Pests And Diseases

Domesticated plants are much more gentle and require a bit more extensive care compared to their counterparts that grow in the wild. The reason for this is that wild plants are constantly being force to go above their limits and adapt. These traits are then passed on to future generations which ultimately will determine the course of their evolution. The most common mistake for new growers is over watering, which can induce and make new baby plants easily susceptible to diseases. Plant diseases are any physical or physiological disturbance caused by either biotic or abiotic factors, which prevents normal growth. Our efforts are towards breeding sturdy pepper plants by putting our strains to the test and following nature’s example. There are numerous kinds of pathogens that carry or cause diseases in soil, which you may encounter in your farms, home gardens and especially if you’re growing indoors. By pushing our plants to the limit we filter our plants using this method. We create the proper environment for pathogens to allow the disease to take hold of the pepper plant to test the resilience of the plant. We continuously have trials like these, sometimes adding external factors, until we have an ideal candidate and then repeat the process. We do this to grow stronger pepper strains that are more adaptable.

Aphids Are a Great Foe for New Growers

There are a number of pests in your garden and your pepper plants will attract some, among them: Aphids. They are a common pest that causes major concern for all growers. These tiny, green, ruthless killers have no mercy towards most vegetation. To some growers, they are nightmare to control and using predatory insects is the only successful aggressive method without resorting to pesticides. You can power wash and prune them back, but unless you can eliminate every single aphid, there is no end to them. They are endless wave after endless wave of soft body, slow grazing pests. What exactly do aphids do to warrant such concern? Aphids have long slender mouths that pierce tender plants stems and suck sap from the phloem. This is the tissue that carries sugar and other nutrients through the plant. When an aphid taps into a stem, it injects a tiny amount of saliva that can transmit potentially deadly viruses. Aphids cover most corners of the globe. Some aphid species inject a toxin into plants, which causes leaves to curl and further distorts growth. Monster Pepper plants are being bred to tolerate the stress and challenges from the onslaught of these herbivorous blights that are all consuming and always pooping. Here are some images and video taken from the grow season in 2020 aphid trial run.

The over whelming numbers of aphids is a nightmare situation for indoor growers. We did this intentionally during our growing process, and losses are were to be expected. However, all plants have their limits. Large populations of aphids can turn leaves yellow and stunt shoots; aphids can also produce large quantities of a sticky exudate known as honeydew. Since aphids drink literally nothing but sap from the plant, which is almost all sugar, they must eat an abundance of the sap to attain enough nutrients. The extra sugar in their diet results with them having syrup-like poop, which is “honeydew”. This will land on leaves, creating an inviting bedding for mold to develop and grow. The mold often turns black, known as sooty mold fungus. Unless there is a natural predatory aggressor to keep their numbers down, their rapid population can explode in matter of days. Simply put, they have unique survival strategy: Babies. They just make babies. This is possible because the females are parthenogenetic, meaning they can reproduce asexually. Aphids are able to give live birth, and in some cases some aphid babies are born pregnant.