I was cleaning under the plant and on the stem about a foot up the stalk there is this weird white growth that I have never come across before and I have been growing since 73. The plant has 2 weeks till finish and appears to be unaffected by the growth. I think it might be a fungus of sort. I scraped it off to see if anything was living under the bumps but nothing there.
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Kinda looks like mealy bugs.
Very hard to eradicate if its mealy bugs. Soaking the growths with alcohol and wiping them off will kill them off but theyre very good at hiding and the webbing gives them good protection.
Look at the webbing with magnification. You might see little bugs moving around.
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Sulfur spray in case it’s bacterial or fungal issue.
Add detergent to pierce meally bug outer covering
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I will look at with the loupe tomorrow,.I have had experience with mealy bugs on cactus before but this is different. spraying with sulfur I might do. can’t hurt if I dont get it on the buds
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The more i look at it, the less it looks like mealy bugs and more like mold or some other bugs webbing/cacoon. Doesnt really have the amorphous rough shape the mealy blobs get. Could be my eyes, could be the resolution.
Been dealing with mealy bugs a lot on outdoor ornaments the last month so they’re really fresh on my mind.
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the more I look at it the more I think it was some kind cocoon but the milky gooey white gook got me baffled
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It looks like accumulated build up from the nutrients. If you have irrigation check the sprayers during a water cycle one maybe spraying off target happens when they get clogged a bit… Cheers !!!
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Thought I would update what the problem was. What happened is case of neglect as the cause of the white on the stem was an old cayenne pepper that must have fallen then draped on the stalk and decomposed. I realized this when I was cleaning up. It must have happened many weeks ago and I wasnt observing very well. Sure had me confused until I saw another decomposing pepper and recognized it
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