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Bacterial Leaf Spot

Hey all,

My bulk C.Annuum's seem to be getting bacterial leaf spot for the third year in a row. I had always discovered it late in the past, and it tended to cause pretty serious disruption till i'd finally get it to 'manageable' level. It affected both pods and leaves.

About a week ago i noticed the first spots again, yanked as many leaves as i could find, then sprayed everything down with a Physan20 + neem oil mix. This got everything 'manageable' last year, and i hope i caught it early enough this year. I noticed a few more spots pop up in the meantime, but not many, so of course i sprayed everything down again, and will keep doing so.

I noticed all the infected plants/leaves were right next to each other, about a dozen plants total right smack in the middle of the entire plot. The far edges have no infected leaves yet, but those plants were sprayed down anyway, and so were the plants in my other plots about 40 to 50ft away. I didn't want to take any chances...

Does anyone have any pointers for me, a more proven product perhaps? Something off the shelf would be great since i'd like to try it out right away. Something copper based maybe?

The few forum discussions i dug up didn't produce much, it almost seems that this isn't a big problem for most. But in my case it severely affected my pepper crop for two seasons straight. Many pods were useless and virtually every leaf on every plant was affected.

I already know to keep the leaves as dry as possible, so i have that base covered.
 
Sorry, here's a few pics i forgot to include, took these earlier tonight:

Pic A topside, notice the dead/yellow leaf in the corner:
1-A.jpg


Pic A bottomside:
1-B.jpg




Pic B topside:
2-A.jpg


Pic B bottomside:
2-B.jpg




Pic C:
3.jpg



Pic D:
4.jpg
 
maybe your plants kept in crowded and less air flow area. these fungus love these damp areas.

picture c looks like chem burn to me.. did this happen after fert. spraying ??
 
maybe your plants kept in crowded and less air flow area. these fungus love these damp areas.

picture c looks like chem burn to me.. did this happen after fert. spraying ??
Thanks for chiming in Srin,

My plants are a little tighter than most here keep them, but not too bad, i've seen much worse. The plants never get lanky or anything either. Usually it's the mid/late season canopy that begins to connect/touch.

The "burn" look on pic C may be the result of my first anti-bacterial spray (?) It's the only leaf i noticed that looks like that by the way. I haven't foliar fed these particular plants, and the ferts in the ground are either mild, or well composted...but maybe i'm wrong and the ferts are too strong(?) The other pics are definitely showing a bacterial/fungal/viral problem though. And friend and myself had pinned it down as Bacterial leaf spot but i could be wrong about that as well.
 
I'm not sure if it is the same disease but from what I understand it can be carried in infected seeds! So even if all your soil and pots are disinfected you can bring it in in the seeds. It can also move through a hydro system in the water. The only way to be free of it is to toss all your soil and bleach all the pots, watering cans or pipes etc.. and maybe even use different seed stock. Depending on how many plants you have this could be easy or disastrously expensive.

BTW don't take my word for it and start torching everything! Maybe someone knows better or you can research it online.
 
Megamoo you're right, it can be carried inside seeds, there's a few write-ups online discussing it. Definitely going to treat my seeds differently next year.

Still researching a fix for this year though, hoping for something closer to a silver bullet.
 
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