Chili Rayado Photo's from Panama

[glen]

Hello all!!  I am very disappointed at how sickly my Chili Rayado plants are.  I can't download to Imgur so I am using the sites downloader for the photo's.  

This is the second time I have tried to grow Chili Rayado.  Both times I have had similar issues.  We have a problem in panama with leaf galls.  I didn't know what leaf galls were until I began to see it occur on chili plants.  It bothers some variety's much more than others.  All of my plants have it.  It manifests itself as swelling in the stems and deformity's in the stalks.  It is some kind of insect or micro organism that enters the plant and causes this.  To my knowledge there is no practical way to treat this.  

Chili Rayado is particularly sensitive to galls.  Many other variety's of chili's tolerate it better.

Ajicito for example, is very resistant to it.

Check out how chili Rayado has been attacked!!













Click on the photo's to enlarge them.  I have seen this before on Chili Rayado.  I see galling occur on many of my chili plants.  You see deformity's on the stems and stalks etc.  Most of the time chili plants just outgrow this problem and turn out OK.  Chili Rayado just can't tolerate it.  I am also having issues with jalepeno but not as bad.  My Chili Rayado plants might as well be put out of their misery.

[macmex]

Looks like it's something particular to Panama and possibly Central America. I've never seen such a thing. Wow! It hurts to look at those plants.

[glen]

I may be wrong and its not galls. I think I am right. Its called leaf galls online and when you normally see this in the US for example, it affects the leaf primarily. It is a kind of insect that enters into the plant. There are different types of galls. They are different depending on where you are located. You can see the deformity's in the leaf but also in the branching and stalks etc. Like I said, all my chili peppers have galling. It looks different in the Chinense peppers which are tolerant of it. You can see the swelling in the branches and it is hard to the touch. In the Chili Rayado the branching can get rotten where the swelling is. It'll turn mushy. There is no resistance. Frutescen is also tolerant of it. It doesn't bother the tobasco or thai hots much but you can see the swollen area's on the branching that are hard to the touch. I grew the Chili Rayado pepper's 2 times. The first time I started them in April and they had the same problems. I immediately started them again and the photos show the results. Like I said, I have jalepeno's growing right next to them and they aren't doing well either. I don't think this issue is always around. I used to be able to sometimes have good success with jalepeno's for example. This is the first year I have notice this problem to be so pronounced and widespread.