How to Treat Bacterial Leaf Spot on Pepper Plants?

Bacterial leaf spot pepper is a terrible disease that can destroy the whole plantation. It can easily cause disfiguring of the leaves and fruits of pepper plants. In many dangerous cases, you can see that the pepper plants die. Usually, you do not find any cure for this disease, but many ways exist to prevent it and reduce the spreading capacity. Go through this absolutely simple article to learn how to treat bacterial leaf spots on pepper plants.

What causes bacterial leaf spots?

What causes bacterial leaf spots is usually the primary question. This dangerous disease is caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. Vesicatoria. This terrible killer of pepper plants is usually found in areas with heavy rainfall and a scorching summer. 

You will find these bacteria spreading quickly through the seeds of the pepper plants that are infected and plant debris found in the soil. Knowing about these bacteria helps you to tackle this disease very easily. Pepper plants wilting in the sun is common but how to revive wilting pepper plants? Here, we can discuss.

How do I differentiate between anthracnose, cercospora leaf spot, and bacterial leaf spot?

• Anthracnose leaf spot: Usually, anthracnose is a fungal disease that can affect many plants including trees, fruits, and vegetables. It can create dark, sunken lesions on fruits, flowers, stems, and leaves. It can create havoc during the rainy season. To identify anthracnose leaf spot issues, you need to check for irregular yellow spots, and brown spots.
• Cercospora leaf spot: It attacks specific crops like sugar beet, beet root, and roses usually. The specific species attack specific plants. Cercospora beticola attacks sugar beets, while cercospora rosicola attacks rose plants. Sometimes, this disease is misdiagnosed as black spot disease. To identify Cercospora leaf spot, one should typically check for brown and reddish-purple coloring bordering the grey center.
• Bacterial leaf spot: It attacks crops like pepper plants, tomatoes, beans, and cucurbits. The pathogen is seedborne. You can identify bacterial leaf spots by checking yellow tint or small brown circular spots. 

Symptoms of dangerous Bacterial Leaf Spot

Knowing the symptoms of bacterial leaf spot is quite needed if you are looking to protect your pepper plantation from these dangerous bacteria. 

• These attacks usually happen with the lower leaves and leave initial spots on leaves. When the disease starts to attack more, it leaves a darkish purple and brown spot while the center stays light brown. 
• This bacterial leaf spot usually leads to cracks in the fruit. These cracks in fruit mostly lead to different other diseases. 

Usually, no pepper types are resistant to this terrifying disease and progression of the disease is horrible. Peppers wilting or pepper plant dying can always be a loss of crops for the farmers.

Initial spots on leaves

Initial spots on leaves are mostly lightish brown, and that is when you have to catch this disease rather than thinking the leaves are just dying up. This gives you an indication that this terrifying disease is going to grow in a very dangerous manner more often than not.

Progression of the disease

As this horrible disease keeps on growing, it attacks more pepper plantations, and the whole crop suffers as it cannot resist these bacteria. When growing strong, these bacteria change the leaves’ color to darkish brown colors mostly, and sometimes you might find the leaves to be dark purple too. These symptoms show you that you need to be on high alert already.

Conditions that Favour Bacterial Leaf Spot

Knowing the conditions that favor bacterial leaf spot pepper is necessary so that you can always look to avoid such conditions if possible. 

• Warm and humid weather plays a major role in giving support to this type of bacterial disease. You need to see your pepper plantation of pepper is protected from heat and moisturized weather. 
• Even overhead irrigation, which promotes moisturized conditions, needs to be avoided mostly as it can be a breeding ground for these horrible disease-creating bacteria. 
• Poor air circulation can also be one of the problems as it also creates humid conditions. 

Along with all these, even excessive nitrogen influences also tend to favor bacterial leaf spots. Bacterial leaf spot pepper treatment can always improve the condition of the crops.

Preventing Bacterial Leaf Spot in Peppers

Prevention is usually better than cure, and, in this case, it is true because once you find the symptoms of this bacterial attack, it is very difficult to control it. Pepper bacterial leaf spot can be dangerous if the symptoms are ignored.

• To prevent bacterial leaf spot pepper in peppers, it is necessary to rotate crops. Rotating different types of crops regularly along with the peppers will keep the soil good to avoid these bacteria. Always remember that peppers and tomatoes should not be planted alternatively because these two plantations attract this type of attacking bacterium. Prefer space and trellis plants, and avoid working with wet plants. 
• Always remove the visible debris and clear the soil before going to the new plantation, and prefer to have disease-free seeds. 
• Check if the ground is damp or not; if damp, try to take care that it does not lead to the breeding of these dangerous bacteria. 

