I posted a thread about this a few weeks back. I have the exact same thing on my peppers and eggplants. Definitely not wooly aphids. It's not an insect. Slight chance it's an insect egg but in my opinion it's secretion of some sort. After not seeing any damage to my plants I totally forgot about it. I meant to send a pic to the extension office to see if they could identify it but it slipped my mind.

It just looks like fine roots to me, but should it be fungus or mold from too much moisture, mix some weak chamomile tea in a spray bottle and mist them a bit with it. Then increase air circulation with a small fan nearby, water less often, and that should help.

I'm afraid I disagree with pretty much everyone. I would say its fungal (sclerotinia maybe), caused by too much moisture and not enough ventilation (and of course spores). The thinner diameter is indicative of the cell walls breaking. Is it harder there than in the green areas? Woody, I mean? As the plant grows the stem will get thicker. It looks to me that the plant persevered over the sclero rot. It's unbelievably common in greenhouses and it's commonly overcome. No chemical treatment will stop an established infestation as far as I know. Rockwool is good for sclero and pythium. It maintains a constant humidity around the base. Using perlite and coco seems to work better for me. Sclerotinia can cause the stem to become woody and thus reduce water flow. This can reduce yields or even lead to further complications down the road. Obviously reduced water intake is going to cause problems. I had a few plants that suffered this when young, but they pulled out of it. But, they produced less and smaller fruit. Still enough for us, so it wasn't a big deal. The stems stayed thinner at the base and I'm guessing the bottle neck is what caused the reduced yield. Those plants were in rockwool. In fact, I have a bunch of rockwool starter cubes here if anyone lives near New Whiteland, IN. I won't use them because of this problem and the higher rate of damping off. There are cheaper, superior alternatives. If I were you, I would keep these plants going, but consider an alternative method later to see the difference. If it weren't for the thin section, I would then have also said it was salt buildup. I get that a lot, but not with the thinning, scabbing issue.

Hi All, I just posted three pictures above of the Chinese Fan Palm and the issue I'm having. It is a bit difficult to tell from the pictures, but the white mold/fungus/sap (whatever it is), is in the mulch mainly, about 1-2 inches deep. In Pic #2, look closely at the big chunk of mulch stuck together from the hard white stuff, it's like a big solid piece and I was able to pry it out of the ground. Thanks, let me know what you guys think and what I can do about this. Should I just get a hoe or rake and break it all up or something? Too much water, too little water? I have no clue at this point what this stuff is and what I should do. Also, in Pic #1, you can see the dwarf grass in the lower right corner that is pretty much dead, and the mulch around it is rock hard from this white stuff as well.