Hi, all.
I am new to growing peppers but not to growing plants. I have a B.S. in Horticulture and work at a hydroponics shop. A customer came in to work about two months ago with a chocolate ghost pepper that they could no longer care for, and thus I became the proud parent of my first pepper plant (and one of the most difficult to grow, from what I hear). They had grown it from seed in soil and it was doing great when it came to me, although had far outgrown its first pot. So I transplanted it into a 5-gallon with Fox Farm Ocean Forest and let it acclimate before starting it on a fertilizer regimen. It had quite a few flowers when I transplanted it, but the shock caused them all to drop.
Not long after replanting, all of the plant's leaves developed these bizarre black stipples that I can't diagnose. The black stipples progress down the petioles and darken right at the point of attachment until the leaves finally abscise. The majority of the older foliage has now fallen off, and new growth has both the spots and has developed a twisted, deformed habit. I'm assuming that, because of the systemic nature and the bizarre stunting that it must be viral. There are no indications of bacterial infections and no pests. The plant is treated with AzaMax twice a week (one drench, one foliar) as are all the plants in our store.
Is it a mosaic virus? The black spots have me confused. If it is a virus, is my best bet to destroy it?
Any help would be much appreciated. Here are the diagnostic images.
Happy pepper on the day it arrived:
Note: cuttings were taken on the day of arrival, and they are healthy and seem to be virus-free.
Thanks!
Pwnie
I am new to growing peppers but not to growing plants. I have a B.S. in Horticulture and work at a hydroponics shop. A customer came in to work about two months ago with a chocolate ghost pepper that they could no longer care for, and thus I became the proud parent of my first pepper plant (and one of the most difficult to grow, from what I hear). They had grown it from seed in soil and it was doing great when it came to me, although had far outgrown its first pot. So I transplanted it into a 5-gallon with Fox Farm Ocean Forest and let it acclimate before starting it on a fertilizer regimen. It had quite a few flowers when I transplanted it, but the shock caused them all to drop.
Not long after replanting, all of the plant's leaves developed these bizarre black stipples that I can't diagnose. The black stipples progress down the petioles and darken right at the point of attachment until the leaves finally abscise. The majority of the older foliage has now fallen off, and new growth has both the spots and has developed a twisted, deformed habit. I'm assuming that, because of the systemic nature and the bizarre stunting that it must be viral. There are no indications of bacterial infections and no pests. The plant is treated with AzaMax twice a week (one drench, one foliar) as are all the plants in our store.
Is it a mosaic virus? The black spots have me confused. If it is a virus, is my best bet to destroy it?
Any help would be much appreciated. Here are the diagnostic images.
Happy pepper on the day it arrived:
Note: cuttings were taken on the day of arrival, and they are healthy and seem to be virus-free.
Thanks!
Pwnie