| The bottom leaves on my bell pepper and eggplants are turning yellow and dropping off. Is this a disease or could it be a symptom of too much or too little water? The entire area is mulched with newspaper and pine bark. Also, The pepper leaves are beginning to get a few brown spots and some blossom end rot. |
| Both too much or too little water could cause the older leaves to yellow. The fact that blossom end rot is also occurring this late in the season is a pretty good indicator that water problems are involved. Low nitrogen can also cause older leaves to yellow. If a disease were involved, I would expect to see quite a few leaf spots developing before the leaves yellow and drop. Bacterial diseases are more often a problem than are fungal diseases on peppers in the south. The spots from a bacterial infection tend to be angular while fungal spots tend to be rounder with a yellow halo around them. Your mulching practices are a great idea. Try to keep water levels more even. Not too soggy or too dry. For bacterial spots, the lowest toxicity solution for peppers is probably a copper based spray. Good luck with your peppers! |
