Need help identifying blemishes....

[Slashdawg]

Hi all. I recently tranplanted five varieites of peppers to my garden. These are my Moruga Scorpion plants. Can anybody identify what is happening here? I'm worried this could spread to my other plants. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Edmick]

I would recommend moving it away from your other plants. Looks like it could be fungal to me.

 

[solid7]

That looks like classic bacterial spot to me.

 

[Slashdawg]

Is it sufficient to just remove the affected leaves? And are these caused by too much moisture? We have been getting way too much rain around these parts.

 

[solid7]

Is it sufficient to just remove the affected leaves? And are these caused by too much moisture? We have been getting way too much rain around these parts.

 
I think the best way to get rid of it is to use pure sulfur dust.  But you will have to be careful about when you apply, with regards to what you may have previously applied.
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The way I apply sulfur and DE, is to gather a handful, and blow it onto the plant.  

 

[Takanotsume]

I had similar blemishes suddenly show up on plants that I had sprayed with a neem oil mixture that was using too strong of a soap.
 
Now I'm wondering if it wasn't just leaf burn like I suspected.

 

[solid7]

Phytotoxicity tends to show up as black spots.  It's a scary looking thing.
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What do you mean, "too strong of a soap?"  Either the Neem was toxic after application in full sun, or the "soap" (probably you mean detergent) stripped the leaf's waxy coating, and made it vulnerable to some sort of disease. (which was most likely bacterial spot, such as what is shown in the OP's pic)
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I can say with a fairly high degree of certainty that his is bacterial spot.  I may have had some trouble with pic #2, but pic #1 is pretty conclusive.

 

[CaneDog]

To me, that does look likely to be BLS.  If so, it's a big risk to spread by contact (plant touching plant or hand or tool transfer) or by contaminating the soil which then splashes up to neighboring plants with rain or watering and passes on infection. Also potentially with biting/sucking insects. 
 
My understanding is BLS is not curable, though many ways exist to control the appearance of its symptoms, reduce risk of spread, and sustain plant health for production - probably because farmers understandably look for ways to get the majority of a crop to market instead of losing large amounts of production.  Personally, I'd remove any plant I was convinced had BLS, particularly one planted in the ground rather than a container (which I could easily isolate).  If the plant were new and easily replaceable, I'd be inclined to remove and replace even if not 100% certain.
 
I think this is a pretty good overview article - https://www.planetnatural.com/pest-problem-solver/plant-disease/bacterial-leaf-spot/
 
Good luck Slashdawg and hope to see more of your grow as the season progresses.

 

[Slashdawg]

I appreciate you all sharing. And what a major drag. It is not alot of space and with all the rain, there has defintely been splashing and cross-contamination. I fear all ten plants are infected. True, I only transplanted them 2.5 weeks ago and I could get more and start anew. But I wonder if the soil is contaminated and new transplants will also be infected?

 

[CaneDog]

Healthy plants are more resistant to these types of things than unhealthy ones. You m scorp looks healthy but for the obvious issue.  If the others look healthy too, you've got that in your favor.  Sure, it's possible something else has been infected - if this actually is BLS - but it's also possible nothing else has and your other plants will be fine.  I'd consider treating all your plants as suggested by S7, above. Maybe mulching your garden to cover the soil and reduce splash up. Maybe even scrape away the top inch of soil in the immediate area first.  And even if you had the worst luck ever and every single one of them had it, you could simply treat the symptoms and likely have plants that grow to maturity, look good, and produce well.
 
Sure it's a bummer if it is BLS, but you have a killer selection of peppers and you can still have a great season.

 

[Takanotsume]

I'm pretty sure I went and infected pretty much all of my pepper plants after failing to realize that the white spots were BLS and neglected to sanitize after contacting the infected plants.
 
The symptoms are mild at worst with maybe one or two spots per plant, but it still annoys me that I could've avoided the issue had I been more careful/knowledgable...or maybe not considering that pest insects can spread the infection as well.
 
I think I just need to bite the bullet and accept that outside of maybe growing indoors, having a pristine-looking plant in Hawaii is nigh impossible when the high temps and humidity make diseases and pests a constant issue. I could tolerate the plants just looking a bit unsightly, but I'm already seeing some of the new peppers on one of the plants that's producing starting to brown presumably because of the BLS infection.

 

[solid7]

"Curable" is a bit of misnomer, in this case.  Can you "cure" it?  No.  Is that the end of the line for your plant?  Not necessarily.
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The idea behind treatment of the BLS, is to prevent new spores from being created.  If you use a sulfur treatment, you'll do this.  It won't clear up what you have, and you'll want to cull the damaged foliage.  But you can save the plant.  Is it worth the time and effort?  That's up the individual grower.  I, personally, might be inclined to cull the plant.  But on any given day - being the empiricist that I am - I might be inclined to treat the plant, to have the knowledge and experience.  I have always believed that if something is really worth knowing, it's worth breaking something at least twice, in the process of figuring it out.

 

[Slashdawg]

That is a great perspective and the silver lining here as you say is the learned knowledge acquired in working through this. I will treat all ten plants with sulfur powder. And meanwhile, I will get maybe four more plants today and grow them seperately in buckets. I so badly want to make delicious and face ripping hot sauce and I was downright despondent last night with the thought of having to cull the whole lot of them. My wife was laughing at me and stated, 'It's like you are mourning the death of children!'

 

[solid7]

Do some research on application of sulfur powder.  It has some warnings.  You're going to kill all bugs, both good and bad.  You must not apply it within 2 weeks of any kind of oil application. Try to minimize the amount that gets into your container. (it's an acidic pH bufffer) Etc, etc, etc...
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I would also isolate the infected plant, far away from the others.

 

[Slashdawg]

Thanks again for all your help.