How to deal with peak rot in peppers - treatment and prevention

Peppers in the greenhouse are simultaneously protected from the weather troubles of the open ground and are susceptible to various diseases, and all due to the peculiarities of the microclimate of the closed space. One of the diseases - top rot - overtakes the culture unexpectedly: the fruits become stained and deteriorate before our eyes. It will be quick and easy to save the plant if you take a number of measures right away.

What top rot looks like

Areas filled with liquid appear on the sides of ripening peppers. They grow and take on a dark brown hue. Over time, they get bigger and bigger. Dry rot begins to appear - these areas are first flat, then concave. Old stains wrinkle. The size of the top rot spot often reaches several centimeters, sometimes almost half of the fruit is deformed.

Understand that this is the top rot, give a sharp fetal growth arrest... The peppers begin to ripen immediately. If the spots are left untreated, fungal pathogens settle in them.

Important
There are such peppers fresh and should not be heat treated - they have an unpleasant taste. They can also be hazardous to health.

Why does the disease occur

The main reason is metabolic disorders, or rather calcium deficiency. This happens as a result of illiterate agricultural technology. The treatment of apical rot is easier and faster than in the case of fungal, bacterial and viral diseases.

Often, bell peppers in a greenhouse suffer from this scourge, since it is quite difficult to control the level of air humidity there, plantings are easy to overflow with water, underfeed and overfeed. Also, plants often suffer from a lack of solar energy.

Why does apical rot occur, the main reasons:

1. Lack of calcium. This occurs against the background of an excess of nitrogen fertilizers, irregularities in the timing of irrigation.
2. Deficiency of elements such as phosphorus and manganese also affects the state of culture.
3. An excess of nitrogen, potassium and magnesium, usually a surplus, is the result of improper feeding proportions.
4. High air temperature and low humidity create favorable conditions for the development of the disease.
5. Frequent changes in dryness and humidity.
6. Heavy soil does not allow air to pass through and provokes apical rot.
7. Soil that is too salty, too acidic or alkaline is also an unfavorable factor.
8. Root damage during tillage is another important risk factor.

Advice
Top rot affects another popular garden culture - tomatoes. That is why they are listed as unwanted predecessors in the crop rotation rules.

There is no need to be afraid of incomprehensible stains - start treatment, and the crop will be saved quite quickly.

Treatment methods

First of all, comfortable conditions for peppers are restored. Then you need to adjust the amount of trace elements. And the affected fruits are plucked from the bush and burned - you still can't eat them.

Drugs

Top dressing of diseased bushes: for 10 liters of water - 2 tbsp. l. potassium carbonate and 2 tbsp. l. calcium nitrate. Each plant is watered with a glass of this solution.

Foliar dressing is as effective as fertilizing the soil. It makes sense not to cancel the procedure after the recovery of the landings, but to transfer it to the list of preventive ones. Top dressing is carried out as follows: from the beginning of fruit growth, 1-2 times a week, the bushes are sprayed with a 1% solution of calcium chloride or calcium nitrate.

In advanced forms of apical rot, you will have to turn to preparations containing copper. These are Bordeaux liquid, copper oxychloride, "Hom", "Kuprozan"."Fitosporin" is a universal fungicide preparation for the treatment of rot, including apical rot, since in its neglected form a fungus settles on the spots.

Advice
Calcium supplementation should be moderate. If you overdo it with calcium, then potassium deficiency will arise, and hence new problems. Fertilization should be complex, proportions should be precise.

Folk ways

Inexpensive ways with improvised means that gardeners use against top rot:

1. Milk solution. 1 liter of milk is poured into a bucket, the rest is filled with clean warm water. Once a week, the affected peppers are sprayed with the product. Suffice it 2-3 procedures to eliminate the disease at the initial stage.
2. Cretaceous suspension. 2 tbsp. l. crush chalk and dilute 1 liter of warm water. This mixture is poured over a sick bush.

Preventive measures

Top rot prevention is quite simple: these are standard care rules that are adjusted depending on weather conditions.

What you need to do so that greenhouse peppers never get sick with rot:

1. Maintain air humidity in the greenhouse at 60%, ventilate the room more often.
2. Make sure that the temperature during the day does not fall below +20 and does not rise above +22 degrees.
3. Watering regularly, do not dry out and overflow. The optimal frequency is once a week.
4. Gently loosen the soil without touching the root system.
5. Increase watering if there is a prolonged heat outside. The lack of a system in this matter is the most popular cause of apical rot.
6. Humidify less frequently if the air temperature has dropped.
7. Feed with microelements. Crushed eggshell is a source of calcium that is often used to prevent apical rot. The shell powder is added to the holes when the seedlings are moved to the greenhouse.
8. In autumn, lime the soil for growing peppers. For 1 bucket of soil mixture, 1 tbsp is enough. l. chalk or dolomite flour.
9. Periodically mulch the soilto keep moisture at an optimal level.
10. Purchase healthy seeds and disinfect them before planting.

If you take up the treatment in time, then the peppers will still delight the gardener with healthy and tasty fruits. It is better to avoid apical rot at all, taking preventive measures on time. A reliable protection will be the choice of pepper varieties that have high resistance to all kinds of rot.