Some of my chilli plants are yellowing from the lower leaves and then wilting and dying, even though I am irrigating and the soil is moist. When I pull one out the roots and lower stem look brown inside. Patches of plants are dying. What is the cause?
Wilting while the soil is still moist, with lower leaf yellowing and brown discolouration inside the stem and roots, points most likely to a soil borne wilt, either fusarium wilt (fungal) or bacterial wilt. A quick field test for bacterial wilt is to cut a wilted stem near the base and dip it in clear water, if milky white threads ooze out it is bacterial wilt. Neither can be cured in the standing plant, so management is about the soil and the next crop. Improve drainage so water does not stand, remove and destroy dead plants with the surrounding soil, avoid moving wet soil on tools, and apply Trichoderma enriched compost to suppress fusarium. Most important, rotate away from chilli, tomato and brinjal for two to three years and use resistant or grafted material where available. Bring a wilted plant with roots to your KVK so they can confirm which wilt it is before you decide.
The water dip test the team mentioned is real, I tried it and saw the white ooze, so mine was bacterial wilt. Rotation was the only thing that helped over time.
In my low lying plot it always started in the wettest corner. After I made raised beds and better drainage the patches got much smaller.
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