Despite careful care, pepper, like any other crop, is subject to various diseases and pests, which can cause significant damage to seedlings and lead to the loss of most of the crop. Therefore, it is important to know the most common pepper diseases, methods for their prevention and control. This is what our article is about.
This disease is often called dry spotting, which is also typical for tomatoes. Alternaria blight is a fungal infection that occurs due to a sharp change in temperature if, for example, extreme heat is followed by frequent downpours. Both recently planted seedlings and already formed bushes get sick. open ground.
Main features:
- appearance brown spots on the lower leaves, which gradually move to the trunk and fruit part;
- black plaque on the damaged surface of the plant (especially after rain or high humidity, if care involved excessive watering).
Control and prevention measures:
- compliance with the rules of crop rotation, when pepper is grown again in the same place no earlier than after 4 years;
- preliminary treatment of seeds with Fundazol;
- immediate treatment of plants with organic agents (Trichodermin or Fitosporin) if the first signs of the disease appear;
- the use of fungicides Ridomil Gold, Quadris or Tattoo in the advanced stage of pepper disease.
Gray rot
The disease is caused by another unpleasant fungus that affects fruits at all stages of ripening. As a result, the peppers are covered with rotten spots and gray mold. The most favorable period for the development of the disease is rainy weather, when the plant grows in open ground.
To help get rid of gray rot:
- spraying with fungicides – Barrier and others;
- removal of affected parts of the bush.
White rot
Sclerotinia is characteristic of many vegetable crops and is accompanied by the appearance of a white fluffy coating on the basal part of the stem and hard black formations inside it. The fungus leads to softening of tissues and disruption of the flow of water and nutrients. As a result, the damaged bush, all parts of which have turned white, withers and dies, and the vegetables become pale and watery with a coating of white flakes.
Sources and causes of white rot:
- contaminated soil that did not receive proper care before sowing;
- failure to comply with storage and maintenance conditions in the greenhouse;
- sour and oversaturated nitrogen fertilizers the soil;
- rains and cool weather.
Prevention and control measures to help get rid of sclerotinosis:
- Peppers and other plants should not be grown in the same bed. Typically, lettuce, parsley, cucumbers, carrots, cabbage, horseradish, beans and onions are affected.
- It is necessary to remove all plant residues from the previous season, both in open ground and in greenhouses.
- Strongly acidic soils need to be treated with lime.
- It is necessary to disinfect greenhouses and greenhouses before planting seedlings.
- It is necessary to regularly inspect the plants (at least once every 10 days) and remove damaged areas that have turned white or black, wilted leaves and shoots.
- It is important to follow the watering rules - only warm water and optimal humidity levels.
- The affected areas should be treated with preparations containing copper, and then powdered with crushed chalk or charcoal.
Apical rot
One of the most common problems with peppers is blossom end rot, which often affects young plants, especially in greenhouses. With the bacterial form of the disease, gray spots with a dark rim appear on the fruits, and the infectious lesion is characterized by watery spots, which gradually become coarser and lead to rotting of the peppers. Another sign of the disease is the curling of the leaves on the bush, which have begun to wither.
Most often, this variant of pepper disease is caused by an excess of nitrogen or a lack of calcium in the soil, as well as insufficient care with a violation of the level of humidity due to irregular watering, which pepper does not like.
What will help get rid of blossom end rot:
- abundant watering;
- burning of affected specimens;
- spraying with 0.4% potassium chloride (1 ampoule in 30 parts of water) and root feeding with calcium nitrate (20 g of nitrate per 10 liters of water), which is carried out 3-4 times during the growing season;
- control of the concentration of nitrogen fertilizers in the greenhouse soil.
Withering
There are several types of wilting of peppers. Why they occur and how to deal with them, we will consider below.
Verticella wilt, caused by fungi, affects many vegetable crops - tomatoes, potatoes, eggplants and cucumbers. Shortly before flowering, their leaves begin to deform at the internodes, turn black and lag in growth, and variegated spots appear. If the disease progresses and nothing is done, the leaves turn yellow and die in dry, hot weather or hang lifelessly along the stem in case of rain. A dirty white coating appears on the affected tissues, similar to what spider mites leave on peppers.
