Wrinkled pepper leaves

[evtubbergh]

Hi all

My hitherto healthy pepper plant has suddenly got a pair of wrinkled leaves unlike the others. There are a pair of older and a pair of newer leaves that are fine but this looks wrong to me. My new little peppers got a slow start but are now growing well except for this.

I also have 3 jalapeño seedlings that have similar problems with their leaves (elsewhere in a seedling area) so I have put off using them near the healthy ones in case they were sick. I did wonder if the 3 seedlings were normal since they are all the same variant. On the other hand I wonder if I may have inadvertently transferred something because these leaves were just fine a few days ago.

What could this be?


My apologies of for the grainy image.

[applestar]

I usually suspect sucking insects when a leaf starts to pucker like that. In my garden, mainly aphids or leaf/treehoppers (especially if leaf vein has been scraped or cut) though lace bugs or whiteflies are likely when tiny whte pindots show up on the upper surface.

Occasionally I unroll a leaf and find spider nest or predator eggs/larvae already placed among the pests.

[imafan26]

Thrips are also a possibility. They will also cause puckered distorted leaves. Thrips have natural enemies like the minute pirate bug and predatory thrips. Thrips can be ubiquitous and live on many plants and host species including weeds. They are difficult to control because all hosts have to be sprayed and spraying kills the predators as well. In the long run spraying will only make the problem worse. It is best to let nature take control and invite more of the predatory insects in. Control the weed hosts. Spinosad does work, but it is not specific and pests can develop resistance to it so it is usually only used sparingly but you need to get good coverage and spray everything. It will also kill some predators and does impact foraging bees.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in169
https://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/Web/ ... ipidae.pdf
https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/TOOLS/PNAI/p ... .php?id=65

[evtubbergh]

I should have checked more carefully. I happen to have sprayed neem and another garlic etc. spray (I alternate) but I must say it has been raining a lot.

My lemon is doing well without too much damage for once but although I decided the tree was helped by the removal of the garlic chives that get covered (I mean blanketed) in black aphids or thrips (not sure which), they do have to go somewhere. Damn, I will keep an eye out and resume spraying neem.

I do worry about killing predators with spraying but to be honest I think our gardens are so tiny the aphids and such get to reproduce quickly while the predators that move about can't always find them.

The good news is that the very large pepper plants will manage well even with a few aphids. Actually my mystery pepper looks like it's about to bud. I hope it stays cool!

[evtubbergh]

Ok so I went out and 2 more leaves are damaged, although it did grow a few cm too This damage is more missing leaf rather than curling and withering. I picked it and found a rather unmoving green fly looking insect. I immediately found the neem at the back of the cupboard in the dark and sprayed my pepper, tomatoes and lemon thoroughly.

Oddly the plants very near it seem fine. Anyway, let us see.

[imafan26]

I have a small yard too. But I found by not spraying and letting the predators control the pests, I have better control than when I do take to pesticides. In fact the only thing I regularly put out is slug bait and I am losing that battle handily. I have no toads.

My plants are not pest free, but I still get a decent harvest and I intervene mainly with a jet of water, alcohol, and rarely insecticidal soap. I do have to fungicide when the weather is humid after a rain, but I try to stick with sulfur. Some of my plants like the cabbages, and corn look perfect until they sinese. The cabbage worms haven't found my yard yet. I don't have aphids except on one citrus, but I will control that with ant bait ,alcohol and some pruning to open up the canopy. I plant the roses under the street light and that prevents the rose beetles from feeding on them and I have companion plants all around my yard to attract beneficial insects. I inter plant to maximize the space in the garden and row planting just makes it easy for the bugs to go plant to plant.

This was a bad year for white flies but I cut the hibiscus and I hosed off the peppers with water regularly. Next year it will be better when the purple lady bug numbers increase

I plant what works best for me and I have learned not to try to save the struggling plants, they never recover enough to produce a good harvest and they attract bad bugs. So, now I cull them instead.

[evtubbergh]

I think you don't quite understand how small my garden is; I would not be able to plant all that! It is a pity but our next garden will be half an acre We currently live in a sectional title complex (like a condo).

I have tried the natural predator thing for years but because we have walls, paving and gardens with nothing in them I think they struggle to move about.

I have an admission; I once killed an entire nest of new-born spiders and the mother when I sprayed some aphids. That was the day I went organic!

Anyway, since I get seriously infested with aphids and scale here I do use neem on specific plants. I also use an an iron phosphate product for slugs but not too often. Actually I do have frogs and occasionally toads in the front yard from the river near by, which explains why there is not really a problem there.

[imafan26]

Yeah, I could use a toad or two.