Knowledgebase
What's wrong my my peppers this year? #874985
Asked June 27, 2024, 2:42 PM EDT
Benton County Oregon
Expert Response
There are several commercial laboratories that support Oregon and have about a one to two week turnaround. For most of them, you can mail in your sample and they will e-mail you the results. The following link is to an OSU publication "Analytics Laboratories Serving Oregon". The list of laboratories begin on page 3.
https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/Pesticides/Documents/2020/AnalyticalLabsServingOregon.pdf
Another possibility is that the peppers have a strain of mosaic virus in which case you should remove the affected plants. Check your plants for signs of thrips or aphids which can be a vector for the virus. Management includes:
- Control weeds in and around the garden.
- Control aphids and thrips to reduce spread of the infection.
- Pull out and destroy infected plants as soon as symptoms are noticed.
You might consider planting a second pepper crop in a different area of your garden while you wait for the results of a soil test.
I hope this helps.