indoor Leaf curl, blossom drop on indoor C. chinense

[usery]

I'm growing C. chinense var. naga jolokia, var. habanero 'red carribbean' and C. frutescens var. 'malagueta' in pots in an indoor grow space (bedroom closet). Light is from a 6-lamp T5 panel with mixed red- and blue-spectrum tubes. The nagas were started from seed in June 2010, the habanero and malagueta from nursery stock. All plants grew in a greenhouse for ~4 months and developed vigorously. The habanero's fruited well and the nagas flowered profusely.

In early Oct. all plants were brought into the indoor grow space. 12-16 hours light/day, temp. range 60-85F, avg humidity 55%, watering when soil dry at ~1.5" depth. Within ~10 days all plants had developed leaf-curl, blossom drop and moderate leaf-yellowing. I've been tweaking ventilation, humidity and feed (dilute balanced fert in liquid form, soil-applied) to no avail: the nagas have lost all their blossoms and only 1 fruit has set. The habaneros and malagueta have held their fruit but new blossom/fruit set is impaired. Note little- to no feed was applied when the plants were in the greenhouse; no leaf curl and little blossom drop experienced then.

Link to photo below - I'm stumped. Am considering repotting to larger containers, and dialing up feed/nute application (foliarly and soil, calcium, magnesium, etc). Water analysis? Soil ph? Who knows - anyone have experience w/ C. chinense grown indoors and symptoms similar to mine?

thanks,
pete

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1B6lCqKBrgNFFkWiaLHJi9PcyRoiKlvhQ04PMVZs0Zs?feat=directlink

 

[Beaglestorm]

What is the soil like at deeper than 1.5". Looks a lot like when I had bad drainage in my plants. Top soil would dry out but the roots near the bottom were very wet. How big are your pots and drainage holes and how often are you watering? How many drainage holes do you have?

 

[Silver_Surfer]

Looks like too much water and/or poor drainage. Try inserting a wick (twisted piece of cloth/old mop string) into one of the drain holes in each of the containers.

 

[Home-Grown]

I'm growing C. chinense var. naga jolokia, var. habanero 'red carribbean' and C. frutescens var. 'malagueta' in pots in an indoor grow space (bedroom closet). Light is from a 6-lamp T5 panel with mixed red- and blue-spectrum tubes. The nagas were started from seed in June 2010, the habanero and malagueta from nursery stock. All plants grew in a greenhouse for ~4 months and developed vigorously. The habanero's fruited well and the nagas flowered profusely.

In early Oct. all plants were brought into the indoor grow space. 12-16 hours light/day, temp. range 60-85F, avg humidity 55%, watering when soil dry at ~1.5" depth. Within ~10 days all plants had developed leaf-curl, blossom drop and moderate leaf-yellowing. I've been tweaking ventilation, humidity and feed (dilute balanced fert in liquid form, soil-applied) to no avail: the nagas have lost all their blossoms and only 1 fruit has set. The habaneros and malagueta have held their fruit but new blossom/fruit set is impaired. Note little- to no feed was applied when the plants were in the greenhouse; no leaf curl and little blossom drop experienced then.

Link to photo below - I'm stumped. Am considering repotting to larger containers, and dialing up feed/nute application (foliarly and soil, calcium, magnesium, etc). Water analysis? Soil ph? Who knows - anyone have experience w/ C. chinense grown indoors and symptoms similar to mine?

thanks,
pete

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/1B6lCqKBrgNFFkWiaLHJi9PcyRoiKlvhQ04PMVZs0Zs?feat=directlink

Are you sure those are peppers that you're growing?

 

[usery]

Thanks all for the replies. Feeling pretty noobish given what I found, especially with wife being master gardener/hort. specialist.

Beaglestorm, Silver: the naga containers are 11" 2 gal. rounds and only have stock drain holes. Soil at root level does seem saturated and roots are appearing through drain holes. Time to re-pot to at least 5 gal. Will hold off on any calcium application until plants settled in larger containers.

Home-Grown: pretty sure these are peppers - dried out some leaves/flowers and spleefed 'em up, got nothing but headache and burning sensation in lungs.

 

[Home-Grown]

Thanks all for the replies. Feeling pretty noobish given what I found, especially with wife being master gardener/hort. specialist.

Beaglestorm, Silver: the naga containers are 11" 2 gal. rounds and only have stock drain holes. Soil at root level does seem saturated and roots are appearing through drain holes. Time to re-pot to at least 5 gal. Will hold off on any calcium application until plants settled in larger containers.

Home-Grown: pretty sure these are peppers - dried out some leaves/flowers and spleefed 'em up, got nothing but headache and burning sensation in lungs.