Verticellosis should be combated comprehensively, this involves the following measures:
- growing plants in a 4–5 year crop rotation;
- destruction of all plant residues;
- planting only healthy seedlings that are provided with proper care;
- soil disinfection;
- maintaining the humidity level within 85%, which is achieved by regular and abundant watering;
- loosening the soil after moistening as a mandatory criterion for caring for pepper seedlings;
- fertilizing with phosphorus-potassium fertilizers, no more than 3-4 times per season;
- increasing resistance to the disease using foliar treatment with solutions of microelements (10 g of potassium permanganate, 2 g of copper sulfate, 3 g of boric acid and 2 g of zinc per 10 liters of water);
- treatment of roots with wood ash (1 cup per 10 liters of water) and 0.5% superphosphate extract;
- spraying plants with fungicidal preparations (Trichodermin or Previkur) if the disease is in the active stage.
Particularly unpleasant is fusarium wilt, which affects the crop at all stages of its development. The disease begins with characteristic yellowing and falling off of leaves, which gradually leads to rotting of the roots and death of the plant. Treatment and care rarely help get rid of the disease, so the most effective method control - carefully digging up and destroying the diseased plant.
Measures to prevent fusarium are reduced to the following actions:
- choose varieties and hybrids resistant to the disease;
- 2 weeks before planting, treat the seeds with Fundazol (0.1 g of product per 10 g of seeds) or dust them with Trichodermin in the same ratio immediately before sowing;
- get rid of weeds and plant debris, especially nightshade plants, in a timely manner.
Spotted wilt, often called pepper bronzing, is also not easy to get rid of. A brown coating and gray (or purple) spots appear on the leaves, which gradually affect the petioles and young branches. Over time, the upper part of the plant withers and dies, and the peppers themselves become covered with green, brown or yellow ring-shaped spots. If the first signs of disease are detected, you should stop watering and harvest a mature crop. Treatment of plantings with Fundazol brings good results.
Wilting is also caused by pests that love plant sap and attack plants in open soil. The most common pests of peppers are slugs, mites and aphids. They are the main carriers of infections and viruses.
Ants can often be found on the plant, feeding on honeydew secreted by aphids. They settle aphids on the young and most delicious parts of the bush, which causes the plant to wither if measures are not taken in a timely manner.
The close proximity of ants has its advantages and disadvantages. So, these restless workers constantly loosen the soil, which helps improve its structure and fertility by enriching it with potassium and humus, but at the same time, it increases acidity, which can be detrimental to peppers. Ants are great at helping to get rid of spider mites and slugs that live on the leaves of a plant, but they themselves are not averse to eating seeds and young seedlings planted in a greenhouse.
There are quite a few ways to remove ants, ranging from the usual destruction of the anthill, which will force them to move to another place in the area, to the use of sweet baits and chemicals. Experienced gardeners do not recommend completely getting rid of such “neighbors” in the garden beds. Ants bite painfully and can cause damage to crops and seedlings, but the benefits of their presence will be much greater.
Over the course of a season, a colony of ants eats a huge number of insect pests that form the basis of their diet, which significantly helps in the fight against them. Ants mix the soil to a depth of 70 cm, enriching the soil with magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium, improving air access to plant roots. The exception is red ants, pharaoh ants and carpenter ants, which cause irreparable damage to many crops, leading to their withering and complete death.
Insect infestations can be avoided by spraying the leaves and stems of peppers and other vegetable plantings with infusions with strong odors of mint, garlic, wormwood or onion peel, and also by watering ant paths with them.
Video "Slugs on Pepper"
After each watering, slugs crawl to the surface and destroy the peppers. How to deal with them, watch the video.
Blackleg
Insufficient care of seedlings and seedlings, especially in a greenhouse, can lead to a fungal disease - blackleg. The fungus actively develops in insufficient lighting, contaminated soil, high humidity, too dense planting of seedlings and low temperatures.
Signs of disease in seedlings are:
- gray plaque with darkening on the root collar;
- stem rotting;
- withering of the root and death of the entire bush.
In mature plants, the stem becomes dark brown at the bottom, and their leaves turn yellow and wither.
