Strange growths

willow · Jun 22, 2016

Would appreciate some insight into some pepper problems..First plant is a Fatalii cutting from last year. It was a branch that broke off in the wind so I stuck it in the ground and left it, its done ok produced quite a few peppers over the last year but it definitely has some issues. Looks like something is munching on the leaves (I cant see anything with the naked eye), also distorted leave growth, which what I can only describe as tumour type growths.

This is a regular pepper I believe that self seeded a month ago. It has similar issues from what I can see and has more of these tumour style growths, sorry about pics on my phone, the growths sometimes look like they have a white tail sticking out, I opened a couple but nothing inside from what I can see, so looks like a growth problem. The stem on this one is also very uneven with lots of growths, I am not 100% sure if this is normal. It seems to be stunted at around a foot tall and has just thrown out some flowers.

With my main pepper crop just started and the seedlings coming of age I would love to get to the bottom of any potential problems now to prepare and safeguard them as best I can. This strange growth was also prevalent last year on some of the regular peppers I grew and a couple of the chili pepper plants too.

Many Thanks for any info.

SavinaRed · Jun 22, 2016

A quick question about the first plant you said was a cutting. Did you just stick a cutting straight into the ground and it grew a plant without first sprouting roots in a container ?

romy6 · Jun 22, 2016

Looks like snail damage and some bacterial leaf spot .

willow · Jun 22, 2016

SavinaRed said:
A quick question about the first plant you said was a cutting. Did you just stick a cutting straight into the ground and it grew a plant without first sprouting roots in a container ?

What happened was a had a beautiful Fatalli I was nurturing in a pot, was a beautiful specimen. One night came down to find the whole plant on the sidewalk snapped at the very base which was about 2 inches around. No idea but suspect a cray gust of wind! Well I just cut all the branches off and stuck a few of them in the ground and yes they rooted just like everything does here in the wet season. Have to be careful using freshly cut canes for stakes as they will turn into a tree every quickly. With the main bush I dug out all the roots and discarded and literally just shoved the stump back in the pot and left it, couple of months later it was back and although never getting back to its former glory still produced 50-100 pods over the last 12 months and is pumping out a load more flowers now.

romy6 said:
Looks like snail damage and some bacterial leaf spot .

We don't have snails or slugs here to my knowledge at least I have never seem them. I will check out bacterial leaf spot thanks.

willow · Jun 22, 2016

So did some more inspecting today...Saw a few little black things on the underside of the leaves, that seemed to jump away once they realized I was lurking, I think maybe flea beetles which would explain the small holes all over the leaves...Any correction on this welcome?

I also saw a few what looked like little orange/brown spiders, could not get a good photo. One was carrying what looked like a white ball of something, the other was webbing between leaves.

A few more photos below, one thing I have noticed is most of these growths seem to have a small white tail sticking out, you can see them in one of the photos. I am pretty sure there is no Bacterial leaf on this plant at least as there is no yellowing or browning of leaves, just clean holes, some with a white rim on them and then these cray growths.

I have searched the internet for an answer but struggling to find anything that fits at the moment.

willow · Jun 22, 2016

I have had one person tell me they believe it is a serious case of Edema. Pepper with edema on the leaf, caused by rapid water uptake in humid weather. This makes as much sense as any at the moment. Hope it is this and not a virus, because I think I can get to grips with the rain.

Spicy Mushroom · Jun 22, 2016

willow said:
Well I just cut all the branches off and stuck a few of them in the ground and yes they rooted just like everything does here in the wet season.

Might be easier going that route in Panama

I'd probably have less luck with straight to ground approach. With enough cuttings i'm sure some would take though! I'm working on a DIY cloning box for indoor cutting propagation right now for peppers and others. Honestly, i'd rather be in Panama though.

willow · Jun 22, 2016

Spicy Mushroom said:
Might be easier going that route in Panama I'd probably have less luck with straight to ground approach. With enough cuttings i'm sure some would take though! I'm working on a DIY cloning box for indoor cutting propagation right now for peppers and others. Honestly, i'd rather be in Panama though.

Yes it definitely has its upside, you can pretty much cut a branch, stem of anything an it will take, I cut a twig branch of a crazy type of sage/oregano bush and stuck in some dirt, 2 days later it had cm long roots coming of its base. I did it just to see. Going to spread this bush about now, its growing into a mini tree and has very strong smelling leaves, insects do not touch it. We do also have 5 months of summer with no rain at all, so there are times when things are not so easy, but that said we have two streams and springs feeding the property so water all year round and with the weather as it is, cloning is easy but so much water everywhere its tough to stop something dying off, lost all my basil plants recently, they basically drowned.