Space-time analysis, severity of the wilt disease in escabeche pepper (Capsicum baccatum var. Pendulum) and identification of the causal agent (Phytophthora capsici L.) under subtropical climate conditions in Peru

Phytophthora capsici is an aggressive pathogen in escabeche pepper on the Peruvian coast. Root rot has a strong correlation with humidity and environment. Disease behavior was evaluated epidemiologically using spatiotemporal variables. Severity was evaluated according to the advance of the secondary symptom according to grades 1 to 5. Then, coordinates of each plant were established by photogrammetric survey of a field with 1705 escabeche pepper plants. For temporal analysis, severity was adjusted to an exponential model (R2 = 0.909) and incidence to a Gompertz model (R2 = 0.921) that detected an initial delay of the disease due to temperature. For the spatial analysis, the Global Moran Index (Ii) showed a high spatial dependence of the disease reaching a peak of 0.4 and 0.7 for severity and incidence, respectively. Also, heat maps related to the Local Ii were generated from which an initial source of infestation was determined where the furrow irrigation started in random infestations. Then, the infestation spots were settled in areas of surface water accumulation. Also, rhizosphere samples were collected per plant by degree of severity on V8 or CMA whit PARB and PDA-A selective medium. As a result, significant differences were obtained between grade 1, grade 2, 3, 4 and grade 5. In addition, the effect on yield was significant for plants with grade 4 and 5 with respect to fruit weight (22.3 and 18.5g/fruit) and weight per plant (509.5 and 371.8g/plant), respectively.