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help is this fixable

geemee, yep BLS is particularly threatening to most growers on this forum because I don't think a single super hot has been breed to resist it.  BLS and other nasties plague the hippie dippie heirloom types like me for the same reason.  But build a fire in the middle of your pepper patch seems a wee bit over the top at this point.  I am thinking remove the plant making sure not to drop leaves and bits as you do and then treat with the various products intended to treat it.  Watch the plants next to it very closely to decide what, if anything, to do next.
 
Grant, hope you get that I am goofing with you when I say I have this image of you in a rain storm pouring lighter fluid onto a hole in the ground where you ripped up a pepper plant, stomping on the flames and screaming DIE BACTERIA DIE.  I get it.  I grow grapes in Kentucky.  That seems to mean that every year I have to have a battle with the black rot.  Seems like you never win the war, you just sort of negotiate with the other side.
 
Its just, well damn you got me afraid of rain.
 
geeme said:
Copper - Good as a preventative, but is not a cure. Hydrogen peroxide and water can be used, but is also unlikely to cure. But you can water the soil with it, for those that don't already have it. So a combo of copper above and h2o2 below may help stave off spreading. 
 
Here's a guide to using h2o2: http://www.using-hydrogen-peroxide.com/gardening-with-hydrogen-peroxide.html
ajdrew, grant has good reason to be "dramatic" in this case. It is very difficult to get rid of BLS.
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Thanks geeme pulled the plant this morning was to nasty last night!! Will treat neighboring plants and hope I can save the peppers. All surrounding plants are loaded with peppers.
grantmichaels said:
The *ONLY* reason I didn't recommend he go outside to be the dude cutting down a plant in the storm (Hi, I've been that guy ...) is because it's Oldsalty and that carries the risk of falling and health comes ahead of peppers!
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Thank you brother Heather was already saying with my luck ill be hit by lightning then fall in a sink hole from all this rain lol.
 
     Another member posted some pics of plants that looked like they had BLS. Here's what I told them. Not all of it applies, but still there's some good info in here.
 
 
 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.
 
 
 
 
 
edit for oldsalty:   BLS isn't the end of the world. I get it every year. Well my plants do. I shower occasionally. It was only a problem the first year I got it and panicked and didn't know what to do. Now I just accept it as a phase my garden goes through every spring and deal with it. I haven't lost a plant or a pod in years.
 
I went searching to see if powdered sulfur has any effect on BLS. The answer is apparently not. I did find these two interesting pieces of info from Cornell.
 
 
Low nitrogen or potassium, and extra high magnesium and calcium levels have been associated with increased crop susceptibility to BLS. Pepper crops that show visible signs of nitrogen deficiency (light colored leaves) have been severely affected by BLS in Connecticut. Researchers have also found that BLS is more severe on pepper plants grown in soils adjusted with dolomitic lime, which is high in magnesium, than plants grown in soils adjusted with Cal limestone (CaCO3). Maintain nutrients at the proper levels (moderate to high) to help plants resist infection. ea
 
The most important source of the bacterium that causes BLS in pepper is infested seed.
 
Click to expand...
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
Another member posted some pics of plants that looked like they had BLS. Here's what I told them. Not all of it applies, but still there's some good info in here.
 
 
 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.
 
 
 
 
 
edit for oldsalty:   BLS isn't the end of the world. I get it every year. Well my plants do. I shower occasionally. It was only a problem the first year I got it and panicked and didn't know what to do. Now I just accept it as a phase my garden goes through every spring and deal with it. I haven't lost a plant or a pod in years.
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Wow thanks Hybrid Mode 01 this post made me feel much better was getting very discouraged!! :(
Thinking last time ill try. But if this is normal I'm cool. :)

Now as for showers I've been known to take one occasionally myself!! Lol.

We're can I purchase AACT? Do home depot carry this product? Thanks again!!! :)
 
You make it ...

You make a tea of dechlorinated water and a handful of grass clippings and some molasses ... often in an well-aerated five gallon bucket (air stone) with a pump in it, too, to circulate ...

Often folks throw in some guano, too etc ... and myco ...
(Try to keep it out of your orifices, too) ...
 
grantmichaels said:
You make it ...You make a tea of dechlorinated water and a handful of grass clippings and some molasses ... often in an well-aerated five gallon bucket (air stone) with a pump in it, too, to circulate ...Often folks throw in some guano, too etc ... and myco ...(Try to keep it out of your orifices, too) ...
Click to expand...
Hahaha so don't put it on my ass!! Dam!
 
grantmichaels said:
You make it ...

You make a tea of dechlorinated water and a handful of grass clippings and some molasses ... often in an well-aerated five gallon bucket (air stone) with a pump in it, too, to circulate ...

Often folks throw in some guano, too etc ... and myco ...
(Try to keep it out of your orifices, too) ...
Click to expand...
 
