It is caused by an oomycete plant pathogen, Phytophthora capsici. The pathogen reproduces through both asexual and sexual means and can cause multiple infection within a season.  Reproduction is most rapid in warm and wet or humid weather by producing millions of short-lived spores on the surface of infected plants. These spores can be splashed from the plants to soil and back to plants, or between plants, and they can also be carried by moving water in a field. Each one can also release 20-40 motile spores that can swim short distances through standing water or saturated soil towards plant roots. A second type of spore with much thicker walls is produced inside infected plant tissue.  These spores can survive for years in the soil until a susceptible crop is planted. Once the pathogen is present in the soil it cannot be eradicated.

P. capsici can produce a wide variety of symptoms depending on the specific plant part involved and the stage of the crop. Since P. capsici is a soilborne pathogen, symptoms usually first develop at the soil line in the roots and crown, however, infection can occur at any plant part where water splashes soil onto the plant.

The most common symptoms on peppers are crown rot and fruit rot. Under wet conditions, disease tends to manifest itself as wilting of the plants followed by plant death. As the disease progresses crown lesions become dark brown and extend upward to girdle the stem causing plant death.  Pepper fruits can become infected when rain and overhead irrigation splash infested soil onto emerging fruits. Fruit rot appears as water-soaked areas that eventually become covered with white powdery to cottony mold

Alternate Hosts: Eggplant (Brinjal), Capsicum, Tomato, Beans, Cucumber, Pumpkin.

_{Ref: NC State University. Image Source- https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/VH045}