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New growth looking funky?

inolan22

inolan22

I have just noticed the new growth on some of my plants have been looking slightly funky.

I have seen this growth on my Black Scorpion, Orange Hab, and Bhut Jolokia both in pots as well as in the ground. All the rest of the growth on the plant has looked fine up until this new growth.

FunkyGrowthBlackScorpion7-13-11.jpg

FunkyGrowthBlackScorpion27-13-11.jpg

FunkyGrowthBhut-7-13-11.jpg

FunkyGrowthBhut27-13-11.jpg

FunkyGrowthOrangeHab7-13-11.jpg


Hope someone can help :)
 
Study the undersides of the leaves with a magnifying glass to see if you can see any bugs.

If it is happening to all of your plants, it might be some sort of poisoning, perhaps by strong weed killer (which from what I have read can be transmitted in the wind).

What was the last stuff you fed your plants? Have you used any poisons or other chemicals in your yard? Any chance something residual from a spray pump or watering bucket might have gotten introduced when they were used for another purpose?
 
Broad mites. You darn near need a microscope to see them and they are very fast escape artists. Get a vial with a lid and fill it half way with rubbing alcohol. Be very quick and cut a few of the worst leaves off and into the vial and cap it. Shake a couple times then take it to your county extension. They can ID the bugs for you. Good luck.
 
I only say over fert because I did it this year and that is exactly what my plants looked like. I treated for mites over and over to no avail. Flush the soil really well and cut off all of that crazy looking growth. It will take a month or so but they will revover.
 
+1 Wolfhound Overfert...I have one raised bed that has different soil than the others ( horse manure compost). Most of the plants in that bed look like your's, Dr. Suess meet's Tim Burton's daydream. The plants are slowly coming out of the funk.
Good luck Mike
 
I just fed the in ground plants some regular plant food (like 11-11-11 or something) and I haven't given anything to the potted plant. The potted plan is in miracle grow soil (which I know everyone loves around here :eek: ), but I have around 16 plants in pots and only 1-2 are showing any sign of this.

I'll check tomorrow for some bugs and see if I find anything. I also had some spinach growing in another location that seemed to do something similar with scrunched up leaves. They were never fertilized.

Edit: This is only happening to about 4-5 plants out of the 50 or so that I have going.
 
I was actually taking a look at the funky growth this morning. Here is what plants I have seen and where.

Garden:
2/2 Bhuts
2/2 Black Scorpion
1/2 Orange Habs

Plants that don't seen to be affected: Bell, black cobra, red devil's tongue, congo trinidad, Choc Hab, and Thai dragon.

Potted:
1/1 Black Scorpion

Starting to see signs of this on my orange hab, naga morich, and even my overwintered Bhut.


If this is a mite issues, is there some kind of spray I can use to kill them off?
If this is an over-fert issue, then when I flush out a potted plant, the water out the bottom should look like a darker brown color, correct?
 
I have several that look just like that except instead of dark green they are really light green/yellow. At first it was only a few plants, then it spread to almost all of them. I've got maybe 3-4 that are ok still. Turns out it was the caretaker of the foreclosed house behind me spraying ground clear out of a really high pressure tank system on a windy day. My citrus trees also got hit and are looking like crap, and I have areas in my grass that almost died off from it. So far I've lost close to 60 plants this year because of that. At first it was this years new transplants, but it has since spread to my 2nd year plants and is wreaking havoc on them.
My y7's, Bhut's, and Aji's all dropped every pod they had just short of harvest time, and all look about a week to death now. The only plants that are ok, and oddly enough closest to that yard and did get hit, are my Santa Fe Grande's and my hot Banana peppers. The Birds took notice and decided to help kill
Times like this I wish retribution beatings were lawfully acceptable.
 
+1 for mites. Cut off the bad growth, knock them out with pyrethrin and follow up with azamax about every 5 days for a couple weeks. You could use neem oil instead of azamax but azamax is basically concentrated neem active ingredient, easier to use and doesn't smell. Alternatively on the cheap you could steep some neem seed meal and use that as a spray (with addition of surfactant and sticker), using the meal as a mulch while you are at it. Oh, and don't spray in full sun, this stuff is generally phytotoxic.
As far as identifying the type of mite, here is a cheap handheld microscope I have found useful for this and many other things: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/illuminated-pocket-60x-to-100x-zoom-microscope-1328
 
Just got home and went out to take a look. I took a sheet of paper and shook a bunch of different locations. I did find a few aphids here and there, but only a couple really small bugs (could hardly make them out with 10x magnification).

With this kind of damage, should they be falling out at a much higher quantity?
 
inolan22 said:
Just got home and went out to take a look. I took a sheet of paper and shook a bunch of different locations. I did find a few aphids here and there, but only a couple really small bugs (could hardly make them out with 10x magnification).

With this kind of damage, should they be falling out at a much higher quantity?
Click to expand...

you can also look at the leaf through sunlight, if you see any specks then you know it is mites.
 
indoorsey said:
you can also look at the leaf through sunlight, if you see any specks then you know it is mites.
Click to expand...

I am not seeing any specks when I hold up a leaf. Does this mean its some sort of deficiency or possibly and herbicide blown in by the wind?

What can I do, cut off the bad leaves and cross my fingers the new growth doesn't look the same?
 
inolan22 said:
I am not seeing any specks when I hold up a leaf. Does this mean its some sort of deficiency or possibly and herbicide blown in by the wind?

What can I do, cut off the bad leaves and cross my fingers the new growth doesn't look the same?
Click to expand...
cut off bad growth. if it is in a pot prepare a bucket of insecticidal soap and dunk the entire plant in it (upside down of course, not the rootball). Go get some safer brand Pyrethrin and spray it down afterwar it dries, keeping it out of direct sun the whole time.

drench soil with pH corrected water with 1tsp powdered kelp per gallon, spray top surface of soil with pyretherins as well.

Repeat every 5 days for three times.

but really you should ID the bugs first.

herbicidal damage is new to me, not much of a threat in my area. It would be hitting multiple plants too more than likely.
 
I had the same exact thing happen to my plants recently. I clipped the nasty looking leaves and sprayed with insecticide. Within a couple days there is nice looking new growth.
 
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