     Adding mycorrhizal fungi to compost tea is a waste of money. It just gets eaten by other microbes before they have a chance to infect roots. Better to add those directly to plant roots when transplanting or out planting.
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
 
     Adding mycorrhizal fungi to compost tea is a waste of money. It just gets eaten by other microbes before they have a chance to infect roots. Better to add those directly to plant roots when transplanting or out planting.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't found a difference between when I've added it while the tea is brewing versus adding it to the tea as part of a drench, but I'll defer ...
 
I'm a bit of an aact and myco all of the things kind of guy ...
 
I add it to my soil mix, apply some w/ watering, put it in behind feeding and treating, add it to aact, add more to the drench (aact + saponified coconut surfactant + myco), and finally put it in the soil on it's way to the compost pile ...
 
My experience has been mo' myco, mo' betta! ... LOL.
 
You don't ever make tea just for the myco to increase the counts? ...
 
grantmichaels said:
 
I haven't found a difference between when I've added it while the tea is brewing versus adding it to the tea as part of a drench, but I'll defer ...
 
I'm a bit of an aact and myco all of the things kind of guy ...
 
I add it to my soil mix, apply some w/ watering, put it in behind feeding and treating, add it to aact, add more to the drench (aact + saponified coconut surfactant + myco), and finally put it in the soil on it's way to the compost pile ...
 
My experience has been mo' myco, mo' betta! ... LOL.
 
You don't ever make tea just for the myco to increase the counts? ...
Click to expand...
 
     Compost microbes and mycorrhizal fungi are completely different animals. Myco are really finicky about needing to be in close proximity to root hairs and exudates to begin growing and colonize the rhizosphere. It's my understanding that if they get wet and germinate they'll just die if there isn't a root near them.
     I make and use AACT just as a way of inoculating soilless mix with beneficial microbes that eat organic nutrients and tie it up in biomass. Also, if I have a lot of plant matter to compost but not a lot of leftover finished compost to inoculate it, I'll spray the new stuff with AACT to get it going. I've had good results with that. And I (obviously) spray it on plants in spring to ward off bad BLS outbreaks. 
     The only time I use mycorrhizal inoculants is on existing roots. If I pregerminate seeds, I'll sprinkle some on the radicle before I plant. And I dust the rootballs of transplants each time I repot plants. Everything I've read tells me that the only place it makes sense to use mycorrhizal inoculants is applied directly to preexisting roots. 
 
I feel like the shape and canopy do a pretty good job of directing anything sent their way down the trunk to the roots, but fair enough ...
 
grantmichaels said:
I feel like the shape and canopy do a pretty good job of directing anything sent their way down the trunk to the roots, but fair enough ...
Click to expand...
 
     Like wet mycorrhizal inoculum? If so, I think getting it wet in advance of contacting it with roots is probably a bad idea. Besides inoculating roots at plant is probably enough. Once roots are infected with mycorrhizal fungi one time, the fungi grow with the roots. If you do it right one time, further inoculation is not necessary, unless you're in the business of making or selling the stuff.  ;)
 
Heckle said:
I feel like the spores are ubiquitous and all you need are the right conditions.
Click to expand...
 
     Definitely true in situations where living roots are in the soil year round. (maybe what you mean by "right conditions") The problem is, I only grow annuals in my raised beds and I never count on soilless mix to contain viable inoculum (no matter what the manufacturer of retailer may claim). 
     Even if they were present in my soil, my thinking is that dusting transplant roots with a properly stored, dry inoculum probably gets a lot more cfus in contact with roots. 
     If I lived in Trinidad and only grew peppers (or a plant that harbored a similar mycorrhizal cohort) that were allowed to live in the soil 365 days a year, I would likely never need to purchase inoculum. I'd just mix some of the native soil in with my seedling starting mix and let nature do the rest at outplant.
 
Hybrid Mode 01 said:
 
     Definitely true in situations where living roots are in the soil year round. (maybe what you mean by "right conditions") The problem is, I only grow annuals in my raised beds and I never count on soilless mix to contain viable inoculum (no matter what the manufacturer of retailer may claim). 
     Even if they were present in my soil, my thinking is that dusting transplant roots with a properly stored, dry inoculum probably gets a lot more cfus in contact with roots. 
     If I lived in Trinidad and only grew peppers (or a plant that harbored a similar mycorrhizal cohort) that were allowed to live in the soil 365 days a year, I would likely never need to purchase inoculum. I'd just mix some of the native soil in with my seedling starting mix and let nature do the rest at outplant.
Click to expand...
 
 
 
No trees there?  :P
 
The way I see it I dont have to inoculate wood chips to see the white rot in a pile after a rain or when it contacts soil. Im not saying theyre the same fungi because theyre not, I think. I'd use it in pots like you said but I dont think it's quite necessary to inoculate nature.

I do get the power of numbers though, as with AACT. Maybe that helps, but I still feel like theyre always there.
 
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