There are few effective methods to combat blackleg, even with very thoughtful care. Some gardeners prefer treatment with Zaslon and reducing the amount of watering. As a rule, damaged seedlings cannot be treated, and the fight for their survival becomes pointless. That is why you should get rid of such seedlings so that the disease does not spread to healthy bushes.
Prevention and disinfection measures involve watering the seedlings with a 3% solution copper sulfate or potassium permanganate (pink). The soil should be loosened well and sprinkled with wood ash.
Video “Black leg of pepper seedlings”
As a result of improper care, the pepper seedlings became sick. This is the so-called black leg. See what this seedling disease looks like.
A garden plot is a great helper in modern world, but it also poses a number of problems and difficulties, for example, it can be rot on planted fruits and vegetables; this problem does not bypass the fruits that are grown within the greenhouse. All gardeners should know what it is, how it can be detected, how to deal with rot, and, best of all, be able to carry out preventive measures on their site to prevent the development of rot.
Rot on peppers in a greenhouse: what happens
As mentioned earlier, rot is a terrible enemy of summer residents. Peppers often rot. The defeat of sweet and hot peppers is represented by a disease such as gray rot. It begins during the active growth and ripening of fruits and is characterized by their defeat, that is, the root system of the plant remains in a healthy state.
Typically, gray rot leads to damage to peppers germinating in greenhouse conditions. In addition, the fruits rot right on the bush. This disease spreads very quickly throughout the fruits of the plant, especially if air humidity increases. As a result, the pepper “disappears” in just a few days, that is, after a while there will not be a trace of the fruit on the bush. Summer residents also need to remember that this type of rot tends not only to destroy the fruit on the plant, but also to infect other neighboring plants.
In addition to gray rot, it is necessary to note the existence of apical rot:
- This rot is characterized by black spots, which, in turn, begin to develop on the sides of the sweet pepper fruit.
- In addition to "cankers" on the peppers themselves, this disease can affect the plant's leaves, causing some to appear crowded.
- Most often, young fruits of sweet peppers are affected.
Gardeners identify another type of putrefactive diseases: white rot. Unlike gray and blossom-end rot, this disease begins with the plant itself and only then, gradually, appears on the pepper. The plant turns yellow, withers, and dries out. White rot has the ability to quickly spread between greenhouse plants due to its mycelium. If it gets into the ground, then the probability of disease of other plants is almost one hundred percent.
Why peppers rot in a greenhouse: gray rot
There are many reasons for this disease; let’s look at each of them. To begin with, it should be mentioned that since rot can be either top or gray, the causes of its occurrence will also differ.
Not uncommon, due to the fact that the greenhouse is summer cottage is not equipped with a ventilation system or for some other reason, fresh dry air often does not enter the greenhouse room for a long period of time. In the greenhouse itself, the air becomes humid, and condensation appears on the walls; this can also cause rot on the fruit.
Why do pepper fruits rot in a greenhouse: blossom end rot
At the same time, the appearance of blossom end rot is provoked by other causes and processes in greenhouses and soil. First of all, it is worth noting such a reason as lack of moisture. Unfortunately, not all greenhouses have a plant watering system; in some of them, especially on hot days, plants may experience a lack of water. But too wet soil can also be the cause. Everything should be in moderation.
In addition, peppers can begin to rot due to a virus, which is the causative agent of this unpleasant disease for any summer resident. In addition to all this, we note that a sharp change in high humidity to a dry climate in a greenhouse can cause the appearance of blossom end rot, especially if such changes occur not only abruptly, but also with great frequency.
It is necessary to avoid various damage to the roots of the pepper bush, for example during weeding, loosening or anything else that can lead to mechanical injury to the plant.
A lack of elements such as manganese and phosphorus often leads to the appearance of this type of rot on pepper fruits, and too much potassium in the plant itself will also lead to this.
Pepper rots in a greenhouse: what to do
Having figured out why fruits rot in a greenhouse and what type of putrefactive disease has affected them, you can already develop tactics to combat this scourge.
If you are faced with gray mold, then:
- First of all, it is necessary to get rid of all affected fruits and parts of the plant, even if you have to remove more than one or two entire plants. This will help protect and save the entire harvest of sweet peppers in the greenhouse.
- Fruits affected by gray rot can be coated with a mixture of a fungicide with a broad spectrum of action (Rovral) and lime mixed in a ratio of 1 to 1. It is necessary to lubricate pointwise, that is, the very places affected by rot.
