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Old 11-08-2008, 04:47 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible,rec.gardens
Marie Dodge Marie Dodge is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jun 2008
Posts: 331
Default Pepper saga.......... Pepper expert anyone?

I've already mentioned the problems with our Bell peppers this year.
Whitefly and spider mite but these may not be the whole problem. I've look
online and can't find these symptoms anywhere. These peppers came from
three different places, some I stared myself last spring. Within a week of
planting them out their leaves looked "strange." Instead of being smooth and
flat, they started to look like seer-sucker, kind of 'puckery' and the
plants failed to make normal growth. As the weeks passed they made buds but
all flowers and buds fell off along with the bottom leaves. Leaves were
still green when they fell. Now over a month later I'm seeing small yellow
spots with dark brown centers and leaves are curling upward slightly. It's
getting paler between the veins. The plants are tall, spindly, leaves are
sparse and only a handful of peppers were produced from 18 plants. In the
past few weeks the spider mites and whitefly infested them completely and
every spray I used failed to make a difference. Ideas anyone? Thoughts?
Suggestions? What disease can this be?

By this time other years we'd have so many peppers we'd be giving them
away - and from no more than 6 to 10 plants.