2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Pepper mosaic is a fairly common disease. In addition to pepper, celery, potatoes, beans, clover, peas, sweet clover, beans and an impressive amount of weeds can also be affected by it. Heavily infected crops are characterized by oppression, develop very poorly, and sometimes even die. With a defeat in the early stages of seedlings, losses are especially large. The situation is significantly complicated by the fact that getting rid of viral diseases can be extremely difficult
A few words about the disease
Usually, signs of a mosaic appear on pepper leaves in the form of rather large yellow and white spots. On almost all leaf blades, you can notice the alternation of areas of light green, dark green and yellow. And along the main leaf veins, necrosis may appear. Leaf engraving and ferniness are also considered to be characteristic features of the mosaic. In some cases, the leaves can also deform and gradually turn black, and sometimes fall off prematurely.
On the petioles with stalks, the formation of dark stripes and necrosis gradually begins. And on the fruits of pepper, depressed brownish specks form. The fruits themselves are significantly reduced in size.
The root system of pepper can also sometimes be affected by mosaics, however, no external manifestations are noted in this case, and therefore it is possible to establish the degree of damage to the roots only when conducting special laboratory studies.
Mosaic significantly reduces leaf transpiration, as a result of which the plants overheat and their yield decreases. Moreover, in most cases, losses range from five to thirty percent and depend on the time of manifestation of various symptoms.
The causative agent of such a devastating disease is the Tobacco mosaic virus. And it spreads most often by sucking insects (for example, aphids), harmful herbivorous mites, as well as with infected seeds and sap of infected plants. Using garden tools without intermediate disinfection can also provoke the spread of the mosaic. Most often, the spread of the virus by contact is noted in greenhouses.
For crops growing in open ground, this disease is not harmful - most often it attacks peppers growing in greenhouses. The harmfulness of the destructive virus is due to its exceptional viability and infectivity.
How to fight
Infected cultures with signs of mosaic found on them should be immediately removed from the site. Weeds are also removed, including from the aisles. One of the most important preventive measures is the timely fight against aphids by spraying. In no case should peppers be planted in areas where once cultures were already affected by mosaics.
It is equally important to select for planting mosaic-resistant varieties and F1 hybrids. These include: Sonata, Atlas, Rubik's Cube, Aries, Orange Wonder, Gift of the Caspian, Indalo, Montero, Cardinal, Jiminy and Blondie. And the Jubilee Semko F1 is a hybrid tolerant to the disease.
Seeds to be planted should be taken exclusively from healthy plants. They often undergo appropriate seedbed preparation. First, it is recommended to warm the seeds for three days at a temperature of seventy degrees, and then treat them with a 10% sodium phosphate solution or a 2% sodium hydroxide solution. Or you can simply disinfect the seeds for half an hour in a solution of saturated purple potassium permanganate.
About once every three weeks when growing pepper seedlings, it is watered with a light pink solution of potassium permanganate.
The soil, into which the pepper seedlings are then transferred, should not overheat, its maximum allowable temperature is 28 degrees. After planting seedlings in greenhouses, it is recommended to carry out several foliar dressings of pepper with solutions of various microelements. Also, every ten days, the planting of pepper should be inspected for mosaic detection.
For the prevention of mosaics, it is useful to spray pepper bushes with a milk-water solution (1:10), to which a few drops of iodine are also added. At the end of spraying with such a solution, the plants are briefly covered with a film so that the virus cannot spread by contact.
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Raspberry Mosaic
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Gooseberry Mosaic
The gooseberry mosaic is also called vein border. Berry bushes affected by this disease practically do not grow and bear fruit very poorly. Aphids are considered the main vector of gooseberry mosaic, therefore, the fight against harmful insects must be included in the complex of measures to prevent this scourge. And, of course, it is equally important to follow the basic rules for growing this crop
Tomato Mosaic
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Plain Cucumber Mosaic
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