- Some still use the old method: a mixture of ash and powdered charcoal.
If the scourge turns out to be crown rot, the fight against it will be of a slightly different plan, due to the fact that the causes of this disease differ from the causes of gray mold. It is necessary to apply calcium chloride by spraying plants with a 0.3-0.4% solution or milk of lime.
To prevent blossom end rot, you should regularly water the plants and loosen the soil to avoid water shortages. Don't forget about feeding the plants. To do this, you need to use calcium nitrate and potassium carbonate.
If the pepper in the greenhouse rots due to white rot, experts advise doing the following: promptly remove the affected plants and fruits from the site and from the greenhouse. All pepper plants must be treated with preparations containing copper.
The soil must be prepared for planting peppers, that is, if you have highly acidic soil, then mixtures containing lime must be added to it. This is done in order to neutralize the increased acidity of the soil so that the plants can develop well and are protected from white rot.
10 mistakes when growing sweet peppers (video)
In conclusion, we note that nitrogen fertilizers should not be abused, since they are a favorable environment for the spread of this fungal disease, may lead to the development of rot. As a preventative measure, one should not forget about timely ventilation of the greenhouse and balancing the watering of the plantings.
Kira Stoletova
The first symptom of bell pepper disease is that the leaves of the peppers turn black. It is necessary to establish the cause and type of disease as early as possible in order to save the crop.
Diseases
Diseases such as:
- late blight;
- black bacterial spot.
Late blight
Late blight refers to fungal diseases. The causative agents of this fungus live in the soil. The disease is transmitted between tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. The first signs are the appearance of black spots with a light edge on the leaves, stems and fruits. Fungal spores in the form of white plaque. Spores from plants fall into the ground and infect other seedlings. In most cases, seedlings are affected by late blight after mid-July during the fruiting period. This is facilitated by:
- decrease in temperature at night;
- non-compliance with the planting scheme;
- moistening the soil with cold water.
Black bacterial spot
Black bacterial spot most often affects peppers and tomatoes.
A sign of the disease is the appearance of black dots with a yellow border on the leaves and stems. In most cases, the bush becomes infected with black bacterial spot at the seedling stage. Especially when planting seedlings in the ground, when mechanical damage is caused to the roots, stems and leaves. When grown in open ground, this disease is less common than when grown in greenhouses or greenhouses. Black spot bacteria are activated under the following conditions:
- high air humidity;
- temperatures above 25˚C.
Improper care
Bell peppers turn black for several reasons:
- lack of water;
- temperature changes;
- lack of nutrients;
- pests;
- high air humidity.
Lack of water
Lack of rain and timely watering leads to a lack of moisture.
Because of this, the leaves darken, become limp and drooping. If the loss of moisture is not replenished, the plant will lose all its leaves and die. Try to water on time and monitor the condition of the soil.
Temperature changes
Bell pepper grows and develops well at air temperatures of 20˚C. Therefore, many varieties of this crop react negatively to sudden changes in temperature.
Nutritional deficiencies
Pests
Pepper leaves can also turn black due to the appearance of a pest such as spider mites. Most often they are found in greenhouses and greenhouses, because they prefer warm and humid air.
Treatment options
Bushes affected by fungal late blight can be cured if the disease is detected at an early stage. Bacterial diseases are almost impossible to cure.
- Do not use seedlings affected by black spot. It must be separated from healthy plants and burned.
- To treat and prevent late blight, regularly treat peppers with 1% Bordeaux mixture and fungicides.
- If a disease is detected, treat the pepper with a solution of 10 liters of water and 40 g of chlorinated copper oxide, but later than 25 days before harvesting the fruit. If there is little time left, manually tear off the diseased leaves, dig up the affected bushes and burn them.
- Treat the tools you used with manganese solution and throw away the gloves.
Fighting spider mites
To combat spider mite You can purchase special preparations in the store or prepare the solution yourself:
- Laundry soap solution. Take 10 liters of water, dissolve 1 pc. laundry soap, wash the leaves with the solution. This product significantly reduces the number of pests, but does not completely exterminate them.
- Treatment with alcohol. Take rubbing alcohol and use a sponge to wipe the leaves and stems. Do not dilute with alcohol - water will increase the drying time, which will cause burns.
