Bell pepper disease?

b54red · August 20, 2020

I went out a couple of days ago to find a number of my bell pepper plants with at least half their leaves on the ground under the plant. When I wiggled the plant more fell off. It happened in three different beds with plants of various ages and size. The color of the plants was still good and no sign of this problem was apparent a few days earlier when I was tying up plants. I have seen this happen to one degree or another in the past. The worst time was five or six years ago when a whole fifteen foot bed of bell peppers with good production and big healthy plants just dropped all their leaves in a matter of a week or so while another pepper bed the same age with some of the same peppers only had one or two plants with any problems.

At one time I thought it was maybe caused by BLS which was bad that year but this year is almost non existent in my bells. Maybe this is some other symptom of TSWV that I didn't realize or some disease that I am unfamiliar with. The plants have no real disease symptoms that I can see before this happens and it isn't at all consistent in any way that I can see but it does seem to happen to several plants very near to each other most of the time which makes me think it may be some disease carried by some insect, the rain or wind, that happens to hit those plants at the same time. I have seen this leaf drop from okra plants with nematode problems but when I pull the bells I have seen no sign of nematode damage to the roots.

If any of you bell pepper growers out there have any idea what this could be and if there is any way to prevent it I would really like to hear your thoughts on this.

Bill

Patihum · August 20, 2020

Over/under watering are the most likely culprits if there's no yellowing of or spotting on the leaves.

August 20, 2020	#1
b54red Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Alabama Posts: 7,068	Bell pepper disease? I went out a couple of days ago to find a number of my bell pepper plants with at least half their leaves on the ground under the plant. When I wiggled the plant more fell off. It happened in three different beds with plants of various ages and size. The color of the plants was still good and no sign of this problem was apparent a few days earlier when I was tying up plants. I have seen this happen to one degree or another in the past. The worst time was five or six years ago when a whole fifteen foot bed of bell peppers with good production and big healthy plants just dropped all their leaves in a matter of a week or so while another pepper bed the same age with some of the same peppers only had one or two plants with any problems. At one time I thought it was maybe caused by BLS which was bad that year but this year is almost non existent in my bells. Maybe this is some other symptom of TSWV that I didn't realize or some disease that I am unfamiliar with. The plants have no real disease symptoms that I can see before this happens and it isn't at all consistent in any way that I can see but it does seem to happen to several plants very near to each other most of the time which makes me think it may be some disease carried by some insect, the rain or wind, that happens to hit those plants at the same time. I have seen this leaf drop from okra plants with nematode problems but when I pull the bells I have seen no sign of nematode damage to the roots. If any of you bell pepper growers out there have any idea what this could be and if there is any way to prevent it I would really like to hear your thoughts on this. Bill

August 20, 2020	#2
Patihum Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Southeast Kansas Posts: 878	Over/under watering are the most likely culprits if there's no yellowing of or spotting on the leaves.