nuthead's first grow log

gasificada · Jul 15, 2011

Lotsa little babies! :cool:

I really hope for your sake it's not, but that curling might be (and very well could be) caused by broad mites.

Broad mite toxin usually causes new growth to curl downward, but in my experience with the little buggers, occasionally some of my infested plants do exhibit very similar looking damage (usually as a first sign).

First signs of mite infestation on one of my plants:

nuthead · Jul 24, 2011

short update on my plants

Birds Eyes in makeshift pots 25th June

Chinense X/unknown pods 25th June. There 7 pods right now on the plant. Flowers seem to be dropping alot, might be the tropical heat, getting shade cloth soon.

Chinense X seedling 25th June. Seems to be doing well.

Leaf curling and bubbling, I am still not sure of the cause. Thinking over watering and calcium deficiency from what I've read around. Advice?

As mentioned above, if it happen to be broad mites, are they visible to the naked eye? Any distinct tell tale signs?

Some browning on leaf ends. Could it be sunburn? Fert burn maybe? Holding back ferts until further info. Any advice on this?

One of the two fertilizer I'm using, guano. Have used a teaspoon of this about 3 weeks ago for budding. NPK 5-18-5. There is another fertilizer that I alternate with, NPK 6-8-5. I have a feeling I might have been abit too generous with it with 1 teaspoon every two weeks.

Btw, I just bought yet another pot of unknown peppers, what are they? A Frutescens variety? There seems to be two types of pods, a spherical one and a stubby one. Both goes through some colors like purple, yellow, orange, cream and ends up red.

kiddc · Jul 24, 2011

The last pic looks like a bolivian rainbow.

Good pics and good luck with you grow!

gasificada · Jul 25, 2011

Good news is that it does not look like broad mite damage anymore, and my guess now would be some kind of burn too.

nuthead said:
As mentioned above, if it happen to be broad mites, are they visible to the naked eye? Any distinct tell tale signs?

Nah, definitely not visible to the naked eye. They are microscopic.

But yeah, like I said, usually mite toxin causes leaves to curl downward and go all hard and claw-like. That's probably the most distinct sign.

markt_10350 · Jul 26, 2011

Hi Michael,

Good luck with your plants, I do find that the local birds eye chilli will grow like weeds in our weather . They germinate easily and grow very fast. I bought some fresh ones from the market that is supposedly imported from Vietnam. I asked for the hottest and that's what they recommended me. Its hotter then our normal chilli padi but I enjoy it very much with soy sauce as a dip. I took out the seeds from one chilli pod and spread them into some soil and I got > 30 germinated maybe >90% rate. Took 2 of the healthiest plant and potted them and now I see the first flower buds (2 months). The chinense type that I got the seeds overseas is another different story. I have plenty germinated but the grow rate has been slow. I see reasonable growth rate using jiffy 7 peat pellet as compare to normal soil mix. I think chilli love very light soil mix. I bought a Chillipadi plant from Tesco a few days back, the soil mix is very light with very healthy roots. Upon visual observation I notice its either 100% coco coir, or mixture of Coco Coir and peat moss with a sprinkle of perlite. I am currently leaning towards a 50% soil mix 50% coco coir to make the soil much lighter and with addition of some perlite.

Mark T

nuthead · Jul 26, 2011

gasificada said:
Good news is that it does not look like broad mite damage anymore, and my guess now would be some kind of burn too.

Nah, definitely not visible to the naked eye. They are microscopic.

But yeah, like I said, usually mite toxin causes leaves to curl downward and go all hard and claw-like. That's probably the most distinct sign.

Phew, that's good to hear. Thanks for the input.

markt_10350 said:
Hi Michael,

Good luck with your plants, I do find that the local birds eye chilli will grow like weeds in our weather . They germinate easily and grow very fast. I bought some fresh ones from the market that is supposedly imported from Vietnam. I asked for the hottest and that's what they recommended me. Its hotter then our normal chilli padi but I enjoy it very much with soy sauce as a dip. I took out the seeds from one chilli pod and spread them into some soil and I got > 30 germinated maybe >90% rate. Took 2 of the healthiest plant and potted them and now I see the first flower buds (2 months). The chinense type that I got the seeds overseas is another different story. I have plenty germinated but the grow rate has been slow. I see reasonable growth rate using jiffy 7 peat pellet as compare to normal soil mix. I think chilli love very light soil mix. I bought a Chillipadi plant from Tesco a few days back, the soil mix is very light with very healthy roots. Upon visual observation I notice its either 100% coco coir, or mixture of Coco Coir and peat moss with a sprinkle of perlite. I am currently leaning towards a 50% soil mix 50% coco coir to make the soil much lighter and with addition of some perlite.

