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Bacterial Spot? Desperate....

Im pretty sure this is bacterial leaf spot. It started off on one of my cayennes a month ago, as that plant was stunted compared to the others.. I just thought it was fertilizer burn. Now its all over my non-chinense plants. Not sure why the habs aren't affected, but even the tomatoes have it. I'm pretty desperate guys. The plants are still making fruit, but the foliage looks awful and is falling. Is there *anything* I can do to salvage this summer? Below is a typical leaf, and quite frankly, its one of the better ones. This is from what was a healthy plant a week ago.
 
msg071026418274.0719542025587.jpg
 
Unfortunately I think you are correct that it is BLS. Do you have a way to isolate the plants that don't have it as of yet? Unfortunately, the only "treatment" is prevention - you can use copper on the ones that don't already have it, but the ones that have it are pretty much goners, as there's no known fix. 
 
http://extension.umd.edu/learn/bacterial-leaf-spot-pepper

Oh - and do wash your hands thoroughly before touching any of the plants that don't have it yet. It's best to use gloves, remove the infected plants and trash them, then wash your hands as well as possible.
 
Copper spray and mancozeb helps keep if from spreading, and if you keep the plant reasonably dry it might get better. I lost 2/8 plants to this last year, the rest got better.
 
     BLS has a cure - pruning and applying compost tea. I have found that quarantining doesn't do a whole lot to stop the spread. The bacteria that causes BLS (Xanthomonas spp.) is found in nature everywhere, but it can only colonize plants and do damage when the environment cooperates. Think of it this way - a disease needs three things to be successful: a pathogen, a host and an environment. Take out one of these and the process stops.
     Pruning goes beyond just picking off affected foliage. Plants also need to be pruned to promote air flow, so plants have a chance to dry off after rain or dew. BLS needs a moist environment to get a foothold on a plant - ensure that the plant's foliage stays dry, and the spread will stop. 
     The role compost tea plays in this treatment is debatable. Maybe it outcompetes other bacteria before they can cause problems. Maybe it alters the chemistry of the leaf surface so Xanthomonas can't live there. Maybe it stimulates the plant's defenses so it can fend off an attack. The answer isn't clear yet, so I can't speculate beyond that. But I do know that it works.
     Over three quarters of my plant had BLS to some degree this spring. Some had only a few spots, some lost about 50% of their leaves. It didn't matter. I picked off all the affected leaves and tossed them in the yard. Then I did some serious pruning to open up the interior of the plant to give them a chance to dry out better. Then I did a lot of foliar applications of tea. None of these steps will stop BLS on its own. But use them together and your plants ought to be fine - I looked at my plants today and there are ZERO lesions on any of the 50 or 60 plants I'm growing this year. Don't give up on them! Good luck!
 
wayright said:
or,
you can spray with 50 / 50 skim milk / water
 
;)
Kevin
 
     I wonder if that has the same effect as AACT as far as changing the chemistry / pH of the leaves' surfaces. I'll look into that if I ever see BLS again - it sure would be a hell of a lot faster to apply that than it would be to wait for tea to brew. (I'm not gonna stop with the tea, though!  :D )
 
I had some bad bls and bacterial wilt and it was a battle to control it. Copper spray is good but I used as directed and it burned a few plants. I would go pretty diluted. I alter that with serenade foliage spray mixed in a one gal sprayer. Lastly compost tea did help a little but I used it more for the bacterial wilt and was a drench not foliage. I lost five plants out of 40 but now all I battle is wilt. Time for more compost tea. Three plants I thought would die are battling bac k and spitting out more flowers now.
 
wayright said:
or,
you can spray with 50 / 50 skim milk / water
 
;)
Kevin
 
This.  We've had pretty bad BLS in the Midwest this year and diluted milk has helped a lot.
 
BLS is tough to get rid of ... best to isolate plants immediately and treat or ideally scrap completely ..
 
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