Touche

 

[willard3]

Flower drop probable causes:

1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F
3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer
4. Too much water
5. Low light levels (reduces fertility).
6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility)
7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to pollination).
8. Lack of pollinating insects.
9. Size of pot
10. Too much mineral in feedwater.
11. Too much grower attention.

 

[megamoo]

I would think that they are probably getting too much fertilizer, don't dial it up they probably don't need any more!!
If you are feeding them nutes that contain all the trace elements, like most do, then it could still be a deficiency caused by the pH being out.
First you should to rule out pH by doing a test.
I don't think you mentioned air circulation in your first post. If there is not enough air flow the plants will suffer.
Have you checked the plants for bugs under leaves? When plants are inside, the natural predators of bugs are absent and if they get in they can go to town.
If they did well in the greenhouse with no fertilizer my guess is its too much watering and too strong or wrong balance of fertilizer.

 

[Jadia]

Flower drop probable causes:

1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F
3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer
4. Too much water
5. Low light levels (reduces fertility).
6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility)
7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to pollination).
8. Lack of pollinating insects.
9. Size of pot
10. Too much mineral in feedwater.
11. Too much grower attention.

Excellent

I would add:

2.a Night temp to high over 24-25 celcius, must be around 76-77F

and in my experience also:

12. Introducing plants to new environments. Almost all my plants have been dropping flowers when moved inside (or outside without hardening), and the maturation paused for several weeks.

 

[usery]

Thanks again to all for the great community help.

Willard3 - very handy elimination list, thanks. Here are my results against it:

1. Day temp too high >95F ## max day temp in grow space is <= 82F
2. Night temp too low <65F ## min night temp is ~62F
3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer ## so far have only done light feeding w/ liquid fert. diluted way down from recommended dose
4. Too much water ## likely ... this is first variable I'm eliminating.
5. Low light levels (reduces fertility). ## plant tops are ~8" from T5 panel. Panel is on 16hrs/day.
6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility) ## is 60% humidity too low for C. chinense naga in an indoor grow space?
7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to pollination). ## multiple fans in grow space, moving lots of air.
8. Lack of pollinating insects. ## yup, indoor grow space, no pollinating insects. Can't do much about this beyond hand-pollinating - it's a bedroom closet.
9. Size of pot ## likely - resizing to >= 5gal pots.
10. Too much mineral in feedwater. ## feedwater is same as that used in greenhouse, where Capsicums were thriving.
11. Too much grower attention. ## definitely


megamoo: definitely need to pH test soil in the growing containers. Plenty of air flow in the grow space; have eliminated aphids and spider-mites with Aza-Max. Once I've eliminated over-watering and pot size, will focus on feed balance.

jadia: I don't think night time temp is an issue (~62F). I do hope it's as simple as your #12 - change of environment. We'll see!

 

[AlabamaJack]

In my experience, it is hard to grow plants to maturity or keep them fruiting once they are moved inside...

from reading the comments, I would agree on "too wet"...and IMO the easiest way to tell when the plants need water is to pick up the container and see how much it weighs...

you need about 3K lumens/sq ft at the top of the plants...

 

[lazienfat]

Yeah whatever the experts above said. Welcome to the THP glad to see another member in the Wa area.

 

[usery]

Thanks again everyone for the helpful suggestions. I'm still plagued with leaf curl and blossom drop on my indoor C. chinense grow. Adding insult to injury: seeds represented as naga (bhut's) have turned out to be some variety of habanero!! Mail-order seed company Whatcom Seed in Eugene OR may have been mistaken and/or deceived by a supplier.

Updated grow specs since Oct31:

- reduced watering (no more than 1x per week, depending on soil moisture at pot drain-holes)
- repotted one fake naga (habanero) to ProMix BX in 5gal container
- no nute/fert applied to any plants

The fake naga's have lost all blossoms - but one plant has developed a single huge fruit (which exposed the variety as habanero and not naga). The good news: the plants now have new blossom nodules & are preparing for another round of flowering. Leaf curl still predominant and am fearful next round of flowering will be decimated by flower drop. There's also some leaf yellowing in all the C. chinense and the C. frutescens var. malagueta.

Other good news: two C. chinense var. habanero 'Red Carribean' plants have each set a single new fruit. However both plants continue to drop many of their flowers.

Next isolation steps: soil and water Ph tests, boil tap water before applying. Should I apply Foli-Cal now, or wait for Ph results and water with boiled water for a few weeks?

Fake naga:

Fake naga fruit (poker chip for scale):

C. chinense leaf curl:

More C. chinense leaf curf:

Malagueta leaf curl: