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pests What in the holy hell is this. No bugs in site. Affecting all plants

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Whatever this is it has jumped between all my plants and I mean all. 60 odd. It first started on one plant just after it went crazy flowering. Then the main leaves started to curl, after a while they became better but not 100%. shortly afterwards the flowers started dropping for no apparent reason. Then after they all dropped, new leaves grew, but after they reached a certain size they went black like they where rotting. Now the plants are all trying to grow like crazy but every time a little growth of new leaves or flowers they all drop off and form what I can only describe as plant warts.

It wasn't affecting old leaves or stems but now it seems as if they are rotting as well. They are starting to appear weak and bendy. Old leaves are starting to become misshapen.

I thought it may have been lack of fertilizer so I amped it up a little but still nothing.

What do i do?
 
imaguitargod said:
Looks like a virus to me.

Nooooooo.... I don't know exactly when that could have came from. I've got other house plants but they have been around for donkeys and none other than the chilies are showing signs of infection.

If it is there's not much to be done is there? Cut back to the base?
 
first thing that leaped into my mind was FROST DAMAGE!

Kills the smallest things first, then goes up to the larger ones. I notice some of the older leaves appear wilted or tender? That could be frost damage as well.
 
I vote for virus, too. I guess you could try spritzing them with an aspirin solution, since you've got nothing to lose but time. Even if that works when you toss the plants you'll want to bleach all of the tools and pots you used. Don't forget to toss out all of the soil with the plants and any extra you have around.
 
some of your pics made me think of blight but i can't find pics that match all of your pics but can find some that look similar to one or two
 
I wouldn't give up so quick! Cut the damaged area off,let them get bonedry aqnd give them distilled water with epsoms salts.
 
I would hope to think it's frost damage, however all the plants are inside. The first plant to get it was based near a radiator, the larger other plants are on a large window sill and although the radiator below it is not on the windows have triple glazing and at the moment about 19 hours of light.

I'll do two things, I'll move all the plants back to the warmer window that has not much natural light but more radiator warmth. I'll trim back the seemingly infected areas, then I'll do as scoville suggested and let them dry out. No idea where to buy distilled water in Finland though, so perhaps a boil and cool will do?

Then if still no improvement, I'll also cut back all of the plants to stumps. Only 4 of my plants managed to start producing chilis before this set in. They are all turning starting to turn red now. I'll make sure I don't keep those seeds for future use but will use for cooking, but I will wait for them to go red before cutting back.

It's worth noting, those that are producing chilis, Chi-Chien, Purira and Bhut Morich seemed to be affected last, although one of the plants (the one with the chili fruit photograph) that I grew from an Indian seed is the worst affected.
 
Just to follow up on Vespucci solution of an asprin spritzing... you're talking about just standard asprin out of a bottle? how many tabs per litre?
 
buggedcom said:
form what I can only describe as plant warts.

Your last photo concerns me the most. It's hard to tell just from the photo, but this looks similar to a fungal infection (a type of smut) which a lot of plants are susceptible to. I wonder, is there a black powder inside the stem where it has swollen and split?

If so, this powder you see are the spores of the fungus which will explain why all of your plants are infected.

If I'm wrong and it is a different kind virus, I would be trying to find out what the vector is (aphids, thrips, etc.) so that I could prevent another outbreak at a later stage.
 
I've cut of the chili. and examined it, cutting open the chili and the stalk. nothing out of the ordinary inside the chili or the stalk. The split parts of the stem seem to be superficial. However the lower end of the chili is looks bad, like a chili that has been left in the supermarket for too long, wrinkled, soft and malleable.

All these plants are indoors. There are small flies about, no idea what but they have been there since I first started growing chilies, for at least 8 months and don't seemingly hurt them as I would have expected this earlier if so. Though it is possible that whatever it is was spread by them.
 
I have totally cut back the two most affected plants literally right back to the stem. I doubt they will survive but we shall see. Here are some more close ups of the affected areas of the plant.

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