Ok, so I'm not going to tell you every detail about how this works yet, because I'm unsure if it's something I want to try to market. However, I may have figured out a way to stop the #1 problem with pepper growing.
I believe that bacterial spotting as well as "sun scorch" damage are caused by the same problems, which is that a particular strain of bacteria eats it's way through the waxy protective coating on plant leaves, and then enters the plant, destroying the stems and root system from within. When coupled with heat, the leaves appear dry and scorched. Without heat there's just spotting. The direction that damage moves along the veins of the plant confirm this, as it moves in the same direction that water would fall. It was already known that water spreads this bacteria easily through splashing.
What I've done is grown an antibiotic mix that I infuse into dirt, and then I also dilute some of that dirt to make a foliar spray. The mix is not a full spectrum antibiotic, but rather only targets the harmful bacteria that cause leaf spotting. I believe the mechanism of action is that it increases the beneficial bacteria, crowding out resources for the bad. The garden fixes itself. For those concerned about chemicals, I am happy to tell you that it is a fully organic process.
This is a New Mexico "Heritage" 6-4 pepper plant. I used just one application on the leaves and dirt around it. Check out this before and after picture:
The top photo is a "2 week progress" image. 2 weeks before this, the plant was covered on every leaf by that damage when I tested the mix. The bottom photo is after 1 month. Not only did new leaves stop browing, the stems of the plant healed, changing from a sickly brown to a vibrant green. I was ready to remove this plant from my garden when I decided to test this out. This previously "dead plant" is fruiting today:
All of these images are the same plant, I have not done any fooling around with the camera. This is actually the third plant that I've treated and recovered, the others being a Jalapeno and a lunchbox type, but this was by far the worst off. And what's more, every other pepper plant that I've started in this dirt mix has zero leaf spotting. Prior to creating the mix, I had failure after failure from bacterial damage. Now I have a brilliant crop of plants.
I am looking for people in the Phoenix area who have trouble with leaf spotting and are looking to test my product. I have good reason to believe that I can make a similar mix for any kind of leaf spotting, but I don't think the mix for peppers would work on your other vegetables. To my knowledge each plant has a different kind of bacteria that causes it's type of spotting.
If you struggle with leaf spotting and would like to help me test this, please send me a message, I'd be glad to work with you, and will not charge you.
I believe that bacterial spotting as well as "sun scorch" damage are caused by the same problems, which is that a particular strain of bacteria eats it's way through the waxy protective coating on plant leaves, and then enters the plant, destroying the stems and root system from within. When coupled with heat, the leaves appear dry and scorched. Without heat there's just spotting. The direction that damage moves along the veins of the plant confirm this, as it moves in the same direction that water would fall. It was already known that water spreads this bacteria easily through splashing.
What I've done is grown an antibiotic mix that I infuse into dirt, and then I also dilute some of that dirt to make a foliar spray. The mix is not a full spectrum antibiotic, but rather only targets the harmful bacteria that cause leaf spotting. I believe the mechanism of action is that it increases the beneficial bacteria, crowding out resources for the bad. The garden fixes itself. For those concerned about chemicals, I am happy to tell you that it is a fully organic process.
This is a New Mexico "Heritage" 6-4 pepper plant. I used just one application on the leaves and dirt around it. Check out this before and after picture:
The top photo is a "2 week progress" image. 2 weeks before this, the plant was covered on every leaf by that damage when I tested the mix. The bottom photo is after 1 month. Not only did new leaves stop browing, the stems of the plant healed, changing from a sickly brown to a vibrant green. I was ready to remove this plant from my garden when I decided to test this out. This previously "dead plant" is fruiting today:
All of these images are the same plant, I have not done any fooling around with the camera. This is actually the third plant that I've treated and recovered, the others being a Jalapeno and a lunchbox type, but this was by far the worst off. And what's more, every other pepper plant that I've started in this dirt mix has zero leaf spotting. Prior to creating the mix, I had failure after failure from bacterial damage. Now I have a brilliant crop of plants.
I am looking for people in the Phoenix area who have trouble with leaf spotting and are looking to test my product. I have good reason to believe that I can make a similar mix for any kind of leaf spotting, but I don't think the mix for peppers would work on your other vegetables. To my knowledge each plant has a different kind of bacteria that causes it's type of spotting.
If you struggle with leaf spotting and would like to help me test this, please send me a message, I'd be glad to work with you, and will not charge you.
