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If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.
Cayenne Issue
- Thread starter Verdade
- Start date
It looks like a foliar pathogen like bacterial leaf spot (BLS) or something fungal like alternaria or septoria. It's hard to diagnose in only one picture, though.
First off, has it been wet (rainy, dewy, hight humidity) lately? Foliar diseases need high moisture to spread. If so, foliar disease is likely what you're looking at. The good thing is, it looks like you noticed it pretty early. (High-five for good scouting habits!)
Here's how to deal with foliar diseases.
1.) Pick off the affected leaves and throw them over the railing of your deck so the pathogen can't spread back to the plants.
2.) Your plants seem to be pruned well already (foliage up off the soil, growth doesn't seem too dense). Having said that, don't be afraid to do some pruning on the interior of your plants to promote airflow and decrease drying time. The faster your plants dry out after rain or dew, the less time foliar disease has a favorable environment to spread from leaf to leaf. Keeping foliage away from the ground also prevents rainsplash. (See #4.)
3.) Consider applying actively aerated compost tea (AACT) to your plants. It has done wonders for serious BLS outbreaks in my garden in years past. Yours is by no means serious yet, but AACT is cheap, effective, easy, organic prevention. (Plants love it, too.)
4.) Mulch the surface of your soil. Rain that splashes mud up onto the lower leaves of your plant is a great way for pathogenic bacteria and fungi to get a ride onto your plants' leaves. (Good pruning also discourages this.)
5.) Don't touch your plants (prune, harvest) when they are wet. Foliar pathogens tend to reproduce when wet conditions prevail. Fresh spores and bacteria are just waiting for your hand to come by and carry them to a new leaf.
Keep in mind that the pathogens that cause foliar disease are always in the environment. They are in your soil, on your leaves, on your hands... The trick to to controlling outbreaks is to prevent your plants from giving them an environment to flourish (do what you can to keep them healthy and dry). Know your enemy. And keep up the scouting!
Good luck!
edit: Also, the yellow tinge you're seeing may be the sign of a nutrient deficiency. (Hopefully somebody around here will be able to help identify it.) That goes back to my "do what you can to keep them healthy and dry" comment. Nutrient deficient plants are more susceptible to disease and insect attack. Pests are always looking for an easy meal.
First off, has it been wet (rainy, dewy, hight humidity) lately? Foliar diseases need high moisture to spread. If so, foliar disease is likely what you're looking at. The good thing is, it looks like you noticed it pretty early. (High-five for good scouting habits!)
Here's how to deal with foliar diseases.
1.) Pick off the affected leaves and throw them over the railing of your deck so the pathogen can't spread back to the plants.
2.) Your plants seem to be pruned well already (foliage up off the soil, growth doesn't seem too dense). Having said that, don't be afraid to do some pruning on the interior of your plants to promote airflow and decrease drying time. The faster your plants dry out after rain or dew, the less time foliar disease has a favorable environment to spread from leaf to leaf. Keeping foliage away from the ground also prevents rainsplash. (See #4.)
3.) Consider applying actively aerated compost tea (AACT) to your plants. It has done wonders for serious BLS outbreaks in my garden in years past. Yours is by no means serious yet, but AACT is cheap, effective, easy, organic prevention. (Plants love it, too.)
4.) Mulch the surface of your soil. Rain that splashes mud up onto the lower leaves of your plant is a great way for pathogenic bacteria and fungi to get a ride onto your plants' leaves. (Good pruning also discourages this.)
5.) Don't touch your plants (prune, harvest) when they are wet. Foliar pathogens tend to reproduce when wet conditions prevail. Fresh spores and bacteria are just waiting for your hand to come by and carry them to a new leaf.
Keep in mind that the pathogens that cause foliar disease are always in the environment. They are in your soil, on your leaves, on your hands... The trick to to controlling outbreaks is to prevent your plants from giving them an environment to flourish (do what you can to keep them healthy and dry). Know your enemy. And keep up the scouting!
