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Malformed leaves

ReaperTheRed

ReaperTheRed

Hi everyone,
 
This is my second year to be growing hot peppers and they were doing really well. However, they are getting some gnarly leaves now. I have my peppers in Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, and I only try to water when the soil starts to get dry, however it has been raining some. I did have some aphids on them and I have sprayed Neem and pyrethrin at different times as well. The new leaves do not have any aphids or other bugs on them so I am not sure if I have a nutrient deficiency. Help would be truly appreciated. I also placed the fox farm tomato fertilizer as well when I mixed the soil. These are my ghost and trinidad scorpion peppers. 
 
My first time posting pics so please excuse my ignorance.
 
I'm trying to post pics using imgur but states not allowed in this community?
So I will try direct links, sorry everyone.
 
 
http://i.imgur.com/AYfkdBZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/r4rdHEy.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/l78OxqO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JDupBME.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/QcQsm0Y.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/PGd5xgl.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zF97NNk.jpg
 
Hopefully it's not mites, it kind of looks like mite damage though. I'm going through some mite related issues as well right now. Some of my plants are putting off new growth that looks like your plants. I ended up just chopping the worst mite ridden plants down to a stump, and am using natria on all the rest of my plants to keep them in check.
 
Looks like some left over bug damage ( you say you had aphids - and they can cause all sorts of leaf damage on the newest growth that becomes more apparent as those leaves grow out ) I'd say just wait and see if the leaves that start growing now that the aphids are gone still have the same problem - the plant seems healthy overall so will probably grow out of the deformations as new growth starts now that the bug problem has been dealt with.
 
Ok thanks for the wisdom JD and greenchile, I appreciate it. I just cant understand why the have to attack my peppers! I have tomato plants, squash, herbs that they can attack but nope, they go after the rare species....I am somewhat relieved that it is probably not nutrient deficiency but that may have been easier to fix. I am also located in San Antonio Tx if that matters at all. 
 
It looks to me like your plant was on a nitrogen high, and a chilly evening happened.
 
In fact, from May 2 to May 6, it looked like the temp dipped into the mid 50's overnight in the San Antonio area.  Not super chilly, but a bit of a shock to a young plant when it's having a growth spurt.  Enough to cause what your pics look like.
 
That's not pest damage.  Wait it out.  Don't get itchy to "do something".

 
 
Imgur is allowed here, just click the little picture button that looks like this 
 
eAIKUdb.png

 
Then paste the URL in the box that pops up. If your images are too large you can add an "h" to the end of the url before the extension to use a slightly resized version. For example you could change http://i.imgur.com/QcQsm0Y.jpg to http://i.imgur.com/QcQsm0Yh.jpg (h added after the Y but before the .jpg)
 
QcQsm0Yh.jpg
 
Solid, you are correct it did drop its temp slightly. Hopefully that is what's causing it because almost all my peppers are having that problem. Thanks for the advice.

Txcg, thank you for your help. I thought I tried that but I'm not too technical savvy so I probably screwed up. Ha, I'll try it again next time.
 
ReaperTheRed said:
Solid, you are correct it did drop its temp slightly. Hopefully that is what's causing it because almost all my peppers are having that problem. Thanks for the advice.

Txcg, thank you for your help. I thought I tried that but I'm not too technical savvy so I probably screwed up. Ha, I'll try it again next time.
Click to expand...
Here is a pic I just took of my mite ridden Reaper plant. The new growth looks an awefully lot like yours.
 

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I've been using Natria. They are extremely hard to find, but if you look super closely, you might find some web that looks like a spider web, but has hundreds of little tiny moving things in it. They honestly are smaller than a spec of dust, but on the web threads you can see them. I have a pic posted of them in my grow log of an infested rocoto branch. They are a major PITA. My rose bush is getting demolished by them. The Natria seems to be working right now on the peppers, because I am starting to get some new growth that is looking closer to normal in some areas of the plants.
 
ReaperTheRed said:
My first time posting pics so please excuse my ignorance.
 
I'm trying to post pics using imgur but states not allowed in this community?
So I will try direct links, sorry everyone.
Click to expand...
I use imgur and theres a drop down menu select Bbcode and you can copy and paste that directly to the reply section and it works well.

I dont know about the leaf though, a few of my leaves look similar and I had a couple of cold nights late apriI
 
Thegreenchilemonster said:
Here is a pic I just took of my mite ridden Reaper plant. The new growth looks an awefully lot like yours.
Click to expand...
 
I had some new growth that looked just like his also, and there were no pests in my plants.  This kind of foliage damage happens frequently when the days are getting warmer, and then a cool night comes along.  Especially if you are still in that "big leaf" stage of plant growth. 

If this were my plant - and it has been - I'd wait a week or so, do nothing, let some new leaves roll out before getting a case of the itchy sprayer finger.
 
solid7 said:
 
I had some new growth that looked just like his also, and there were no pests in my plants.  This kind of foliage damage happens frequently when the days are getting warmer, and then a cool night comes along.  Especially if you are still in that "big leaf" stage of plant growth. 

If this were my plant - and it has been - I'd wait a week or so, do nothing, let some new leaves roll out before getting a case of the itchy sprayer finger.
Click to expand...
I can see little webs with hundreds of mites on the plant. It's not weather conditions, trust me. I just lost one of my rocoto plants today. RIP Rocoto Peron!
 
Thegreenchilemonster said:
I can see little webs with hundreds of mites on the plant. It's not weather conditions, trust me. I just lost one of my rocoto plants today. RIP Rocoto Peron!
Click to expand...
 
I understand, but I was talking about the OP's plant.   If you say you had mites, I trust that you know for sure...
 
Thanks everyone for the wisdom. After closer looking I still had some aphids on my plants. Those little bastards. I guess I will need to start spraying the pyrethrin at least once a week. Crazy, last year I never noticed any aphids...
 
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