Pepper damage

[Vanisle_BC]

What's destroying my pepper plants and what can I do about it? Sorry for the poor focus. With an 8x lupe I can't see any insects on the leaves.

[imafan26]

Has the weather been unpredictably cold or wet? Besided thrips which can cause puckering, cold weather and excessive moisture can also cause the leaves to deforn.

[Vanisle_BC]

@imafan That's kind of funny. We haven't had a drop of rain for at least 2 months and it's been as hot as ... well, you know. Actually low/mid to high 30s C most days; 10 to 15 above normal all spring. And this is supposedly a raincoast!

Not all the peppers in the bed are affected (yet?). Wouldn't thrips be visible?

[PaulF]

My first thought is herbicide damage. That is possible from many sources besides spray, ie tools that have been in contact with herbicide, contaminated mulch, some fertilizers have it in them.

herbicide_drift_pepper.jpg (44.8 KiB) Viewed 820 times

But then it may be a mosaic virus. If that is the case, remove the affected leaves and see what happens next.

[Vanisle_BC]

@PaulF - Hmmm. I had recently sprayed the mix of Bt and Safer's soap that I posted about elsewhere. I don't imagine that should have cased a problem though. Looks like 'remove damaged leaves, wait & see' ... Thanks meantime.

Edit to add: other plant types also sprayed are OK.

[imafan26]

Ahh! soap. I don't use soap on peppers because they cause leaves to curl and deform. Oil does not do that.

Thrips do their feeding when the leaves or flowers are very young. As the leaves or fruit grows you see the damage, long after the thrips have left for looking for younger tips to munch on. Puckering is common. But your leaves don't have the stippling that usually accompanies it. Pepper thrips are large, but Western Flower thrips are very small.

[Vanisle_BC]

Thanks Imafan. The story continues ....

[imafan26]

The soap works on other plants. It just seems to be phytotoxic to peppers. Someone said I could spray the plants with soap in the early morning when it is still cool and rinse it off 10 minutes later, but I did not try it. Sulfur and pyrethrins accomplished the same thing without causing problems with the peppers.