• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Leaves thin, papery & white... :(

The planting of the 300+ plants is a slow process especially with the heavy rains we've had. Planted 18 three weeks ago. Doing OK but leaves more yellow than they were inside. Not really yellow but were nice & dark before. I'm not worried about those. Planted about 38 more a few days ago. 6-8 plants have almost clear leaves on them. Droopy, silvery/white & thin leaves. Not all leaves, but some. We got some cold nights unexpectedly. 39 one night. I think I did a good job hardening off but that very low temp couldve been too much. The plants that have been in the ground longer are fine.

No pictures But I bet this isn't a mystery for those with more experience than myself

Thanks!
 
jcw10tc said:
Was it sunny?  Sounds like mine when they get sunburn from not being hardened off enough. 
Yeah, last couple of days have been 72 during the day & sunny. I did a good job hardening off with plans to plant almost 3 weeks ago But couldn't get them all out- not even close. Rained & tiller problems. I put them back inside with 18 hours of light & pulled outside a few hours most days.
If that's what it is, should I expect recovery?
 
coachspencerxc said:
Yeah, last couple of days have been 72 during the day & sunny. I did a good job hardening off with plans to plant almost 3 weeks ago But couldn't get them all out- not even close. Rained & tiller problems. I put them back inside with 18 hours of light & pulled outside a few hours most days.
If that's what it is, should I expect recovery
Depends how bad.  I had a 7 pot brown last year that the entire south side of the plant was lost in the first few days.  Planting day and next week were unusually warm and sunny for may.  Like to plant when its cloudy but didn't work out.  Anyway,  all the leaves on the south half of the plant dropped.  North were fine and end of the year pushed out probably 150 - 200 pods so all was well.  I think if you didn't loose all the leaves they got a chance,  Give them some time.  If the leaves drip it might start putting out new growth like when they are topped and pruned.   I though I had mine plenty hardened last year, but still had some sunburn but didn't loose anything completely.  Mine were in and out for a month before plantout and usually up to 6+ hours a day near the end.  Still might not have been completely hardened but didn't loose any.
 
jcw10tc said:
Depends how bad.  I had a 7 pot brown last year that the entire south side of the plant was lost in the first few days.  Planting day and next week were unusually warm and sunny for may.  Like to plant when its cloudy but didn't work out.  Anyway,  all the leaves on the south half of the plant dropped.  North were fine and end of the year pushed out probably 150 - 200 pods so all was well.  I think if you didn't loose all the leaves they got a chance,  Give them some time.  If the leaves drip it might start putting out new growth like when they are topped and pruned.   I though I had mine plenty hardened last year, but still had some sunburn but didn't loose anything completely.  Mine were in and out for a month before plantout and usually up to 6+ hours a day near the end.  Still might not have been completely hardened but didn't loose any.
Excellent. Thanks!
 
As already stated, the question is how bad the damage is. You can even lose all the leaves but if the stem is ok it can pull through. However, if the stem is totally toasted and doesn't perk up fairly quickly after sheltering it, likely it's a goner. Hope that's not the case for you!
 
KrakenPeppers said:
Silvery is definite UV burn, did the leaves get wet on sunny days that will instantly do damage
Not that I remember. Looked yesterday & yeah, there are a few that are pretty messed up. I believe most will pull through. There's a Mustard Lightning Habanero that has already lost a lot of leaves but I think the others will be OK. There are maybe 8-10 plants effected.
 
Thanks for the response, everyone.
 
At the end of the day there just leaves, the plants roots and stems so long as the plant has sufficiant amounts will survive long enough to re-establish folliage..

Just shade them as much as you can untill they get some nodes back up and you may want to mini top them to get the plant into a strong recovery mode
 
Thanks. Yeah, a few days later, I've lost some leaves but I can tell all plants are on the road to recovery. I have about 250 more plants to plant (ugh) & I have most of them hanging out outside full time near some trees so they get full sunlight a couple of hours a day, filtered sunlight a few hours & mostly shade for a few hours.
 
Pics? I had this happen to a few plants and discovered the soil of the pots they was in was horribly acidic. I started adding garden lime to my water and they made a full recovery slowly
 
For what it is worth, I have had this happen under hps lighting when I experimented with 24 hour cycles.  Moved away from the hps and they recovered fine.
 
Back
Top