Good luck!
edit: Also, the yellow tinge you're seeing may be the sign of a nutrient deficiency. (Hopefully somebody around here will be able to help identify it.) That goes back to my "do what you can to keep them healthy and dry" comment. Nutrient deficient plants are more susceptible to disease and insect attack. Pests are always looking for an easy meal.
Thank you for the detailed information. I could include more pics if it would help. As of right now there are a handful of leaves that look exactly the same as the first pic.
When the plants were young we did have a lot of rain and humidity here in KY. I believe it was something like 5 straight weeks of rain off/on. I began to pull them in the garage on extended periods of wet weather, near a sunny window (garage was humid). I usually feed them nutrients every other watering or so. I use a peruvian bird guano. applied into soil and watered in. I also will hit them with a foliar feed "smart tea" that the local shop here produces. (would this be of the same ilk as AACT?)
However at this point they come in the house or garage if heavy rain is in the forecast.
I do need to trim more leaves from dirt level though. I need to do this on all of my plants to be honest.
I included the wide shot to put some of my grow into perspective.
Thanks again! I look forward to any other info.
-K
When the plants were young we did have a lot of rain and humidity here in KY. I believe it was something like 5 straight weeks of rain off/on. I began to pull them in the garage on extended periods of wet weather, near a sunny window (garage was humid). I usually feed them nutrients every other watering or so. I use a peruvian bird guano. applied into soil and watered in. I also will hit them with a foliar feed "smart tea" that the local shop here produces. (would this be of the same ilk as AACT?)
However at this point they come in the house or garage if heavy rain is in the forecast.
I do need to trim more leaves from dirt level though. I need to do this on all of my plants to be honest.
I included the wide shot to put some of my grow into perspective.
Thanks again! I look forward to any other info.
-K
Ask the shop how they make their tea. One common (albeit barebones) recipe for AACT is water (dechlorinated, if need be), compost, worm castings and molasses. The recipe is basically designed to culture the bacteria, fungi and invertebrates living in the compost and castings and greatly increase their populations. That's what I use.
Sometimes people add other nutrients (besides molasses) to the mix, but those aren't necessary. They help feed the plants, but they're completely unnecessary to make good tea.
If the shop is making a tea designed primarily to be a microbe culture tea and they're selling it quick (immediately after brewing), you're good to go. If they're just making a nutrient tea or they're letting their tea sit around for a while after brewing (letting it go anaerobic) you should probably just make your own. No problem - it's fun and awesome for your garden!
edit: Here's the AACT rabbit hole... http://thehotpepper.com/topic/32001-beginners-guide-to-aactcompost-tea/
edit again: Your plants look awesome, btw. If you're only picking off a couple of leaves here and there, it's probably not much of a problem. Just keep up on removing them and keep an eye out for bigger outbreaks. I've come to terms with the fact that my garden is just going to get BLS to some extent every spring. I just prune my plants to limit it, spray AACT every week or so in spring and keep an eye out for outbreaks and my garden does fine now that I know how to work with it.
Sometimes people add other nutrients (besides molasses) to the mix, but those aren't necessary. They help feed the plants, but they're completely unnecessary to make good tea.
If the shop is making a tea designed primarily to be a microbe culture tea and they're selling it quick (immediately after brewing), you're good to go. If they're just making a nutrient tea or they're letting their tea sit around for a while after brewing (letting it go anaerobic) you should probably just make your own. No problem - it's fun and awesome for your garden!
edit: Here's the AACT rabbit hole... http://thehotpepper.com/topic/32001-beginners-guide-to-aactcompost-tea/
edit again: Your plants look awesome, btw. If you're only picking off a couple of leaves here and there, it's probably not much of a problem. Just keep up on removing them and keep an eye out for bigger outbreaks. I've come to terms with the fact that my garden is just going to get BLS to some extent every spring. I just prune my plants to limit it, spray AACT every week or so in spring and keep an eye out for outbreaks and my garden does fine now that I know how to work with it.
