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Please help, losing pepper plants

Mnemosynesis

Mnemosynesis

I need your help diagnosing and correcting an issue I'm having with my pepper plants. My plants are getting small black dotting on the leaves, and then the leaves drop. I want to believe it's bacterial leaf spot, but I'm not entirely sold on the idea. I had lost a bunch of plants and thought I had contained it until I went in today to check on them and it seems to have come back after re-potting and all the plants I had re-potted were completely healthy. I have read every deficiency fact sheet I could find and pests and cannot find any other symptoms that related other than BLS but I don't understand how it's continuing to transfer after the plants that may have been infected were disposed of.
 
If you could provide me with any help or offer any suggestions I would really appreciated it I've gone from 34 plants to just 12. 
 
This is a plant that I just noticed the symptoms on.
 
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These are a few of the plants I disposed of,
 
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Please help!
 
  That looks to me like bacterial leaf spot. Remove all infected plants away from non infected plants. Cut the leaves on infected plants and leave the baby leaves for photosynthesis. But the best thing to do is throw the infected ones out and start over again. It's sad but they are infectious to other plants. It can take time for the infected plants to start showing symptoms. Just because these plants where healthy when you removed the infected plants, does not mean they did not get infected. If its not bacterial leaf spot then you are having severe pH problems that have caused nutrient lock out. And your plants are essentially working will little to no nutrient support. But I am pretty sure this is bacterial.
 
I can't really tell from the size of the pics. How often are you watering? What are they planted in? Are you using any ferts at this stage at all. Last year I got a little heavy handed with a new fert I hadn't used before. 3 days after feeding black spots started to appear on the leaves along with crispy edges here and there. I thought for sure BLS at first. But it was curious to me that it happened 3 days after fertilizing. I flushed out each solo cup. 450 solo cups with 6 cups of water run through each took forever, never again lol. Turned out that was my problem and not BLS. Not sure if this pertains to your situation.
 
I would try to figure out what the first and second wave of plants had in common.  Soil, nutrients, what changed when you repotted and the second batch got sick?

 
 
I'd like to see the roots on one of those really bad plants pictured if you can snap a pic. To me it looks like over watering that has affected a couple things and I'm guessing the roots are rotten. If there all nice white and fuzzy then I'm wrong.
 
I can guarantee over watering isn't an issue, also I haven't used any fertilizers at all. Will take root pictures later. When repotted I used a different bag of soil. I'm really at a loss. It has to be from bad seed.
 
If seed is something in common, sure.  Was the second wave of plants the same age as the first when they each got sick?


 
 
FreeportBum said:
are you using the cup inside a cup method? hard to tell from pics
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Yes double 1L cups and before that double solo cups.

Plants all germinated within a few days of each other ajdrew. It also spread within the proximity of the first symptomatic plant, that I will call plant zero to other neighbouring plants it was essentially the whole 4' on the right of the table that got wiped initially.
 
Mnemosynesis said:
I can guarantee over watering isn't an issue, also I haven't used any fertilizers at all. Will take root pictures later. When repotted I used a different bag of soil. I'm really at a loss. It has to be from bad seed.
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It could be that you received bad seed; I'll agree this is a possibility. But also, how can you guarantee overwatering isn't an issue? Please describe your watering habits; method and how often. Inquiring minds want to know! Here's the thing - given the age of the plants and the very, very yellowness they are showing, you should know that overwatering is the number one  cause of such yellowness in plants that young. So you could have multiple issues going on. Overwatering will also cause browning on leaf edges, as well as leaf drop.
 
Mnemosynesis said:
Yes double 1L cups and before that double solo cups.

Plants all germinated within a few days of each other ajdrew. It also spread within the proximity of the first symptomatic plant, that I will call plant zero to other neighbouring plants it was essentially the whole 4' on the right of the table that got wiped initially.
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My guess is nutty and probably wrong.  I blend MH and HPS lighting.  Last year, had some white ghost peppers turn super light lime on the side of the grow room that gets mostly HPS.  I moved them to the side that gets mostly MH and they got better.  Again, they looked nothing like your plants.  Thinking on what I experienced, I remembered a bit of history.

When the US work force started to move indoors, there was a problem with rickets / vitamin D deficiency. Turns out, the indoor lighting of the time did not provide the spectrum necessary for our bodies to process vitamin D.  The darker the skin, the more trouble you had.  So I imagine some plants are more sensitive to spectrum.

Normally I would think disease or pests because the problem you are seeing is radiating outward.  Thing is, you tossed the first plants and the next wave developed the same problems in the same spot.  All I can think about that spot that could be the same between waves of plants is the spectrum or focal point of your lighting.

Again, it does not look like a lighting problem.  I am probably wrong, but my next guess is that the table is cursed on that side.

 
 
geeme said:
 
It could be that you received bad seed; I'll agree this is a possibility. But also, how can you guarantee overwatering isn't an issue? Please describe your watering habits; method and how often. Inquiring minds want to know! Here's the thing - given the age of the plants and the very, very yellowness they are showing, you should know that overwatering is the number one  cause of such yellowness in plants that young. So you could have multiple issues going on. Overwatering will also cause browning on leaf edges, as well as leaf drop.
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Plants are watered only when the cup is light as styrofoam, or when the bottom leaves slowly begin to wilt I learned from my mistakes last year. I fill the bottom cup with a small amount of water, maybe 2 oz and allow it to absorb into the soil.
 
Mnemosynesis said:
Plants are watered only when the cup is light as styrofoam, or when the bottom leaves slowly begin to wilt I learned from my mistakes last year. I fill the bottom cup with a small amount of water, maybe 2 oz and allow it to absorb into the soil.
Click to expand...
That could be a part of the problem right there. I don't like the cup in cup method, one of the reason I asked if you were using it. When you water it's good to water from top so you get run off and not a buildup in your soil. Then drain the run off. plus it is good to have some air moving freely on the bottom of the cups. Just my op, but I've seen the same results your having when my neighbor was overwatering the plants I gave him. If you change your watering methods and get rid of the cup in cup method I bet your next round of plants will be fine. Cheers
 
If it were me id just get rid of these plants altogether and start fresh. Any non affected plants isolate (quarantine).$ee what happens next and hope for the best
 
Transplant into potting soil and don't feed them anything. Let them dry before water again. It works for me unless it is bacteria ect
 
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