There's a Fungus Among Us!

Of the three reapers in the grow box, we had the zombie reaper (the seedling that appeared dead but survived), the project reaper (the one on the skull), and the third one that was the best producing of the backups.  The third one was the weakest plant going into overwintering due to it being left out the longest to produce peppers, and the fact it had heavy roots that needed a pretty hard chop to get it in before a freeze.  Never did seem to recover completely like the other two did.

And then yesterday I saw this:

This is something I have encountered before, and it is very dangerous.  Do you see how the leaves are wilting and the center of the cut branch is hollow?  Thats a fungal infection.  When an overwintered pepper is weak, a fungus can infect the cut ends like this and it starts burrowing down the center, killing the limb.  If its allowed to go all the way down to the main trunk, the entire plant will die.

This is how much of the limb I had to chop back before I got to a solid center again.  It delved this deep in a couple of days (leaves looked fine two or three days prior when I last watered), and now it was a good 6 inches into the limb.  Only choice was to chop the entire limb off down to the trunk to make 100% sure I got it all.  Kind of like cancer, you gotta cut out the healthy tissue along with the bad to make sure you don't leave any in there.

This also made me take a closer look at the plant, especially the back side.  I've been having trouble with the aphids coming back on the other two plants, now I know why.

The back side of this one where the spray wasn't easily reaching was covered in young aphids, its where they've been holing up and surviving.

Between the aphids, the fungus, the overall weak state of the plant, and the fact it was basically just a backup, I've put it back outside for now.  If we get a freeze, well I won't cry over losing this one.  I still have the two good ones.  Better to sacrifice this one than leave a source of infection and infestation in a confined space with the good ones!

For the time being, the big heart sized/shaped purple sweet potato can have it's spot in the box.

Oh, I've also been keeping the project reaper pruned back in order to start shaping a canopy on it.  I think its been getting extra light from the reflective backing, as that side has denser vegetation than the other arm, so I've turned it around to try and even it out some.  But as you can see, we're definitely starting to get a nice solid half dome going on.