Thai Pepper plants having trouble - Florida - "pickinu"

[David]

Someone Please help me!!

My Thai spicy pepper plants are having a bit of trouble here in S. Florida.

1.) A number of them have leaves which are getting a white swiriling line going through the leaf and then the leaf turns yellow and finally dies off. Not sure what this is nor how to cure it in a manner which will keep the peppers safe to eat (organic). Some dishwashing soap in water perhaps? Not sure if this is fungal though.

2.) We had a bit of cold weather this past week (over the nights) where the temperature dropped to the low 60's or 50's. One of the thai pepper plants leaves shriveled up and simply began falling off even though I gave it water. I am wondering if the plant can still come back and what the best way to get it back will be since the stem is still very green. Also, what products (if any) I should be using which will keep the future peppers safe to eat (organic). Not sure if this is fungal though. I sure hope it is not root rot as I do not know how to cure that organically. I do not think Subdue Max is safe to use on produce.

Below are some pictures. I greatly appreciate your help!

(Plant which shows leaves which have white swirling lines):

which shows leaves which shriveled up and dropped off; picture taken within 24 hours of this event): advise so I can save these plants. They are hard to find / buy with the heat value these have. = )

David

[Billy]

Re-pot with more soil. The amount shown looks inadequate. Wait for surface of soil to go dry before re-watering. Use a sulfate based fungicide. It can't hurt.

Try

Blight (Phytophthora capsici)

BLIGHT or SOUTHERN BLIGHT (WHITE MOLD)

Good luck

[phorbin]

That's leafminer damage.

[Pat Kiewicz]

This is leaf-miner damage.

Is that daytime temperature? As an overnight temperature, that's no problem.

miner to kill it (in leaves that aren't much damaged) or snip the affected leaves and destroy them. Not usually a huge problem if the plant is vigorous, but your plant looks a bit under-the-weather to begin with.

pots in sunshine get seriously HOT. I would guess that the roots to that plant have been seriously compromised and the cold snap was probably just one more thing. It looks like this plant is still clinging to life, so try repotting it. Set it just a tiny bit deeper (it looks like the stem has some nubs of advantitious roots on it).

Repot your plants, find some way to shade or insulate the pots (minimally, another larger pot with an air-gap) or pot them in pots made from rigid foam.

Peppers might like the heat and need plenty of sun, but they also appreciate a bit of shade in the hottest part of the day. Wild hot peppers ("bird chiles") usually grow under trees an large shrubs, where the birds plant them.

If you've had your plants out in the sun all day, you might see them wilted from the stress and heat, think they were lacking water, and water them while the soil was still damp (they wilt because they can't keep up with the demand to pump through water). This sets them up for root-rot, so they wilt more, you add more water, etc.

[David]

Hey Pat,

Do you know of any organic safe fungicides which will cure Phytophera (root root) ?

Also, I find that some of the well draining soil that I use for palm trees may not hold water well enough for pepers. I have been using a cheap top-soil type product (sandy and mucky). I guess I should mix the two ? The palm soil has a lot of saw dust, small mulch, vermiculite, and florida peat (just a bit of sand).

Is it safe to plant a bunch of pepper seeds like this in one big pot? I have only been planting one seed per 1 gallon container. Is it good to seperate them like this?

Thanks for your help!

David

[David]

Again, I do have some Sudue Maxx (by Syngentia) which has an active ingredient of: mefenoxam

It seems that other products with the same active ingredient are recommended at:

I did not see any indications to use this on edible produce at: Do you think there is a major difference between Subdue Maxx and the others which use the same active ingredient such as:

Ultra Flourish (mefenoxam) or Ridomil Gold 4 EC (mefenoxam)

?

David

[Billy]

What you need now is drainage. When (if) the root problem is solved, you can worry about the soil. Re-pot (larger pot if possible) and use more potting mix than last time (fill 80% to 90% of pot, it well pack down when you water) only water when the surface soil looks dry.

[Pat Kiewicz]

Well, this is more a prevention rather than cure situtuation.

Streptocmyces (Mycostop brand-name) can work against some types of root rots.

(links to the following) fungicides can be used in organic gardening, but I don't know how well they would work as soil drenches vs. root rots.

With pepper plants, I think you would be much, much better off with a standard peat- or coir-based planting mix. (There are commercial mixes available now that are innoculated with mycorrhizal and/or other beneficial fungi, plus compost.)

I confess to the, er, extravagence of mail-ordering my transplant mix each year these days, as what's available locally is sometimes strange (tiny stryrofoam balls?!) and occasionally catastrophically bad (mixed with unfinished compost), especially early in the season, or else it's Miracle Grow brand (with the brightly colored whatsisses in it so you know it has been Miracle-ized).

It's better to plant seeds in small containers and pot them up as needed. Oversized pots often result in plants being over watered, setting you up for root rots. The top of the pot, where your tiny plant is, dries out, while down below the soil is saturated and stagnant.

I start my peppers in small peat pellets, 2-3 seeds per pellet, then transplant into 4" pots, then either into the ground or into gallon sized pots or bigger pots. (The bigger pots are for really ornamental varieties, where they are combined with other ornamental, edible plants.)

You're welcome. Just paying it forward.

[Pat Kiewicz]

The Pesticide Action Network does not like Mefenoxam, as it's pretty toxic (even if it is used on lots of vegetables):

prefer to avoid chemicals when I can, fungicides in particular, so I am not really up on their use and effectiveness.

I don't know. If it is formulated in some way to have a longer period of activity or more sustained action, that would be good for use on ornamentals but really undesirable for food crops. (Food crops, you want the product to do its job and degrade away quickly, so it isn't around to contaminate the harvest.)

The manufacturer does not label Subdue MAXX for use on edibles. Therefore, you shouldn't use it on any pepper plants that aren't strictly ornamental.

Quoting from the Syngenta web site:

Application

IMPORTANT: ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW LABEL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE BUYING OR USING THIS PRODUCT.

Subdue MAXX may be applied through irrigation systems, as a soil drench or as a soil surface spray, or incorporated into a soil mix for subsequent seeding or transplanting of ornamentals.

Fields of use: conifers, nonbearing citrus, nonbearing deciduous fruits and nuts, ornamentals and turf.

End quote.

[Billy]

I used Mycostop in an effort to combat damping-off, to no effect. The product says it is effective for treating seeds and soil in advance of germination. I placed my plants outside (Here on the northern west coast we have had a cool spring which I think also helped my plants survive the damping-off.), and a week after treatment, there was no change in the mold's mycelium. Then I treated the damping-off with chamomile tea, and cinnamon, re-potted to larger pots. Yes, I was successful and all but one of the 60+ plants survived.