Plant not looking so good

Suezotiger · May 22, 2015

Hi everyone,

One of my peppers hasn't looked good since before I put it outside, and since then it's only gotten worse. I thought it was just root bound in its solo cup, but it hasn't gotten better after transplanting into a 5 gallon container. I've included some pictures. I'm thinking it's not a watering or nutrients problem, as the only fertilizer I've given it is some slow release MG, the same I've given to all of my plants with no problems, and I've only been watering when it's wilting, and it's been this bad for a while. I've isolated it thinking it could be something bad, but it hasn't seemed to spread at all. If it's not something I can fix I'll probably just pull it, I'm pretty sure it's a Reaper and I have 6 other plants that look much healthier. Let me know what you think and what I could do, thanks.

Also sorry for the huge pictures, they're off of my phone

Phil · May 22, 2015

Soil looks pretty dry, other than the center, by the main stem. Is that just surface? Stick a finger down in the dry stuff and see if it's damp. If so, it may just still be suffering some transplant shock. How long since transplant? Did you leave the root ball intact when you transplanted it?

megahot · May 22, 2015

Remove as many of the affected leaves as you can. Id stay away from from MG. When was the last time you fed it? May need some water since the leaves look droopy

Suezotiger · May 22, 2015

Phil said:
Soil looks pretty dry, other than the center, by the main stem. Is that just surface? Stick a finger down in the dry stuff and see if it's damp. If so, it may just still be suffering some transplant shock. How long since transplant? Did you leave the root ball intact when you transplanted it?

It's wet about an inch down. I transplanted it 2-3 weeks ago, and I made sure to break the roots up a little before transplanting. I'm thinking about trying to pull it out to see how healthy the roots look and if they've been spreading into the larger container.

megahot said:
Remove as many of the affected leaves as you can. Id stay away from from MG. When was the last time you fed it? May need some water since the leaves look droopy

The top leaves feel wilted by the bottom leaves feel fine. It's been like that for a while and the bottom leaves look like that regardless of how much I water them. I applied the slow release fertilizer last week and it should feed it a little every time I water. Before that I fed it with a liquid fertilizer once while it was growing and it didn't seem to change anything.

Overall I was hoping the new growth would look better, but the new leaves just shrivel and die.

Thanks for the responses

megahot · May 22, 2015

Probably some transplant shock. After you transplant you shouldnt feed the plant anything but water for a while. Just in case you didnt know. If you can at least get rid of the worst leaves it will allow the plant to get a little bushier. The plant cant really absorb the nutes through bad leaves that are affected in some sort of a way or another.
Has this plant been getting light?

Suezotiger · May 22, 2015

Yeah it's in full sun outside, I just had to bring them all in cause of frost chance tonight. The only problem with it being transplant shock is that this has been a problem since it was in a solo cup months ago.

meinchoh · May 23, 2015

I could be wrong but it doesn't seem like transplant shock. That shouldn't cause new growth to die quickly and it should only be temporary. Have you checked for root rot? That may have been setting in while in the solo cup. Do you recall how the roots looked when you transplanted?

geeme · May 23, 2015

The 2nd and 3rd photos are definitely not from transplant shock. Were those signs present before you transplanted? You said they looked bad before you transplanted, but what specifically was "bad" about them? Here's a good reference: http://www.seminis-us.com/resources/disease-guides/pepper-eggplant/

As you can see from the reference, plants can get fungal, viral and bacterial infections. Those two pictures look more like one of those is going on than anything else. As megahot said, remove as many of the affected leaves as you can. Also, make a point to NOT touch any healthy-looking leaves, especially after you've handled the impacted leaves. Ideally, wear gloves when removing leaves, putting the leaves and then the gloves into a ziploc and then trashing it. Wash your hands thoroughly afterwards.

Did you cut drainage holes in the solo cups? If not, the problem is most likely fungal, from not allowing the soil to dry out enough between waterings.

Edit: The online version of the disease guide has no photos. However, if you scroll to the very bottom of the page you will find their downloadable PDF guide, which does have photos. Or just use this link: http://www.seminis-us.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/SEM-12095_PepperDiseases_8p5x11_072313.pdf

Suezotiger · May 23, 2015

By bad I meant the leaves were wavy like that and the top leaves were beginning to shrivel and die. I can't remember what the roots looked like unfortunately but there were drainage holes in the cups. Today I'm going to see if I can carefully pull it out and check the roots. Also thanks for the link, I'll have to go through and read it when I have the time

Suezotiger · May 23, 2015

Checked the roots, most were brown. I'm going to remove what I can and prune back the plant

meinchoh · May 23, 2015

Healthy roots are white with very few exceptions. It sounds like root rot to me but, again, I could be wrong. H2O2 is believed to be effective when treating root rot...

http://www.quickgrow.com/gardening_articles/hydrogen_peroxide_horticulture.html

WichitaChief · May 23, 2015

Outside of bugs, fungus, disease, physical and environmental causes most of anything you see up top happens down below. Outside of DNA or poor genetics. Bad,weak,stressed,burned,compacted roots=sick/stunted/abnormal vegetative foliage. The leaves with the holes in them look like there was possibly some physical damage? I have a few leaves on my plants which look like that (the jagged torn holes) due to the leaves getting harmed when i would rearrange the pots in their trays. Some of the edge browning looks like past dryness. I agree with pruning back and trimming dead roots off. Some roots will be brownish or tan if they are older and fine feeder roots may be darker. You should be able to tell what is alive and whats bads.