HELP! What's going on with these green peppers?

Discussion in 'HortForum' started by lorax, Jan 25, 2011.

  1. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    I was most alarmed this morning to find that half of my green pepper plant had wilted away, leaving only the other half healthy and whole.

    I've never seen anything like this before, morevoer that the only plant in the pepper patch that wilted was the one I harvested from yesterday, using sterilized stainless steel scissors, and only the half I harvested from has wilted.

    What's going on?!?!?
     

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  2. turtile

    turtile Member

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    Maybe bacterial wilt? Did it rain after you harvested? The water may have splashed from the soil into the wounds or the scissors were infested. Have you harvested potatoes/bananas/tomatoes... with the scissors?

    I would sterilize your scissors and remove + destroy the infected plant.
     
  3. Tyrlych

    Tyrlych Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Did you check the roots of your wilted plants? Mole crickets often damage tomatos and peppers.
     
  4. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    Turtile, I sterilize my scissors religiously, in between each cut to be precise! So they were sterile when I cut the first pepper, and they were cleaned and sterilized again before I cut the second one. It's been dry here for a week, and I didn't water the peppers until the next day.

    And bananas are never harvested with scissors - that's a job for a machete or other very sharp knife!

    Tyrlych - I'll take a look, but we don't get much for crickets or grasshoppers up here....
     
  5. Tyrlych

    Tyrlych Rising Contributor 10 Years

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    I meant not grasshopers, but Gryllotalpa, an ugly looking relative:
    http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/lh039
    Infection will not cause that quick wilting, root damage is more likely.
     

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