Plant Shock

[BigMal]

First year grower and still learning my way....
 
Put most of my peppers in the ground this past weekend and did something stupid. They went straight from the house to the ground and I believe I shocked them. The leaves started turned yellow or white and most look like they are now dead. Several of the bigger ones may have survived, but I am not hopeful. Do plants ever recover from shock or should I consider this a loss and either look for some replacement plants and/or plant need seeds and get a late start?
 
Thanks

 

[compmodder26]

You definitely want to give them a hardening off period of gradually introducing them to the sun.  When indoors, they aren't accustomed to the intensity of the sun.  Putting them straight outside will indeed fry them.  The older ones will likely recover and be fine.  Young plants don't usually fare so well.  

 

[suchen]

You might try shading the plants for a few days in the hope they will survive, then gradually increase the amount of sun they get each day.

 

[filmost]

Not sure how old your plants were, but I burned mine pretty bad this year. Sun but mostly wind. I had underestimated how windy it was going to be that day, and despite being in the shade for most of the day they were very ragged by the time I got to them. I took them inside and the following day removed the leaves that were not coming back. About a week later they had recovered and the new growth was ready for outside. Plants learn! I wasn't expecting to force them to fend for themselves like that, but it does seem to speed them a long.

 

[BigMal]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I've learned the hard way that they need to be introduced slowly. Gotta learn though  . I think I'm going start a new batch of my "must have's" and just end up with a small crop this year. Virginia stays pretty warm through September so hopefully I can still get a good amount of peppers to make some powder, sauce and flakes while saving some seeds for next year.

 

[Scorched]

I didn't do it with seedlings but I did fry my ows last year. Took them out of the basement and right out into the full sun. They stayed there all day until it dawned on me I hadn't hardened them off. Every leaf was white and paper thin like tissue paper. Over the next two days every leaf fell off and I had a dozen green sticks. I put them in the shade and after a week little leaves started to appear. The all completely recovered and I had a great crop from each. As long as the stems are still green I wouldn't give up on em.

 

[Valleyman]

BigMal
Nothing to lose but a little effort to re sow some of your faves. My 1st season I started late , I think the first week of April (ZONE 6) and with some frost protection I was able to get some ripe reapers in October. Put some in pots so you can move em around and OW some of them too. And next season you should have ripe chiles starting in mid-late August.

 

[filmost]

I think the other thing to take away is as long as they don't keel over and die then they should bounce back

 

[Spicy Mushroom]

 
 
Do plants ever recover from shock or should I consider this a loss and either look for some replacement plants and/or plant need seeds and get a late start?

 
Yep. They sometimes do. Unless you need that ground space for replacement plants I would just leave them [provide shade somehow]  and hope for the best. I ordered a bunch of live plants last grow season and put them straight into 5 gallon buckets and they all got their butts kicked and lost most leaves. Too bad because they were so healthy looking when I got them. It wasn't even during my summer heat. Definitely harden off your plants by gradually introducing them to their final homes. I think you should not give up on them but also get some replacement plants just in case. Maybe get shorter season ones. That is if you have the space. I'm curious did you just plant them in the native soil or did you do some amending and such?

 

[BigMal]

Again, thanks for all the responses. I picked up some landscaping fabric yesterday and thinking of rigging some sort of shading with that and seeing what happens. I've already ordered some live plants and picked up a few yesterday to replace the "must haves". Going to slowly introduce those into the location where they are going before sinking them into the ground. Space is not to much of an issue since these are going into the ground and I have a fairly large plot.
 

 
 I'm curious did you just plant them in the native soil or did you do some amending and such?

 
No soil amendment, just put the entire plant straight into the ground.
 
I've bought veggies and some sweet peppers before from local places that kept their plants outside. Placed them straight into the ground without any issue. The major difference between this time and then, I know, is that those were already outside for a period of time.