Everyone loves a fresh pepper from the garden. If you have good luck with your peppers, you will be enjoying peppers in your cooking recipes and salads for some time to come. However, there are many different pepper diseases that affect pepper plants, ruining your crop.
Common Pepper Growing Problems and Diseases
There are viruses that are transmitted by bugs called aphids. This is why it is so important to control insects in order to control pepper plant problems. Bell pepper plant diseases caused by aphids means you have to control the aphids.
Aphids are a major culprit when it comes to green pepper diseases. They congregate in large groups underneath the leaves and on any new growth on the plant. They suck the plant juice and leave behind discolored areas on the leaves. Any virus they are carrying they will spread from plant to plant.
There are some common foliage green pepper diseases. These include:
- Cercospora leaf spot
- Alternaria leaf spot
- Bacterial leaf spot
All of these will cause damage to your pepper crop. These bell pepper plant diseases can be controlled with various sprays that include copper fungicides and other ingredients.
Another of the more common pepper plant problems is Phytophthora stem rot. This is caused by a fungus in the soil and it attacks the peppers. If you have planted your peppers in an area where there is poor soil drainage and water pools around your plants, you may wind up with this problem. You need to create drainage or plant your next crops on a raised bed.
Another of the more common pepper plant problems is southern blight. This particular issue is caused by a fungus in the soil. You need to be sure to rotate your crop and deeply mix in some organic material to control this particular fungus. Making sure that you don’t allow leaves to collect around the bottom of the plants is important to controlling the spread of this particular fungus.
Pepper diseases like a virus or wilt can cause devastation to your whole garden. The best thing to do if you notice pepper plant problems is to remove the affected plant before it infects the whole garden.