I have absolutely never had any problems with my pepper plants and I grow them every year.

This year however was different. Early in the season some plants started dropping their leaves and some whole plants even died while others right next to them looked fine.

I pulled out and disposed of the diseased plants and didn't really look into it further but last week I attended my monthly cooking class and the teacher apologized because the recipe called for sweet frying peppers and she said that none of the markets had them because the pepper farmers were hit with some disease.

My 4 sweet frying pepper plats did not produce as much as usual but they are long dead and removed.

This got me thinking and I tried to ID the problem by looking at a few remaining leaves. The only thing that looks close is Bacterial Leaf Spot.

I am not positive about this but I am definitely rotating the pepper planting area next year and I sent an e-mail to the PA Extension Service to see if they knew anything.

I didn't get as many bell peppers as usual but I did get a decent amount since I grow about 10 of them

How did your peppers do this year?

I had a number of plants get what looked like some type of mozaic virus. Last year one had it, this year close to half the plants got it. It didn't kill them, but I pulled most of them anyway. A couple I left that were far from others are still alive, but they've hardly produced any peppers. I think I read something about viruses in peppers being spread by white flies, which seemed to winter over more this year since we had a very mild winter compared to previous years.

I'm disappointed since I grow a bunch of different varieties and often have only one of each, so some I got none of. I really missed my Tenke Dolmasi and the three types of anaheims I was growing that all got it early and had to be pulled.

3-4 of my varieties were affected this season, out of 16, but it was still unusual. I took these photos this evening, showing how the worst ones got; though they were still producing some, a few got spots on the peppers, and a few had the tips darkened. The 2 Big Chili Numex are doing fine, as well as the Death Spirals and Paper Lanterns. The Korean Hong Gochu didn't do real well, but not as bad as the Giuzeppi.
Diseased Giuzeppi Numex, 9-18 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

A few spotted chiles from the Giuzeppi, same ones that got some leaf disease. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Big Chili Numex, 9-18. Definitely the best of the mild ones. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Death Spiral, 9-18, no problems at all. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

When you say yours are "long dead and removed", sometimes I wonder if we are really from the same 50 miles. Mine just started really putting out in August.

Mine seemed to be performing as usual. I haven't tried to grow bells for maybe 4-5 years. I grow antohi romani as my main sweet pepper.

I did trade for some seed from NC and those plants have not done particularly well here. Bishop's cap is really rough looking. They didn't die, but never got to a dark green and have foliage disease. I also got Hot Pepper Bomb and those have spots as well, though not as many, and the leaves are more normal green. I had no experience with either pepper before this. My other peppers don't seem affected, even the habaneros that are brushing up on the spotty ones.

See what I have for pics here.
These are a couple days back. Four rows in that 30x4ft bed. Two outside rows are peppers. Two inside rows eggplant. Next year...I may plant less eggplant. The peppers nearest are jalapenos, but most all my peppers are about like that, healthwise. Sweet peppers and anaheims at the comm garden, Aug 6th.
Aug 11th Aug 6th Bishop's Cap
My usual Habs running parallel, no disease. Aug 15th, think those are Anaheims in sweet pepper patch. That or a long sweet. Are healthy, either way. Antohi Romani, same patch and day. Looked fine. Cantaloupe running underneath. So I don't know. I didn't hear about a pepper problem this year, and the only rough plants I have are not from my seed and traded up from a warmer climate.

Mine are in pots this year. No particular reason, just turned out that way. They have been producing for a while, but only really started putting on fruit this last month. I haven't had any Leaf disease, but many of the early fruit got a kind of BER. Which i had never seen before on my peppers . Could be because they are in pots.

I think geographically, we have a few mountain ranges between us, changes weather and diseases pressures.

@JRinPA the peppers that are "long dead and removed" are the diseases ones, not all of them.

I have always picked large quantities of peppers in the Fall and I still have a few on the plants but the foliage disease really put a dent in my harvest this year.

My mistake, I didn't read it that way. I took it that your peppers were done for the season. Which seemed early, since mine seem to last until late Oct/Nov.

@Rockoe10 you are out in stiller country, right?

JRinPA wrote: ↑Sun Sep 19, 2021 1:43 pm My mistake, I didn't read it that way. I took it that your peppers were done for the season. Which seemed early, since mine seem to last until late Oct/Nov.

@Rockoe10 you are out in stiller country, right?

Sure am. We yinzers love our tomato patches and fishin in the crick,

Raiders just kicked our butt today

Most of our in-ground peppers did quite well, this year. It's the first time I've grown peppers with black plastic and did foliar fertilizer sprays. I find myself eating and enjoying the peppers more this year, too. I think the Epsom salt I gave them might have something to do with that, too.

The container peppers didn't do very well at all, this year. (Way worse than any other year I've grown them in containers.)

Plus you learned how to burn them properly!