- Henbane decoction. Grind 3 kg of fresh henbane, collected during flowering. Boil it for 3 hours, strain and bring the volume of the decoction to 10 liters. Spray.
- Tobacco decoction. 400 gr. Infuse tobacco in 10 liters of water for 24 hours. Boil, cool and strain the broth. Add 50 g of laundry soap and another 10 liters of water. Spray.
- Garlic infusion. Mix 3 liters of water with 500 gr. chopped garlic and leave in a dark place for 5 days. To spray, take 60 ml of infusion, dilute it in 10 liters of water and add 50 g of laundry soap. Treat leaves and stems.
Prevention of blackening
Bell pepper is quite difficult to treat; it is better to try to prevent diseases.
- Start preventing leaf blackening from the seeds. Before sowing, be sure to soak them for 4 hours in a manganese solution. Then rinse and sow. Store-bought seeds are not treated with manganese; they are sold already prepared.
- Treat planting tools and boxes with potassium permanganate solution. Keep them in the solution for 4 hours.
- Fry the soil for seedlings in the oven for 1 hour at 180˚C.
- If diseases appear in this area in previous seasons, the soil must be disinfected. Treat the area with boiling water, approximately 1 bucket per 1 m2. Remove infected plants and burn them.
- Disinfect gardening tools.
- If bacteria and fungi are detected in the greenhouse, it is recommended to replace the top layer of soil with a thickness of more than 60 cm.
- Water with warm water.
- The acidity of the soil should be neutral; if the acidity is exceeded, add 1 kg of lime per 1 m2 to the soil.
- Do not plant peppers in the same place for two years in a row; the break should be about 3-4 years.
- Do not plant seedlings in beds after potatoes, tomatoes and eggplants.
- Water the plant in moderation; excessive moisture leads to stagnation of water and blackening of the leaves.
- Regularly loosen the beds to provide oxygen to the roots. If there is a shortage of it, the roots begin to take away nutrients from the above-ground parts, the leaves wither and turn black.
- Plant seedlings at a sufficient distance from each other. This makes it easier to fight diseases; bacteria and fungi more slowly infect nearby plants.
- During the daytime, regularly ventilate the greenhouse to prevent over-humidification of the air.
Snow-white rottenness appears in the root area. In some places, the pepper develops snow-white spots, the fruits themselves soften and become liquid. The causative agent of the disease can be on the ground and on parts of plants. To prevent the occurrence of the disease, you need to promptly remove wilted leaves and affected crops, and monitor the level of air and soil humidity. If you do not follow the indicated rules, there is a risk of crop loss. The affected areas, the places where leaves and shoots are removed, are treated with charcoal and crushed chalk. This way they will “heal” faster and prevent the spread of rottenness.
Super peppers in a greenhouse on 6 acres!. Website "Garden World"
Reviews:
Ural Estate Greenhouses writes: Greenhouses are good, but how do they behave in winter when dealing with snow load?
Lenya NOTES OF AN AGRONOMIST writes: well done Vladimir Nikolaevich. I think if they planted more expensive seed material, it would be much more effective. and everything is great.
Vladimir Kotov writes: I planted peppers for the first time, and they bloomed well in my chili to dry, but then the bass and the imported plants turn yellow and fall off, what should I do?
Hope hope (cvetoc) writes: I would like to ask Vladimir Nikolaevich how he saves the greenhouse from the sun’s rays - the temperature goes off scale to 45 degrees with the doors open
drflash73 writes: This year I decided to plant peppers for the first time. On the advice of a friend, I planted the seeds at the end of January. At the beginning of April, the seedlings grew so big that there was simply no place to put them. I made a greenhouse inside the greenhouse and moved the pots there. I installed a heater in the greenhouse to keep it at 20 degrees. By mid-April the stems had not stretched, but had become thick. and noticed that they were already feeling bad there. I planted the soil in the ground under the greenhouse and it warmed up normally. Today, May 16th, my buds are budding. Oh yes, I forgot to say, Novosibirsk. There have been four days of warm weather so far. The rest of the days around 10 during the day, at night from 5 to -2. During the day, the greenhouse is heated by the sun, so I open the greenhouse and close it at night without a fan. Let's see what happens next. This year, the greenhouse was made from whatever was at hand; there is an idea to make a special collapsible greenhouse by next spring.
