Over-watering - leaves begin to curl, twist, and drop off. Peppers prefer to dry out some between watering and will not tolerate consistently wet soil. And go easy on any nitrogen fertilizer as those leaves are awfully dark green and the roots are easily burned at that stage.

Plus that plant is far to small/young to be bearing any fruit. It is little more than a seedling. Pinch them off.

Transplant it to a much larger pot with a good sol-less potting mix and set it deep burying most of that bare stem. Then only water it when you can stick your finger down to the second knucle and feel dry soil.

Dave

Definitely looks like over watering. I allow my peppers to dry out before watering. My hot peppers I will actually let wilt ever so slightly while they are heavy with fruit before I water them. I do this because it makes the peppers even hotter. Bell peppers I water a little more frequently, but they still dry out between.

Pot up to a bigger potter, maybe use a 5-1-1 mix to improve drainage. Water less, and pinch off the peppers, and you should see a dramatic recovery!

OVER WATERING .

What variety of pepper is it ?
When did you germinate it ?
What size is the pot ?

Yeah. I would pinch off the pods so the plant can spend its energy on growth.

Seysonn

Looks like a virus to me. Another picture with closeup of leaves, please?

What size will a pepper plant be when bearing fruit is appropriate?

What size will a pepper plant be when bearing fruit is appropriate?

Depends on the variety and type in part but in general 18" to 2 feet tall before first fruit set begin, 3-4 feet tall at maturity. If this is some ornamental pepper variety or one of the mini-varieties then approx. 1/2 that size.

The name of the variety or even the type (hot, bell, sweet, Italian, etc.) would be a big help in answering your questions.

Dave

I will follow your recommendations, thank you so much

Dave - Thanks for the info. I was really just looking for generic info since I'm about to get hot, sweet, and bell peppers going. Pretty clear from your comments though that the one in the OP was far too small to be fruiting.

Dave - Thanks for the info. I was really just looking for generic info since I'm about to get hot, sweet, and bell peppers going. Pretty clear from your comments though that the one in the OP was far too small to be fruiting.

I am 100% with everything digdirt said. I suspect over fertilizing, over watering. The planting medium also looks suspect, though of course its hard to tell. But I hope you have something besides just wood mulch in that pot. I also fully concur with his suggestion about repotting and, even more importantly, burying that long, thin stem most of the way up. Its also too young for fruit....is it outside? Is it an ornamental or what variety. I think I pretty much just repeated degdirt's post but it was worth rementioning. good luck.

Deformed leaves tend to indicate a calcium deficiency. Powdered lime watered into the soil fixes this easily, but it doesn’t undo the damage.