Cause of death?

[jhouse]

This is related to my Voles thread, same sick plant, I wound up cutting it down.

The leaves didn't look quite like any disease I could find, not much yellowing -- and if was voles, they didn't touch any fruit at all, or jalapeno peppers that were very close to the ground. Touches here and there of what looked like early blight, had a little of that in the other healthy plants and been snipping it out.

When I cut the plant down, the stem cross section was hollow, with a brown ring around the hollow center, light green around the outside. Outside of the stem looked normal. (I'm a novice so my observations could certainly miss something).

Does that stem appearance help in cause of the failure of this plant? the 2 plants either side are in good shape. I'm sorry I didn't think to get a picture!

edited with photos from stem cut down about 4 days ago. Not sure if it helps but what the heck.







in case that code doesn't work:
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