The short of it is:

• Fungal – Possibly
• Bacterial – No
• Viral – No

Plants infected by Viral or Bacterial pathogens are terminal. Unfortunately they can never be cured from these pathogens.

We get it… your sickly plant is precious and you want to keep it in the hopes that you can get a harvest or get more seeds for future grows. But there are real risks to keeping infected plants.

Yes, at an expense, it is possible to stem off the pathogen long enough to harvest pods. This is quite possible. Fungicides may even make your plants look almost normal again. But, once diseased, plants can never be cured. These are the risks of keeping diseased plants:

• The pathogen will very possibly spread to your other plants in the garden. Even infect your entire grow.
• The pathogen is very likely to spread to other plants (other vegetables) in your garden.
• Any insects (in particular sap suckers – like aphids, mealy bugs, white fly, thrips and mites) will become ongoing vectors for these pathogens. May sap suckers will pass the pathogen on from season to season.
• Seeds will also be infected with the pathogen. Meaning plants will be infected from seeds stock every time you grow from infected seed.
• Your diseased plant’s yield will be very poor.
• Your pods will be distorted.
• Viability of seeds will be low.

Possibly the greatest risk of all is these pathogens circulate year after year in your garden, rendering your garden un-usable.

The best thing to do with diseased terminally ill plants is to responsibly dispose of the plant or burn the plant. Eliminate the pathogen from your garden completely. Clean tools, treat possible insect vectors and never add the diseased plant material to any compost heap you may have going. Also, never re-use containers or medium that the plant grew in.