As soon as the first signs of Alternaria damage appear, treat the plants with Bordeaux mixture (100 g per 1 bucket of water). You can use any product that contains copper. Dry spotting is typical for greenhouses, where temperature changes are frequent. This fungus reproduces more intensively at +13…+16 °C.
Why do pepper buds fall off? main reasons.
Reviews:
Svetlana Lobova
Odysseus Gappel-Tokiy writes: the buds are falling off the pepper because pollination was not successful!
Fatima Dzeitova writes: if an herbal infusion is not desirable, what organic fertilizers would you recommend?
GARDEN AND VEGETABLE ALL YEAR ROUND writes: I always fertilize with herbal infusion and chicken manure and get good results. But the temperature really plays a big role.
Svetlana Lobova writes: Hello! I already have peppers blooming profusely in my boxes. I’m concerned - it’s still a long time before they’re planted in the ground. I took it outside 2 days ago, covered it with acrylic, today it looks like frost is expected. I’m in a trance! If I plant it with flowers, will it be bad for him?
Cladosporiosis (another name is brown spot) attacks the ovary, stalk, and leaves of pepper. A plant can become infected with this fungus through soil, garden tools, or plant debris. The spread of the disease through seeds is impossible. Main symptoms:
Another infection that this plant suffers from is late blight. You can recognize this type of pepper seedling disease by looking closely at the leaves and fruit. Brown spots appear on them, and the affected peppercorns begin to rot. It is quite difficult to fight the disease if the seeds have not been pre-treated. Although you shouldn’t despair, spraying with special products often helps get rid of late blight. And contributes to the development of this pepper disease in greenhouses excess humidity air coupled with a sharp drop in temperature at night.
In addition, peppers can also be affected by diseases such as early dry spot and brown spot. These sweet pepper diseases, photos of the manifestations of which can be seen above, can cause crop loss. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor the level of humidity and temperature in the greenhouse, and treat the plants with Bordeaux mixture, which helps fight many infections.
Gray rot. Pepper fruits are affected. At any stage of ripening, they become covered with putrefactive spots and gray mold. Rainy weather promotes the development of the disease. To combat gray mold, peppers are sprayed with Barrier and other fungicides. The affected parts of the plants are destroyed.
Melon aphid. The pest settles on the leaves, flowers and stems of pepper. It sucks the juices out of them and causes them to wither. In addition, aphids on peppers cause curling of leaves, drying out of flowers, and deformity of fruits. Abundant watering with liquid nettle fertilizer can sometimes drive out this pest in a certain number of days. Also, to combat aphids on peppers, they use the preparations Karbofos, Keltan and other insecticides, as well as an infusion of ash with liquid soap (1 glass of ash, 1 tablespoon of liquid soap, 10 liters of water).
When growing tomatoes, gardeners are faced with a variety of diseases of this crop. One of the most common is blossom end rot of tomatoes: control measures and the best methods of prevention against the disease, as well as the causes and primary signs of infection, are disclosed in our material.
Raspberry miracle tomatoes are very popular among gardeners due to their amazing taste and unpretentiousness. We will talk about the main characteristics and varieties that belong to this group, as well as how to grow juicy and tasty tomatoes from seeds.
Why do the buds of peppers and eggplants fall off? Website "Garden World"
Reviews:
Nadezhda Vertinskaya writes: The bugs are small, black, and it seemed to me that the bugs have stripes on their backs. On the back of the leaf, small black spots suck the leaf. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR ANSWER.
Olga Nikitina writes: hello! please tell me when to sprinkle the tomatoes boric acid in the morning or evening?
Nadezhda Vertinskaya writes: Hello, Natalya! I don’t know what to do with the pepper seedlings. There are small bugs on the leaves, they suck the leaves. How should I treat it? Is Tiovid Jack suitable? Or can I treat it with something else?
Olga Nikitina writes: hello! please tell me do I need to dig up the peppers? What about eggplants?
Galina Gal writes: Hello! Please advise how to water the eggplant seedlings. It is standing on the balcony, it is already large, but the lower leaves have begun to turn very yellow and fall off.