KC Counts talks with Dr. Phillip Lujan about common diseases and how farmers are combatting them. You can learn more about "chile chats" and the Chile Pepper Institute here.
Here is part 1 of their 2-part conversation:
KC:
At what point did you develop such a deep interest in the health of chile plants?
Dr. Lujan:
Ever since my undergraduate degree. So, I first, I really wanted to be a pediatrician actually. And so I did my undergraduate in Ag biology and I did a sort of a pre-med option but then that's when I sort of dipped my toes into plant pathology and different things. And so I sort of started exploring that and I did an honors thesis and so that's when I started exploring this as a career. And so I've been fascinated with it ever since, and trying to help our growers with all of the chile diseases that are around here.
KC:
The New Mexico Chile Pepper Institute hosts a series of talks - “chile chats”. Have you done those before?
Dr. Lujan:
This is my first time. This was the first year that the Chile Pepper Institute sort of initiated the chile chat. Just getting together producers, growers, chile enthusiasts. Really, anybody that loves chile, getting them all together and and sort of collaborating, talking about all things chile, whether it's chile diseases, weeds that are affecting chile, insects and just how to grow chile, even the history of it and so I was invited by the Chile Pepper Institute to give a talk to the people that want to come and listen to me talk about chile plant diseases and things we can do to sort of mitigate those diseases from affecting a lot of our chile peppers.
KC:
I think one of the ones we hear about more commonly is curly top right.
Dr. Lujan:
Yes, curly top has been common this past few years, actually. We've seen a lot come through the plant diagnostic clinic, of which I am a co-director. Yeah, beet curly top is a virus, and it really does a lot of damage to the plants in terms of not really allowing it to grow. They're really stunted, the leaves are curled, as the name implies, and really, you don't really get any chile peppers from them. If you do get some, they're just, they're little tiny things and not really edible.
KC:
What are some of the other common diseases that you see around here?
Dr. Lujan:
The big four that we typically see around here from seedlings all the way to, you know, a more mature plant, are rhizoctonia root rot, fusarium root rot, phytophthora root rot and verticillium wilt. And so those are sort of commonly found in our soils, unfortunately. And you know, with a lot of the rains, maybe over irrigating, you tend to see a lot more diseases cropping up. And so with our monsoons approaching and the rains that we've been recently seeing, I'd expect maybe over the next couple of weeks to start getting more phone calls about chile diseases sort of popping up and what I expect would be phytophthora root rot or verticillium wilt.
KC:
Everything in agriculture is a double-edged sword isn't it?
Dr. Lujan:
It is, and so you know, a lot of us are really hoping for the rains to come and replenish our aquifers and we just need that moisture. But sometimes the growers, you know, you can't really control the amount of rainfall that's happening. And so sometimes, when we get a lot of those heavy monsoons and heavy rains coming, it's not really that great for them because, you know, over-watering brings a lot of disease issues and so we're grateful for it, but also as you mentioned, that double-edged sword is you can sort of increase the amount of diseases that are present.
You listen to part 2 of this interview here:
