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health What's wrong with this plant?
- Thread starter HwyBill
- Start date
All good guesses...I would lean toward choices 1 and 3. Too much water...and I really can't tell if its too packed, but if it is, it won't drain as well as it should and also prevent air from getting to the roots. Try using a fork to loosen the top of the soil a bit and then leave it alone and don't water it for a while and see what happens.
When plants are young they dont require much water, although a lot of light and heat will cause a plant to wilt faster. So I'm going to ask you how often do you water? How much do you water when you water? and how do you water? Bottom or top? Its hard to tell in the pic how wet the soil is or how compact it is. If you're inexperienced with watering I highly recommend that you have good drainage holes in the bottom of your cups or pot if you dont. Reason being is so excess water will leak out of the bottom and the air can circulate the soil and will help so that the soil doesnt get water logged as easily.
Also are you feeding them? Yellow leaves usually means lack of Nitrogen or over watering
Also are you feeding them? Yellow leaves usually means lack of Nitrogen or over watering
HwyBill
Banned
I am VERY inexperienced with watering well. Probably my biggest obstacle right now. The soil was pretty saturated when I transplanted them. I'm sure some of them are over-watered, but none of them are really bad like that. I'm afraid I'm probably going to lose that one.
Trying to bottom water, but I'm not sure really what is the best method. I am mostly just misting them from the top when the top looks dried and craked out, or if they start to wilt.
Trying to bottom water, but I'm not sure really what is the best method. I am mostly just misting them from the top when the top looks dried and craked out, or if they start to wilt.
Well, If you dont have fans on your plant you need them. You only need to water when the cup or pot feels much lighter then it would right after being watered. You should be bottom watering about once a week at that stage. I personally dont really bother with mist spraying the leaves although I'm sure it wouldnt hurt. But if you want to do both then you have to stretch the waterings even further apart. But, when you bottom water just let the pot or cup sit in a few inches of water until the soil absorbs the water about 15 minutes to a half hr. Then put your plants back under the lights
Sorry to jump on your thread HwyBill, but it's been suggested to me to run fans too, and i was just wondering, is this solely to make them stronger plants, or are there other benefits too?
If fans are really going to make a huge difference then i'll deffo have to look at sorting something out
My plants are going the same way as yours Bill, well, mine look a lot worse than yours actually, and i was guilty of overwatering a few weeks ago too. http://thehotpepper.com/topic/29535-leaf-curl-hitting-crisis-point-now-any-other-ideas-please-heeelp/
I overwatered by doing the bottom watering method....i put far too much water in by the looks of it, and the roots just ended up drowning in water....so I've decided it's top watering for me now, as i feel i can have a bit more control and keep a better eye on what's going on.
Hope your plants pick up quicker than mine have. Best of luck mate
Neil
Running fans helps to strengthen the stems as well as helping to dry the top of the soil out to prevent mold/fungus. fungus gnats are more unlikely to land in the soil if there are fans going as well. When the plants start to flower the fans help to pollinate as well. So there are multiple benefits of having fans on pepper plants.
Judging by your pic you should be giving them around 16hrs of light each day. You only need to give them 24/7 light for the first couple of weeks after they sprout. When your plant reaches at least 6" in height you want to cut back to 14 hrs, then when your plant hits a foot tall you cut back to 12-13 hrs. Then after a foot tall keep it at 8-12 hrs of good light and thats what you keep them at when they are over a foot tall
24 is not too much light. Some folks on this forum go 24 hours until at least 3 sets of leaves. I'd run at 18-6 at this stage. They say that 18-20 hours of light per day is the most effective for peppers. I'm not sure where megahot is getting those numbers from, you want to emulate a summer solstice when peppers grow the best, and even surpass that amount of light since you are using artificial lighting. Less than that is only ideal for plants with very particular photoperiods, or folks who have to watch their power bill.
The fans have many benefits as has been said. A breeze helps stimulate a natural environment. It will encourage thicker stem growth and a hardier plant, as well as aiding in transpiration. If you've watered too much, good transpiration is very important, especially in more humid environments. If the plant is taking up more water than it is transpiring you'll end up with edema. Check the undersides of the leaves for pimply looking things to see if you have it, I had a few cases this year that yellowed a bit like yours.
I'll tell you this, it shouldn't be a fertilizer problem this early in the season, and your lower leaves indicate that it is not. Fertilizer problems almost always manifest at the lower leaves first. It looks that the plant is stressed, and overwatered. Your plant looks a bit leggy as well so if anything it's not getting enough light. (Too much light, leaves will start to turn purplish, too little and you will get leggy growth and eventually chlorosis). What light are you using? What are your temperatures like? How close is this plant to the light in comparison to your others?
This very well could be a root problem. I would stop watering entirely and just wait a few days. See what happens. You might get lucky after all. If the plant is getting high temps near the light try moving it away a bit. Good luck!
The fans have many benefits as has been said. A breeze helps stimulate a natural environment. It will encourage thicker stem growth and a hardier plant, as well as aiding in transpiration. If you've watered too much, good transpiration is very important, especially in more humid environments. If the plant is taking up more water than it is transpiring you'll end up with edema. Check the undersides of the leaves for pimply looking things to see if you have it, I had a few cases this year that yellowed a bit like yours.
I'll tell you this, it shouldn't be a fertilizer problem this early in the season, and your lower leaves indicate that it is not. Fertilizer problems almost always manifest at the lower leaves first. It looks that the plant is stressed, and overwatered. Your plant looks a bit leggy as well so if anything it's not getting enough light. (Too much light, leaves will start to turn purplish, too little and you will get leggy growth and eventually chlorosis). What light are you using? What are your temperatures like? How close is this plant to the light in comparison to your others?
This very well could be a root problem. I would stop watering entirely and just wait a few days. See what happens. You might get lucky after all. If the plant is getting high temps near the light try moving it away a bit. Good luck!
I count 3 sets on that plant, 4th set forming...I did a time lapse video that shows that the plants start to droop after about 13 hours of light and then as soon as the lights kick off they perk back up. They need at least a little rest period. I would agree that you really don't ever need to drop below 12-14 hours.
How is it doing now???
HwyBill
Banned
I'd hesitate to say it is doing "better." It is still alive, and it appears to still be growing (albeit very slowly), so I guess that's better than dead.
It was in a light box with 24 hr. light. I since have removed it and placed it in a WEST facing windowsill. So it basically gets about 12-14hrs/day of natural light, of varying intensities, including the hottest, most intense afternoon sun.
Here is how it looks now... you can see its first set of true leaves have died:
I had a couple of plants that did the same thing. Here is another one:
It was in a light box with 24 hr. light. I since have removed it and placed it in a WEST facing windowsill. So it basically gets about 12-14hrs/day of natural light, of varying intensities, including the hottest, most intense afternoon sun.
Here is how it looks now... you can see its first set of true leaves have died:
I had a couple of plants that did the same thing. Here is another one:
HwyBill
Banned
I live in an apartment building. Don't have a south facing window... only west, north, and east ones. My covered deck, where I will harden them off is on the east side.
FIrst one is a serrano, the second one is anaheim.
I actually watered them last night, because I usually have a few beers and do some gardening on Thursday nights. Plus I wanted to pick a steady day I can do it on, so I will remember, plus will allow me to go out of town on the weekends. But I am doing bottom-watering with a drainage cup, so hopefully I didn't overdo it.
FIrst one is a serrano, the second one is anaheim.
I actually watered them last night, because I usually have a few beers and do some gardening on Thursday nights. Plus I wanted to pick a steady day I can do it on, so I will remember, plus will allow me to go out of town on the weekends. But I am doing bottom-watering with a drainage cup, so hopefully I didn't overdo it.
