Plants need help - possible root rot or wilt disease

Hey guys,

It's been a bit of a rocky summer. Things were going well until it got really hot, and since then I've had trouble with:

hornworms
cucumber beetles (yuck)
red spider mites
leaf miners
scales
unidentified mammals (more of a tomato problem, either rats or opossums probably)

Of even greater concern though, a couple of my plants have wilted, and many have significant leaf drop issues. The wilted ones display a pattern of new growth shriveling up, even when sufficiently watered.



Here's my Super Hot Surprise Mix from Aji Joe...it was doing fine until a couple of days ago, now its nearly dead. I was hoping to get a pepper or two off it before it goes.



My Caribbean Red Hab, it was suffering from the same wilting issue but didn't deteriorate as fast, it's had it for a few weeks. I fed it a solution of water and hydrogen peroxide a few days ago, then flushed with normal water. I cut it back aggressively yesterday, and I hope it survives.



Jamaican Hot Yellow...had a horrible spider mite infestation. I sprayed it with a hose really hard and the next day it dropped every single leaf. The leaves grew back sort of oddly, but it was clear it was still infected. I cut it back by about 85%, hopefully the mites will have moved on after the new growth sprouts.


In general it seems like at least half of my plants cant tolerate the heat. If they arn't shaded, they drop a ton of leaves and wilt, even if they have water. I don't think over watering in general is an issue - while I may water too much at times I only see the issue when the plants are out in the direct sun and / or the temperature climbs over 100.


Any thoughts or suggestions?

This is my first season growing, and I'm sure the more seasoned experts will have a lot more to add, but I've lost six plants that looked pretty much like yours, and it was pretty sudden. After giving up on three of them and pulling them out of their pots, looked like pictures of what I've seen root rot look like. Fusarium, I believe. Never thought to try the H2O2. Please post if it helps.

Having the same issues buddy. Text me and we can talk

Dennis - It was good talking to you via text and sorry to see you're dealing with a lot of the same issues I am. I think next year I'm going to get soil with fungicide built in like a Promix or try to get some myself to add to the soil. I've lost so many seedlings to damp off and now this mess.

If there are any "advanced" gardeners out there with a thought or two on our plight, I would love to hear them!

Dang sorry to see that we are lucky that is has not reach that level yet and hopefully the weather dies down through the month, but from the looks it more to do with the heat evaporating the water way to fast for the plants to absorb try using mulch to help reduce water evaporation with a drip system. My own soil mixture I noticed out performed or did just as well as promix or foxfarm mixture and was way cheaper. Try considering using a mixture that is more water retention if your not going to use mulch. Not advance grower just to hit my second year

The heat.......summer time is hard on peppers.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. The heat is probably a factor and I'm thinking may well be responsible for the leaf drop on the other plants, but the wilters also definitely have something wrong with them. I'm guessing a soil borne illness, root rot or one of the wilt diseases. I'll do an autopsy on the caribbean red / shsm and if another plant is stricken ill try the replant with a peroxide soak on the roots before replanting next time.

Did your "autopsy" reveal anything. I've got a few more plants dropping leaves. I have noticed a pattern. Every single plant that has started dropping leaves has been in the same spot in my yard (all in pots). I don't believe it is the area with the most or most intense sun exposure. Wondering if there is some sort of soil pathogen located primarily at that spot in my back yard.

I'm going to try a root flush on the one that is still alive and see what happens.

Hey Doc, my autopsy didn't reveal much; roots were brown but not slimy at all. I have a new theory - they cooked to death. The plants that have experienced issues have almost all been in the same place on my patio, and have received more sunlight than the other plants. They have all started dying on extremely hot days, and during the autopsy I noticed that not only were the pots extremely hot to the touch, but the damp soil was as well. Unfortunately my Aji plant just went the way of the other two - (side note -the Jamaican hot yellow looks like its recovering, and I ordered some Azamax to deal with any future infestations.)

Given the new theory, I think we're all experiencing the negative impacts of wildly too high temperatures on our root zones. We're all in pots right?

So I'm going to keep my plants in the shade until fall, and probably plant in the ground next year. If I don't have the deaths and it mitigates the leaf drop issues, I'd say I solved the problem.