bluechick wrote:
....
One problem we're having this year that we never had until now is
wilt. One day our peppers were fine, the next day they looked like
they needed water. I knew they didn't, but put it down to the heat of
the day getting to them. They never rallied and just got worse. Some
basil nearby had the same problem. The basil was common Genovese and
the peppers were three Bonnie green bells, Bonnie's Big Bertha bell
and another variety of golden California Wonder. Oddly, there's a
Bonnie red bell that is unscathed and it was next to one of the
afflicted green bells. Everything I've read points to a fungal wilt,
possibly from contaminated soil, even though the soil was "new". These
peppers and basil plants were in small raised beds and large
containers. Other large planters and other raised beds were
unaffected. I've had plants affected by wilt before now. I have
destroyed those plants and haven't planted anything else in the two
planters and that small raised bed that were affected. Don't know
what else to do.

aw. hard to say from such a distance. it would
be very sad if you brought in diseased garden soil.
all i can really recommend is to avoid small raised
beds as the soil temperature fluctuates probably a
lot more than some plants would prefer.

i have heard of vascular collapse being caused
by hot weather driven evaporation from the leaves
exceeding the plant's ability to take up new moisture,
but i'm not sure if that is what happened to your
plants or not.

as to remedies for diseased soil, worms, good
compost, rotate to a different crop and time. i
sure hope it isn't diseased.


songbird