How to deal with curled and wrinkled pepper leaves?

Every midsummer, leaves in pepper fields often curl and shrink. This may seem like a seasonal norm to farmers, but to experienced agricultural experts, there are complex reasons behind these phenomena. To solve this problem, we need to carefully analyze the causes and take targeted prevention and control measures. Peppers may curl and shrivel at all stages of their growth, including the seedling and transplanting stages, even in a controlled protected cultivation environment. So how do you deal with curled and wrinkled pepper leaves?

1. Cause Analysis

1. Non-physiological diseases

High temperatures, dryness and strong light are the main causes of curling and wrinkling of pepper leaves. These symptoms usually improve in the early morning or after rainy weather, shade, or irrigation. Under these conditions, the peppers are able to quickly resume growth and continue to produce branches, flowers and fruits.

2. Drug damage

Pesticide damage may be caused by pesticide residues in the soil or improper use of herbicides , growth regulators, excessive insecticides or fungicides during the growing season. Especially in fields where peppers are grown , if excessive herbicides were used on previously planted crops, or if the herbicides were sprayed too late, it may cause the leaves of the pepper seedlings to shrink. Excessive use of growth regulators or improper temperature control can also cause shrinkage, which is especially common in protected cultivation.

3. Pests

Aphids and mites are the main pests that cause leaf shrinkage in peppers. Aphids suck plant sap, which not only causes leaves to shrivel, but can also spread viral diseases. Mites can also spread viral diseases, which are characterized by a greasy sheen on the affected area. Mites damage the tender leaves, stems and flower buds of peppers, causing the back of the leaves to appear gray-brown or yellow-brown with an oily luster and the edges of the leaves to curl downward.

4. Physiological diseases

Mosaic disease is mainly caused by viral diseases. Different viral diseases have different symptoms. There are many known pathogens of pepper viral diseases, including cucumber mosaic virus and tobacco mosaic virus. They are virus sources with high incidence, wide distribution and great harm.

II. Comprehensive prevention and control measures

Choose virus-resistant varieties: Select pepper varieties with strong resistance, and select seeds from plots without virus diseases. Give priority to using virus-free seeds from regular seed companies.

Crop rotation and site selection: Avoid continuous cropping of Solanaceae crops, choose suitable plots for planting peppers, use ridge formation and mulch cultivation to reduce the occurrence of viral diseases.

Weed Removal: Remove weeds in and around the field promptly to reduce hiding places for pests such as aphids.

Pest control and disease treatment: Take measures in advance to reduce the pest base, use highly effective cypermethrin to control aphids, avermectin to control mites, or try traditional prevention methods such as urea laundry detergent water, spraying tobacco rods or tobacco shreds in water, matrine, etc.

Reasonable use of fungicides: Use fungicides such as VirusBlock and VirusA when necessary, but prevention is the main focus and pay attention to the timing and method of using fungicides.

In short, phenomena such as curling and wrinkling of pepper leaves are particularly common, especially in high temperature seasons, but the reasons behind them are varied, which require detailed analysis and corresponding prevention and control measures.