In this blog, you will get to know about the major chilli diseases, how to identify them on your farm and how to manage them well.

As a member of the solanaceous family, the chilli crop is susceptible to several bacterial, viral, and fungal diseases, which reduces its productivity and yield. Generally, early indications of chilli diseases include a reduction in the photosynthetic region, whereas later symptoms include infection in the plant flowers and fruits.

Effective management strategies for important diseases should be applied at various stages of disease development.

Major diseases of Chilli

There are many dangerous diseases of chilli, here are some of them –

• Damping off
• Fruit Rot and Die Back
• Fusarium wilt
• Cercospora leaf spot
• Powdery mildew

Damping off

Damping off Symptoms:

1. Seedlings are killed before they emerge.
2. Water soaking and stem shriveling.
3. After seeds are sown in seed beds, the effects of disease signs are seen.
4. It affects immature seedlings and their stems, decreasing the percentage of germinating seeds.
5. Diseased seedlings have a pale brownish colour and lodging due to weakened stems. Diseases are transferred by seeds and soil.

Favourable Conditions:

Heavy rainfall, excess irrigation, poorly drained soil, and a soil temperature between 25 and 30 °C.

Damping off disease treatment

• Using 0.25 percent copper oxychloride to saturate the soil.
• Avoid shaded or darker areas while setting up a nursery and apply the recommended seed rate.
• Avoid flooding irrigation methods and keep the ideal moisture level for nursery use.
• For seed treatment, use Thiram or Captan at 4g/kg of seeds.

Fruit Rot and Die Back: Colletotrichum capsici

Symptoms of Fruit Rot and Die Back:

• The disease is known as “die back” because the fungus causes fragile twigs to die from the backward tips. Usually, an infection starts during the crop’s flowering stage. Flowers wilt and wither away.
• Flowers are being shed in large quantities. The flower stalk withers and shrivels.
• This withering travels from the flower stalk to the stem, which in turn causes the branches and stem to die back and wilt.
• Plants that are just partially damaged produce a few poor-quality fruits.

Management:

• The use of disease-free seeds is crucial for a healthy crop stand.
• Thiram or Captan 4g/kg seed treatment has been proven to be successful in removing the seed-borne inoculum.
• Three sprayings with Ziram O. 25 percent, Captan 0.2 percent, or miltox 0.2 percent have been said to control the disease effectively. Chemicals, including wettable sulfur (0.2%), copper oxychloride (0.25%), and zinceb (0.15%), not only decreased the incidence of disease but also boosted fruit output.
• The first spraying should be applied immediately before flowering, and the second should be applied as the fruit starts to form.
• After the second spraying, the third spraying may be applied.

Fusarium wilt

Symptoms:

• Fusarium wilt is characterised by the plant wilting and the leaves rolling upward and inward. The dying leaves turn yellow.
• Although dispersed wilted plants may also occur, substantial percentages of wilted and dead plants typically appear in small, localised parts of the field.
• The primary disease signs are the initial withering of the upper leaves and a minor yellowing of the foliage, which develops over a few days into permanent wilt with the leaves still attached.
• By the time symptoms are visible above ground, the plant’s vascular system is discoloured, especially in the lower stem and roots.

Management:

• Application of wilt-resistant cultivars.
• Protection may be obtained by drenching with a 1 percent Bordeaux combination, blue copper, or 0.25 percent Fytolan solution.
• It is effective to treat seeds with 2g of carbendazim or 4g of a formulation of Trichoderma viride per kg of seeds.
• Mix 2 kg of T.viride formulation with 50 kg of FYM, add water, and then wrap the mixture in a thin polythene sheet.
• Apply the mixture to rows of chillies across an area of one acre once mycelia development is seen on the heap after 15 days.

Cercospora leaf spot

Symptoms:

• Leaf lesions often have a dark brown centre with modest light grey borders. The lesions may grow to a diameter of 1 cm or more and occasionally coalesce.
• Lesions on the stem and petiole have light grey centres and black edges. However, they are often elliptical in shape.
• Significantly contaminated leaves drop off early, reducing output.

Management:

Spray Mancozeb 0.25 percent or Chlorothalonil (Kavach) 0.1 percent twice at intervals of 10-15 days.

Powdery mildew

Symptoms:

• Lesions on the upper leaf surface ranging in colour from light green to brilliant yellow are the primary symptom seen on leaves.
• The spots expand and transform into necrotic tissues. The underside of the leaves may have lesions.
• On the underside of leaves, dense whitish powdery fungal growth can develop under optimum conditions, mildly affecting the leaf shape.
• Later, the fungal growth grows to the top of the leaves; eventually, the entire leaf will wither and die, but it will still be connected to the stem.
• Fruits and stems will not exhibit the symptoms but sunscald results from a loss of foliage.

Management:

Spray Dinocap (Karathane) 0.05 percent or Wettable sulfur 0.25 percent.

How can Fasal Assist?

• Devastating chilli diseases and disorders can wholly and quickly wipe out entire chilli farms in just a few days.
• With Fasal’s technology, diseases like damping off, anthracnose, powdery mildew, fusarium wilt, and others are no longer a threat to your chilli fields.
• The technology from Fasal provides site-specific, time-specific, location-specific, and crop-specific solutions based on the concept of precision agriculture.
• In order to alert farmers when conditions are favourable for pest invasion, Fasal’s technology analyses rainfall, humidity, temperature, the projected temperature at the canopy level, and a microclimatic prediction for grape diseases.
• Based on a farm’s unique qualities, Fasal’s technology creates various management plans and proposes solutions.

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