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Preventative Medicine for Pepper Disease

OK...how 'bout it folks...how many people treat their peppers with preventive measures against disease and what do you use?

After seeing Omri lose his plants to disease, I am going to take precautions against plant loss this year. I can not afford to let an infectious disease spread and kill.

Do you think this is a worthy thread since those of us in the northern hemisphere are preparing for a spring full of delightful hot peppers?
 
AJ.........I DEEM THIS THREAD TO BE........................WORTHY!!!

I use mycostop. It prevents and treats nearly every kind of root infection and aids even healthy plants in absorbing nutrition. Killer stuff.
 
I let my pots freeze over winter but have never needed to sterilize things.
Some seeds I've bought are treated with chlorine or thram(fungicide) and "lab screened at 0/30,000 seeds for bacterial spot"
Neem and pine oil are supposed to have antifungal properties in plants as well as copper or sulphur based fungicides and even baking soda or unpasteurized milk.
 
i sterilize all my pots and other stuff when i first put my seeds to sprout, then i only use dirt thats been sterilized (which i try to avoid doing cuz it stinks) or that's in a bag that has never been opened. this year i'm going one step further and boiling my water and letting it cool (cuz i just use tap water). It might be overkill but its kinda fun fussing over my plants.
 
Has anyone thought to ask the experts - the local greenhouse, for instance, what they do? Face it, a place that sells 1,500 - 15,000 plants a year probably has a pretty good grip on how to raise them!

Mike
 
Large greenhouse operations likely buy treated seeds and often resistant hybrids to start from or treat their own seeds.
Also keeping a fan going on the plants will prevent fungal spores from growing and keeping control of humidy helps too.
 
A good nursery person is like a good Doctor...I don't have that person...when I started talking to him several years ago, I found out real quickly he did not know the details of growing hot peppers ( I was nice and didn't say "He didn't have a clue"). The reason I go there is they have quality products that I need.

Thats why I joined this site as soon as I found it. The knowledge base here is phoenomenal. JMHO
 
well a lot of nurseries have a whole heck of a lot more flowers then veggies in general, and it is pretty different growing. if you have a university in town with a decent environment science lab the profs there probably wouldn't mind feilding some questions (it might even stroke their egos). trent has an awesome env sci program (they're all about the green movement in general at trent) but i'm a student and ex env sci major so that might skew their willingness to answer my questions.
 
I asked Randel from RareSeeds.com. Here's his reply:

I do raise a few thousand pepper seedlings each year, both for local sales and to sell on my website, abundantacres.net. To my knowledge I've never encountered much seed-borne disease. Maybe occasionally but not consistently enough to identify as such. I practice decent general sanitation, including pasteurizing all potting soil and rinsing reused containers in a bleach solution.

I have heard of growers using a soak of ordinary hydrogen peroxide to disinfect the seed coat, and it supposedly has benefits that enhance germination somehow but I've never done this.

Randel

Looks like I will be washing out some containers this spring.

Mike
 
After reading a lot about growing indoors, I have been reading a lot about pest prevention for my plants. Almost all I have read says that using a neem oil solution on a scheduled basis will prevent the appearance of unwanted pests.

I started my neem oil prevention treatment Monday and am planning to use it weekly (what is recommended) following the directed dosage...1 ounce per gallon of water ( 7 or 8 ml per liter).

Anyone else using preventive measures like this?

I remember a thread on this forum where someone was talking about beneficial plants to plant with the peppers. Someone, I believe it was Ms. Pam said chrysanthamums was good because of the pyrethrum in the plants. Was there a down side to planting chrysanthamums with the peppers?
 
I use neem quite often and copper or sulpher based fungicides when needed but not really for preventative measures. I rarely get any problems except when the aphids get out of control and spread their diseases.
 
To me, the old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" is what I am trying to accomplish. I am just curious of the down side to these preventive measures. I wonder is there a down side such as stunted plant growth, decreased production, etc when using neem oil as a preventive measure?
 
You know, that's a lot of pesticides to be putting on something you're going to eat. Neem is a natural product, but it's still a pesticide. Why would you spray it weekly indoors? What pest do you expect to have inside?
 
Neem is an oil so you can't let the neem accumulate or it will become a sticky mess and might actually encouage molds/bacteria as well as intesifying/magnifying light

I usually don't want to feed a plant fungicides unless needed. There are better products for strengthening a plant that has no signs of problems.

You could try a pine oil product for preventative measures since it has many disinfectant and protective qualities and is organic. The only problem is the usually high nitrogen levels.
http://www.hydroponics.com/articles/piningorganic.html

Also you can try products with chitosan salts such as Chi to strengthen and protect agains insects
http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/chi™-liquid-organic-foliar-spray-c-156_543.html
 
Now this is the kind of discussion I was hoping to prompt with this thread. From what I can see here, it is NOT a good idea to use anything on a scheduled basis for preventive measures against pests (aphids). Am I reading the messages right?

Remember, I am a relying on you "old timers" and trying to follow the best practices that are time proven.....
 
POTAWIE said:
Neem is natural and is good for skin as well as antifungal properties

I like Neem, and I use a toothpaste that has some Neen oil in it. I keep a bottle of it around for small skin irritations and such, too. It's a good product, and, as far as I know, much safer than most other pesticides on the market. It's acute LD 50 is ridiculously high, if I remember correctly. I don't know of any long term studies that have been done on treated produce, though, and once a week is awful lot of spraying if there is no sign of critters yet. If the plan is to do this outside, consider the impact on beneficials, too.
 
When I first joined this site I was desperately looking for something to help my plants that had fusarium wilt.

This wilt fungus came from bags of soil from Lowe's.

All I found was this great natural product.

"MYCOSTOP
A biological fungicide developed from a naturally occurring biocontrol microbe
The organism was discovered by researchers at a leading European University and developed into a user friendly product by the biocontrol team at Verdera Oy in Finland . It is now an approved product in over 15 countries.

Key Highlights:

Control or suppression of many root rot and wilt pathogenic fungi. Pythium, Fusarium, Alternaria, Phomopsis, Rhizoctonia, Phytophthora, Botrytis. Plants often respond with increased vigor and yield, like a vitamin boost. Safe to apply. Organic approved. Non- phytotoxic. Use on all crops such as vegetables, herbs, ornamentals. Easy application. Small packets store for 1 yr. when refrigerated.

EPA registered since 1994. Increasingly used by large and
small growers.

Recent price reduction makes it very affordable.

Left - Thiram, Center - Untreated, Right - Mycostop

Product Detail
When applied as a drench or spray the dried spores and mycelium of the Streptomyces culture in Mycostop germinate and begin to grow on and around the plant roots. In doing so they create a biological defense against root infecting pathogenic fungi which cause disease such as wilt and root rot. Mycostop is used by growers for diseases caused by Pythium, Fusarium, Botrytis, Alternaria, Phomopsis, and to a lesser extent for Rhizoctonia and Phytophthora. Mycostop has particularly good activity against Fusarium.

Mycostop has been shown to increase plant vigor and yields even in the absence of obvious root pathogen activity. The explanation is that the Streptomyces produce plant root stimulating hormones (which has been demonstrated in the lab) or the Streptomyces control minor root pathogens which slowly feed on and damage roots."

All natural and coupled with the fact that it benefits already healthy plants makes it a no brainer for me.
 
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