Like this?> Black spots on peppers, not talking about the usual black smudges

The deformed peppers I am referring to don't have black smudges. The peppers look like they start growing then develop smaller at the ends like they have been tied around the middle and grow smaller to the ends. The dark spots look like a brown crust growing on them. I don't know if they have some type of growing disease or fungus or even something else.

When you say brown crust is it possible you are referring to corking?

I've never heard of corking, but if that what it is, then I guess it could be corking. I've never seen this before. How do you cure or fix?

Corking is common and harmless with jalapeños. Does it look similar to this?

Fotos?

Picked all of the deformed peppers two days ago. Have one new deformed with brown spot on it. Need to let it grow a little longer to get good photo. Later in the week.

We usually refer to Brennan's pepper condition as russetting, sometimes desirable if jalapenos are breaded. Corking sounds a lot more omminus and usually refers to a larger brown spot that extends well into the flesh.

Do you have any pic of jalapenos russetting and deformed? I haven't found any although I haven't been looking hard for them.

Just picked some of the new batch of peppers and still have the problem. Took a pic and you can see the problem. The normal one came from the same bush as the others.

Not BER.

No, not BER. It puzzles me that the damage is not radiating from the stem ends which is more characteristic of Broad Mites. I still wouldn't rule them out but it could be another small insect that feeds on flower parts or even a metabolic issue.

Can you shed more light on whether other pepper varieties are showing signs, how widespread the problem is from plant to plant and if plants had gone through a stressful period during the growing season.

These are the only plants I have growing presently. I have about 8 plants planted closely together. They all have the same problem. I've noticed that some of the leaves on all the plants are getting a brownish smear on the leaves. Not all, but most. The weather conditions have been basically the same as other years that I had no problem. I'm in Texas along the coast.

Nothing is wrong with your peppers its called corking.

What stops corking?

I have never seen where corking causes the pepper to grow deformed. But those peppers are clearly displaying characteristics of corking. And, interestingly enough, the corking seems to be present in the areas where the deformations are occurring.

Have you had some unusually hot or cold weather or some other kind of stress such as getting too dry or too wet during the grow period?

I've had mainly warm weather. I have also seen what you call "corking" only with older mature peppers. This is the first year I've seen the deformities. Are you sure it's corking?

Corking occurs both in green and ripe chiles

Poking around in the Wayback Machine the oldest Gardenweb post I have found is from Aug 2000 [There was a GW long before this. This is just the oldest I find archived elsewhere.] and is about deformed pepper leaves.

I've been a member since the late 90's, the Spike era, and have often used the Way back Machine to reminisce.

Corking is highly desirable in some markets. It is genetic. Some varieties cork heavily others not at all. The deformed shapes are usually the result of poor pollination. This can be due to weather conditions, or to insects or mites that attack the flower. http://www.walterreeves.com/food-gardening/pepper/

My Jalapeno plant did the same thing about a month or more ago and now it's producing fine. I think for me, it was maybe the cold, wet weather. Now that it's heated up and the rain is gone, I've got "normal" looking peppers. We've eaten the weird stubby looking ones with the brown stretches. Still good!

I don't have these brown issues, but my jalapenos look a lot like the ones he's got, and I'd say it's got to do with pollination issues. Mine are all green and will start going to black then to red but they stop growing right around where the ones in this picture did, and no "corking" at all.

And mine have no heat, I mean ZERO spiciness. all you taste is the Jalapeno.

That said, I believe I have a cross pollination issue as well as poor pollination due to rains and high humidity (zone 10B) Perhaps a small paintbrush and going from flower to flower on the same plant will yield better results and more fruiting take out the nature part and beat the other plants pollen coming on bugs.... I mean I get like 2-5 maximum jalapenos at a time per plant also, lots of failed flowers that didn't pollinate.

Also I'm thinking the deformed small jalepenos might be from too much water/stress, maybe a bug like aphid or whitefly stress causing the plant to force ripening early and stop growth. I'm new to this so hard to say, but I will say, you aren't alone it's still happening to people. LOL

Lowest one grew during cold weather. It has corking, more than is visible in photo. The rest are recent, appearing in upwards order.