comes through on its own, and picking at the dark stage simply gives a fruit that is not yet at its best. Chillies picked green or dark are perfectly usable, so nothing is lost either way.
    source

    Sourced guidancehigh confidence

    • Royal Horticultural Society: Chillies and peppers — harvesting

    Checked 2026-08-13

  • Where there is any doubt, cut one fruit across. Ripening flesh is firm and pale right up to the skin; a fruit that is going wrong is soft, sunken or brown inside, and one cut settles it without waiting.
    source

    Horticultural consensusmoderate confidence

    • OSU Extension Service — Oregon State University: Peppers — harvest maturity

    Checked 2026-08-13

Widely repeated, and not supported

Recorded so GrowingHQ can address them. These are not alternative approaches — they are things the evidence does not back.

  • “A chilli going black at the bottom has blossom end rot and should be picked off.”

    Blossom end rot makes a sunken, leathery, dry patch that is soft under the skin and does not go on to develop a ripe colour. Normal colouring is flat with the surface of the fruit, firm under a fingertip and gives way to red or orange within a fortnight. Feeling the patch takes a second and separates them.

    Horticultural consensusCommonly said, not supportedmoderate confidence
    • Royal Horticultural Society: Blossom end rot

    Checked 2026-08-13

What it affects

On sprays and treatments

GrowingHQ does not tell anyone what to apply, at what rate, or how often. Pesticide approvals differ by country, change without notice, and the product label is legally binding — it is also the document you are holding. What is described here is cultural and physical control, which is what a home grower can act on without a label in front of them.

Plant-specific guides

Where this is one of several causes that look alike on a particular plant, GrowingHQ publishes the differential rather than the general answer.