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Chocolate Habs dropping leaves

Alorac87

Alorac87

Hey everyone, new member of the forum here... hope to be able to contribute in the future but right now I'm in my second year of growing hot peppers and I'm having a bit of a problem.
 
My chocolate habaneros are starting to drop their leaves. One plant is almost bare at this point and the leaves on the other plant are droopy and weak.
 
Here are a couple pictures:
 
Practically dead plant:
9450532021_f90fa82f84_b.jpg

 
Droopy/ weak leaf plant
9453315160_37d293a6a3_b.jpg

 
A little bit of background information:
 
-I am located in Southern New Jersey (Zone 7a according to this site: http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/#)
-The plants were started from seed by me, indoors.
-They are currently growing in a raised bed I built. there should be plenty of drainage
-When transplanted, I placed them in a hole with a mixture of manure, sand and my existing top soil.
-I've given them 2 doses of Great White mycorrhizae (one after transplanting and one about a month ago)
-I can't give you a pH reading at the moment, but if need be I can go get a tester
-The get fed with "Alaska" brand Fish Emulsion about every other week and sprayed with Epsom Salts in between those feedings.
 
I water when the soil is dry, but this summer has been pretty crazy with rain storms so they have gotten a weird watering schedule. 2 weeks ago, we had HUGE rain storm come through and drop about 8 inches on us in a few hours. It was shortly after this that the one plant started to go on me. I figured it was because of too much water... but the other plant was fine until the other day (after it had plenty of time to dry out). So that makes me think something else is going wrong here.
 
the soaker hose you see is not running. I had it there on a timer for a long weekend I was going away when I knew the temps were going to be crazy hot and I didnt want everything getting scorched. It ran for 20 mins in the morning every other day for the 4 day weekend (so it ran twice). I just haven't gotten around to wrapping the whole thing up.
 
Does anyone have any insight on what could be the problem? The leaves seem to just wilt and break off very easily (almost perfectly) at the stem. The stems of the plant seem totally fine and not weak at all, it is just the leaves. I have been searching around on other threads and someone else mentioned leaf drop like this could be due to a severe potassium deficiency, but the fish emulsion contains potash so I wouldn't think that would be the problem.
 
So... Is this a disease? Is it just watering issues and should I avoid going anywhere near it with water for a bit? (the top few inches of soil are pretty dry at the moment) or Is it some sort of nutrient deficiency? 
 
Thank you in advance!
 
-Tom
 
 Looks like dampening off to me. I would try moving them to a different location and only water when they droop. Might have to dig  deeper to see if the soil is compacted into a muddy paste below the surface.  
 
Thanks for the response.

You don't think the stress of pulling them up now would be too much? I may be able to scrounge up a couple big pots to get the whole root ball into...

I should add... In the same exact bed is a couple ghost pepper plants and a jalapeño and they are all doing very well. Are Habs more prone to water problems?
 
 I don't think so. I would just check the soil . Maybe that side of the bed is more compacted ? 
 
It looks like some sort of wilt to me, as in the disease type not from lack of water.

Verticillium Wilt

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/r604100411.html


Thanks for the response... This tidbit from that article makes me think that isn't the problem " The foliage of severely infected plants turns brown and dry." None of my leaves have gotten brown at all. They are all perfectly green when they fall.

Romy, I'll get a shovel out there when I get home and see how the soil looks. Do you think it would be possible for me to pull the plant out and amend the soil... Then put the plant back in? Maybe add some more sand for better drainage?
 
Looks like damping off to me too, and with all that rain it very possible.  I would pull the plant and pot it somewhere away from everyone else.  If it is damping off it's pretty much a lost cause.
 
Also, I wouldn't put manure into a planting hole and certainly not in a pot.
 
Good luck and good gardening!
 
Thanks for the responses everyone. 
 
I had only put the manure on the top of the hole when I transplanted it... figured it would slowly release nutrients down. Now I'm kinda thinking that it could have washed its way down into the roots and is possibly part of why I'm having this problem. Doh!
 
Ya live ya learn... Next year I'll make sure to read up and bug everyone here when I'm transplanting ;)  I kinda just winged it this year. 
 
I have a couple 5 gallon pots I can put these in, do you think that will be enough or should I get something bigger?
 
Also, anyone have any links to threads with some good potting mixes? 
 
Thanks again!
 
Alright...  Got home and got a shovel in the ground... and it wasnt good.
 
These plants barely had much of a root system below to top couple inches of soil. What was down farther was weak and rotting away. How deep do habanero root systems usually go anyway?
 
I pulled them both and put them in a pot. Hopefully I'll be able to keep them properly hydrated now and maybe save one of them. The one that already lost most of its leaves might end up being a hanging/ripening experiment since there are a few decent sized pods.
 
thanks again for your help everyone, it is appreciated.
 
-Tom
 
Trim back the tops and leaves so the root system can catch up. Pro mix is good for pots heck a lot of people use MG potting mix with good results just make sure it has good drainage. Take a handful of whatever you decide to use and make a fist with it then open your hand. If the mix stays clumped together it needs perlite or something to help drainage if it falls back apart your good to go.
 
Alorac87 said:
These plants barely had much of a root system below to top couple inches of soil. What was down farther was weak and rotting away. How deep do habanero root systems usually go anyway?
 
I pulled them both and put them in a pot. Hopefully I'll be able to keep them properly hydrated now and maybe save one of them. The one that already lost most of its leaves might end up being a hanging/ripening experiment since there are a few decent sized pods.
Click to expand...
 
While it will probably drop some leaves on its own, in particular cases like this I would trim away some of the larger leaves to reduce transpirational losses.  Root depth depends on plant size, soil moisture and density.  Let's say a couple feet though once they get much past the root ball they quickly turn into fine hairs so it is easy to overlook how far they extend as some will break off even in gentle transplant attempts.
 
Once they recover a bit you may find new leaves growing.  If any pods are tiny I would just pick those off and discard them as they probably won't reach full size and the plant could use some energy to get healthy leaves going again, and to put what energy it has into the larger pods still growing.
 
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