This year I have a couple pepper plants in my in my garden that are showing a couple signs of baterial spot. Noticed it in my neighbor's gardens and others in the area as well (Central Pennsyltucky). Today I took a walk up a nearby mountain with my dogs over lunch. Noticed that many of the plants up there aren't doing well with some having similar symptoms. I've walked this trail for over 5 years and have never seen anything like it, though some symptoms are understandable with the cooler than usual and very wet weather we've been having over the past couple weeks. Here's what I saw (apologies in advance for crappy cameraphone pictures):
Never seen this kind of damage on this type of plant in the spot I took the picture
Same species about 1/2 mile away.
Even the Mountain Sage which is REALLY hardy and never blinks an eye at almost any conditions is showing deficiencies and some sort of leaf spot. Never seen that before in this spot.
Extreme chlorosis. Never seen it this bad up on the mountain this time of year. Not even close.
Can't really see in this picture but there is brown bacterial-looking spot on this random paulownia tree that somehow ended up there.
Worst looking pepper plant in my garden (color is off on camera phone, its a lot more green than that). Has those spots.
Closeup of the paulownia near my garden (and one of my dogs). Same spots - I've never, ever seen this sort of thing of thing on these plants.
So what I do know is that this happening not just to peppers but on a lot of local peoples' gardens right around me, and its happening to plants up on the mountain. The part I can't figure out is I carefully spot treated two plants in my garden (peppers) with cupric sulfate and neem as a control. Absolutely no effect other than fewer bugs around those two. I know that bac-spot is not technically a fungus but I've spot treated with cupric sulfate in previous years and worked so that was good enough for me.
Any ideas what is going on here? I'm not worried about losing my crop or anything, just very curious as to what's causing it. Also noticed that my tomatoes are completely unaafected, which is weird and this spotting affects cilantro too (though hardly noticable).
Thanks in advance for your input! Hope someone out there knows what it is so I don't think "It's all the Cesium-137 from Fukushima!!"
Never seen this kind of damage on this type of plant in the spot I took the picture
Same species about 1/2 mile away.
Even the Mountain Sage which is REALLY hardy and never blinks an eye at almost any conditions is showing deficiencies and some sort of leaf spot. Never seen that before in this spot.
Extreme chlorosis. Never seen it this bad up on the mountain this time of year. Not even close.
Can't really see in this picture but there is brown bacterial-looking spot on this random paulownia tree that somehow ended up there.
Worst looking pepper plant in my garden (color is off on camera phone, its a lot more green than that). Has those spots.
Closeup of the paulownia near my garden (and one of my dogs). Same spots - I've never, ever seen this sort of thing of thing on these plants.
So what I do know is that this happening not just to peppers but on a lot of local peoples' gardens right around me, and its happening to plants up on the mountain. The part I can't figure out is I carefully spot treated two plants in my garden (peppers) with cupric sulfate and neem as a control. Absolutely no effect other than fewer bugs around those two. I know that bac-spot is not technically a fungus but I've spot treated with cupric sulfate in previous years and worked so that was good enough for me.
Any ideas what is going on here? I'm not worried about losing my crop or anything, just very curious as to what's causing it. Also noticed that my tomatoes are completely unaafected, which is weird and this spotting affects cilantro too (though hardly noticable).
Thanks in advance for your input! Hope someone out there knows what it is so I don't think "It's all the Cesium-137 from Fukushima!!"
