My ripening chilli fruits are getting sunken dark spots with circular rings, and the spots spread until the fruit rots, dries and twists on the plant. Some branch tips are dying back too. It has been humid. What disease causes this fruit rot?
3 Answers
Sunken dark spots with concentric rings on ripening chilli fruits that rot and dry, along with dieback of branch tips in humid weather, are anthracnose, also called fruit rot and dieback, caused by Colletotrichum. It hits ripe and ripening fruit hardest and spreads in wet humid conditions and through infected seed. Use clean disease free or treated seed for the next crop, since seed carries the fungus. Remove and destroy infected fruits and dead twigs to cut the source, harvest ripe fruit promptly so it does not sit and infect, and improve airflow and drainage. Spray a protectant such as mancozeb or copper at flowering and fruiting, and use a systemic like azoxystrobin or a difenoconazole if it is advancing, rotating groups. Avoid overhead irrigation late in the day. As chilli is eaten and often dried, follow the label and waiting period, and confirm with your KVK before spraying.
Seed treatment and clean seed cut my anthracnose a lot. The year I saved my own untreated seed it was terrible.
Picking the ripe fruit on time really helps. The longer red fruit sits on the plant in humidity, the more it rots.