These small things can actually help you in the long run to prevent this terrible disease. Treating bacterial leaf spot on pepper plants is never easy if you do not know the right way.

Managing Bacterial Leaf Spot

Treating bacterial leaf spot on pepper plants is easy if you know how to manage it. Managing bacterial leaf spots can sometimes be a task of the size of a hurricane if you do not have the right ideas. 

The first thing that you need to focus on is to have the best possible airflow. With the proper airflow, you can ensure that you are avoiding any possible attack from these terrible bacteria. Always check if your tools and equipment are disinfected or not, as these tools and equipment can lead to bacterial leaf spot disease, too. Some biological controlling methods can be handy to prevent the attack of dangerous bacteria. If you want your pepper garden to stay beautiful, then manage it judiciously.

Treat pepper plant bacterial leaf spot by using bactericides of Novobac

Using registered bactericides like Bactonus can be highly helpful, and that is where Novobac kind, a novel brand, steps in to help you farm pepper without any stress. Bactericide of Novobac is known to fight and prevent fungal and bacterial disease. It also improves the quality of the soil drastically. 

Application of bactericide to control bacterial leaf spot pepper plant

For seedbed nursing, you can use just 3 to 5 grams per liter of spray and spray it over the leaves. To treat the entire soil, farmers should apply 3 kg per acre of this bactericide and reapply it at 30-day intervals. This practice effectively prevents bacterial leaf spot disease. It is important to avoid using this bactericide in combination with anti-fungal powder, as they are typically incompatible. Although many people suggest it for their commercial benefits, one should always avoid it.

Active ingredients to fight bacterial leaf spot

The active ingredient used in the bactericide developed by Novobac is Bacillus velezensis, which is a very novel bacteria that does not give any side effects while preventing or curing bacterial leaf spot disease. This mixes well with the bactericide and helps to keep plants healthy by avoiding browning disease. It also helps to make soil resistant against the bacteria that cause bacterial leaf spots on pepper plants. Bacterial leaf spot pepper is always terrible.

Optimizing growing conditions for peppers

To achieve good results and add great flavors to your cooking, you should optimize growing conditions for peppers. Start by checking the soil quality and ensuring balanced soil fertility. Try to check if adequate sun exposure is there or not because this disease takes place when the sun is not around with moisture in the air. 

Ensure proper spacing of the plants to allow each pepper plant to receive adequate sunlight without being affected by moisture and humidity. Along with all these measures, ensure that you constantly monitor the moisture of the soil so that the disease does not happen ever so that you do not need to look for bacterial leaf spot pepper treatment.

FAQs

How do you treat bacterial leaf spot organically?

It is not easy to treat bacterial leaf spots even through chemical methods, so forget organic methods. If you use the bactericide Novobac, you cover your bases, and it will easily cure the bacterial leaf spot disease.

What are the black spots on pepper leaves?

The black spots on pepper leaves happen when the bacterial leaf spot disease is in the final stage. With the growth of attack, this disease keeps on turning the leaves darker.

Is bacterial leaf spot deadly to peppers?

Bacterial leaf spot is usually deadly to peppers because this disease can wipe off the whole plantation of peppers in the garden very easily.

Can you reverse the bacterial leaf spot?

Reversing bacterial leaf spot is not easy, but it can be cured with the bactericide Novobac, which usually gives fantastic results.

Should spotted pepper leaves be removed?

Spotted pepper leaves should be removed usually to prevent the spreading of this terrifying disease.

Can bacterial leaf spots spread to other plants?

Bacterial leaf spots can quickly spread to other plants, especially the pepper and tomato plants. It is always advisable that you stay alert with prevention and curing measures.

Conclusion

Bacterial leaf spot pepper is a terrible disease that can be difficult to deal with if we are not staying active during the plantation process from the start to the harvesting period. With the advancements in the utilization of good bacteria like Bacillus velezensis by Novobac, things have changed for the better. 

Pepper is one of the most loved spices, and taking care of this plantation can help you spread love from the kitchen while you cook delicious food. Keep the bactericide Novobac handy, so it becomes easy to treat bacterial leaf spots on pepper plants. Treating bacterial leaf spot on pepper plants could never have been this easy.

References:

1. Pajčin, Ivana, et al. “Pepper bacterial spot control by Bacillus velezensis: Bioprocess solution.” Microorganisms 8.10 (2020): 1463.
2. Jiang, Chun-Hao, et al. “Bacillus velezensis, a potential and efficient biocontrol agent in control of pepper gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea.” Biological Control 126 (2018): 147-157.