Mark T

I see. Are Jiffy 7 and perlite available locally? Coco coir is sabut kelapa right?

markt_10350 · Jul 26, 2011

Hi Michael,

Jiffy 7 peat pellet are used for germination, I got them from Soon Huat seed co. at Beach street. They sell for RM1 each. I don't know any nursery that sell seed starter soil mix. Yes Coco coir is sabut kelapa. Perlite is harder to find locally. I got them from Wellgro Horti in KL. Later I found a nursery at Air Itam/ Paya terubong main road toward balik pulau that sell them in small packet. PM me if you want to find out more.

Mark T

nuthead · Jul 26, 2011

Some pests that I've come across recently, aphids, mealybug[possibly from the rambutans we buy], some bug smaller/slimmer than an aphid that is long and moves around fast, I'm thinking thrips maybe. Currently getting rid of them by squashing them with my fingers. All in sparse populations, nothing too bad. Wouldn't tie them to the leaf curl and bubbling yet.

Spicegeist · Jul 26, 2011

gasificada said:
Good news is that it does not look like broad mite damage anymore, and my guess now would be some kind of burn too.

Nah, definitely not visible to the naked eye. They are microscopic.

But yeah, like I said, usually mite toxin causes leaves to curl downward and go all hard and claw-like. That's probably the most distinct sign.

Ah, depressing pics gasificada, reminds me of my champion bhut over the winter I was growing indoors, I lost it to something that like that though the bottoms of the leaves did have some kind of small white (much smaller than aphids) visible aspect...

gasificada · Jul 27, 2011

Spicegeist said:
Ah, depressing pics gasificada, reminds me of my champion bhut over the winter I was growing indoors, I lost it to something that like that though the bottoms of the leaves did have some kind of small white (much smaller than aphids) visible aspect...

Sorry to hear that. I really know how much it sucks!

And yeah, I can usually spot them too.... but only just! If you look closely at this photo again, you will see very tiny little white dots on some of the leaves:

And this one here:

You can't just make out a definitive shape is all.

nuthead · Aug 2, 2011

It has been a barrage of bad signs lately. I have spotted thrips, aphids, some scale-like thing, mealybug, and what seems to be broad mites under the microscope, it looked like little water droplets. :eek:

I'm hoping those are just the thrips eggs and not broad mites. Although there seems to me some damage that looks like the ones posted above.

alot of them running around on all my plants

Can anyone identify this thing? It's the scale-like thing I mentioned. Looks like a horseshoe crab shape.

Damage on my new growth

Aside from those, the leaf curl, bubbling and burns are not clearing up yet. Two of my Chinense X pods have dropped off as well. I'm hoping you guys could chime in on how to control and eliminate them. I'm just a new home gardener and I don't have much understanding/access to most of the pesticide/chemicals mentioned frequently on the forums as well.

I greatly appreciate all the help.

markt_10350 · Aug 5, 2011

nuthead said:
It has been a barrage of bad signs lately. I have spotted thrips, aphids, some scale-like thing, mealybug, and what seems to be broad mites under the microscope, it looked like little water droplets. I'm hoping those are just the thrips eggs and not broad mites. Although there seems to me some damage that looks like the ones posted above.

alot of them running around on all my plants

Can anyone identify this thing? It's the scale-like thing I mentioned. Looks like a horseshoe crab shape.

Damage on my new growth

Aside from those, the leaf curl, bubbling and burns are not clearing up yet. Two of my Chinense X pods have dropped off as well. I'm hoping you guys could chime in on how to control and eliminate them. I'm just a new home gardener and I don't have much understanding/access to most of the pesticide/chemicals mentioned frequently on the forums as well.

I greatly appreciate all the help.

Hi there,

The insect picture shown is thrips larvae. I am having the same leaf curl on the young buds of birds eye chilli. Will try neem spray and see if it works. Check out this site with photos and videos. http://mrec.ifas.ufl...thripslinks.htm
The horseshoe crab could be insect eggs? Not really sure.
Hope it helps.

Mark T