Pepper Wilt Disease? Fusarium? - Ask Extension
Hello UMD Extension,
This is year #1 for a newly built, raised-bed garden in my back yard in Cecil County, MD. The soil is a 50/50 Mix of Compost...
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Pepper Wilt Disease? Fusarium? #841736
Asked July 20, 2023, 3:29 PM EDT
Hello UMD Extension,
This is year #1 for a newly built, raised-bed garden in my back yard in Cecil County, MD. The soil is a 50/50 Mix of Compost and Topsoil from a local mulch company. The garden is built into a hill, so bed depths start at 12" and extend to approx. 2ft deep. It's a "U" shaped garden, with the legs of the "U" measuring about 3.5' x 12.' I water morning and evening, (as needed to keep the soil damp, but not puddling/soaked) targeting the base of the plants and trying to avoid the leaves.
The Bell pepper plants in question were bought pre-started from either Lowes or a local Amish market and all appeared healthy when planted, roughly 18" apart. Green, Red, and Orange varieties. They got planted late (Mid-June) but have been growing well, adding about a foot of height and a ton of peppers in the last month. Suddenly (starting this weekend), two plants have begun to abruptly wilt, form the bottom-up, which seems to suggest a bacterial/fungal issue. It seems if heat/water were the problem, the other plants would be showing signs as well, but seem to be doing OK so far. The plants appeared completely healthy one day, 24 hours after, showed wilting in their lower leaves. For the first couple of days, they would recover at night. As of Tuesday/Wed/Thursday the wilt has persisted and gotten worse, to the point where the plant is pretty clearly dead.
The photos attached show two affected plants. The one on the left is "early stage" wilting in the lower leaves, but with no real signs of spotting or dead tissue in the leaves or stalk. The "late stage" plant (about 3-4 days ahead of the latter) shows the final, totally wilted result. Even the fruits shriveled. This plant does have some spots on the leaves. I've attached photos of these as well, but they didn't show up until late in the death spiral!
Any thoughts on what the cause could be? Any way to avoid further spread? It seems to be working its way down the row, and these peppers share a bed with tomatoes (another nightshade) so I'm worried they may be susceptible as well.
Cecil County Maryland
Expert Response
Hi- the spots on the leaves may be caused by bacterial leaf spot, a common fungal disease of pepper and unrelated to the wilting symptom. The browning of leaf margins suggests some significant water stress or fertilizer burn of roots.
Wilting can be caused by significant root damage from disease or wildlife, a stem-boring insect, or a wilt disease like Southern blight (lower stem turns brown and leaves turn yellow). Fusarium wilt and bacterial wilt cause wilting at the top of the plant. Verticillium wilt causes lower leaves to wilt, accompanied by significant leaf yellowing.
Remove the dying plant and carefully inspect the roots and lower stem. Send additional photos.
Jon
Wilting can be caused by significant root damage from disease or wildlife, a stem-boring insect, or a wilt disease like Southern blight (lower stem turns brown and leaves turn yellow). Fusarium wilt and bacterial wilt cause wilting at the top of the plant. Verticillium wilt causes lower leaves to wilt, accompanied by significant leaf yellowing.
Remove the dying plant and carefully inspect the roots and lower stem. Send additional photos.
Jon
Hi Jon,
Additional photos of the dead (orange bell) are attached here. There is some striation at the base of the stem (below dirt level) but I suspect that may be normal. I cut open the stem to try and get a look at the vascular system but I don't see anything particularly telling - but I'm no expert! I dug up the plant with a trowel and am a bit surprised by the relatively small size of the root ball. I did try to "break up" the root ball (this came in a small starter-pot) prior to planting but perhaps I didn't go quite far enough.
The soil isn't too heavy clay. Nor have I fertilized. It was a fresh 50/50 soil-componst mix to begin with so I figured the compost would taking care of the nutrients so far. Current soil conditions are wet (it rained yesterday) but not drenched. I can attach a photo of the soil if it would help.
Hi- dry, brown, lower stem cankers are a key symptom of Southern blight, a disease that really gets going when summer heat turn up. We think this may be the cause of the wilt and plant collapse. Removing symptomatic plants asap helps to prevent reoccurrences.
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/southern-blight-vegetables
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/southern-blight-of-vegetable-crops
Jon
https://extension.umd.edu/resource/southern-blight-vegetables
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/southern-blight-of-vegetable-crops
Jon