What type of soil are you using HwyBill? I don't see any perlite in there which could indicated that it is a heavier soil, leading to less drainage.
I'd also suggest two other things.
1. Take the plant/soil out and add more so that the soil is even with the rim of the solo cup. That's how I have mine and it seems to work well.
2. Try raising the inner solo cup out of the outer solo cup to allow more standing water in the cup. Do this by sticking something that's about a quarter inch high or so and that will give you better drainage for sure.
After all that it could still come down to the soil. It kinda looks like you have that Burpee starter mix in there, which I have found that peppers don't like.
Hope that gives you some ideas/helps.
I'd also suggest two other things.
1. Take the plant/soil out and add more so that the soil is even with the rim of the solo cup. That's how I have mine and it seems to work well.
2. Try raising the inner solo cup out of the outer solo cup to allow more standing water in the cup. Do this by sticking something that's about a quarter inch high or so and that will give you better drainage for sure.
After all that it could still come down to the soil. It kinda looks like you have that Burpee starter mix in there, which I have found that peppers don't like.
Hope that gives you some ideas/helps.
When bottom watering I usually put plenty in there, then come back in 20-30 minutes and dump any water that didn't wick up. Still looks like water problems to me. I have had trouble with Anaheims before. They like it pretty dry. Have never had any trouble with Serrano though. Rabid just posted while I was writing this and is along the same lines of what I'm saying. Soil/water first things I would try to fix. Good news is almost every home improvement store or nursery will have plenty of both of those varieties available either now or soon in Chicago.
HwyBill
Banned
I'm using Miracle Grow Moisture Control potting soil.
I haven't been filling the cups all the way basically just to save money on soil since I have a lot of plants. Generally I just put 2" or 3" of soil in the bottom of the cup, and then depending on how leggy the sproutlings are, I fill the cup up enough to cover up to about 1/2" under the cotys. If filling it all the way up would help though, I suppose that is what I should do.
That's a good call on the nested cup spacer. I was actually talking about this in another thread. I think if you use the same size cups nested in one another, it's not really that effective since it doesn't allow a lot of room for the water to drain. What I was thinking was to either use your idea, or else use a smaller cup for the hole-less cup on the bottom so that the upper cup doesn't nest all the way down into the bottom cup, thus leaving a void space for the excess water to drain into.
Yeah.. really no reason to grow the most common varieties you can get at the grocer beyond just the sheer enjoyment of growing them... Peppers tend to be ridiculously cheap (Jals are usually something like $0.49 to $0.99 at my grocer!!!) That's why I only have one Jalepeno plant going.
But when I first started growing, the only seeds I had access to where the seeds I could collect from fresh pods I could find at the grocer.
I now have many, many more varieties. Thanks THP!!
I haven't been filling the cups all the way basically just to save money on soil since I have a lot of plants. Generally I just put 2" or 3" of soil in the bottom of the cup, and then depending on how leggy the sproutlings are, I fill the cup up enough to cover up to about 1/2" under the cotys. If filling it all the way up would help though, I suppose that is what I should do.
That's a good call on the nested cup spacer. I was actually talking about this in another thread. I think if you use the same size cups nested in one another, it's not really that effective since it doesn't allow a lot of room for the water to drain. What I was thinking was to either use your idea, or else use a smaller cup for the hole-less cup on the bottom so that the upper cup doesn't nest all the way down into the bottom cup, thus leaving a void space for the excess water to drain into.
Yeah.. really no reason to grow the most common varieties you can get at the grocer beyond just the sheer enjoyment of growing them... Peppers tend to be ridiculously cheap (Jals are usually something like $0.49 to $0.99 at my grocer!!!) That's why I only have one Jalepeno plant going.
But when I first started growing, the only seeds I had access to where the seeds I could collect from fresh pods I could find at the grocer.
I now have many, many more varieties. Thanks THP!!