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Carolina Reaper Question

Hello this is my first post. I have a question regarding my Carolina Reaper plant. Why does it keep loosing leaves? The leaves that have fallen appear to be healthy. The plant has been moved indoors under a grow light, which is on about 12-13 hours a day. The room stays at 75-80 degrees, and I water when the soil is dry.

What steps should I take? Pruning? Or let the plant take its own course.

Thank you :)

Here is a link to a photo of the plant.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3yh04h3al1ureai/AADXWBVLxK-E7hhPfotOtQ1Wa?dl=0
 
12-13 hours of light is winter lighting... it could be going into a dormant state... go up to 16-18 hours on... besides that we would need to know more.. watering? fertilizing? you said you just brought it in... does that mean you dug it up or was it in that pot already? and we cant see shit in that pic...
 
Thanks for the reply, and I apologize for the poor picture. I will post different ones tomorrow.

The plant was always in a pot, never in the ground. I brought it indoors sometime in late September.

The soil I used was just a standard miracle grow.

I water every other day about a cup.

Basically I'm wondering if it is normal for the plant to be dropping healthy leaves, and if it's supposed to be this tall (18in) with no leaves near the bottom. Or do I top the plant.

Sorry if I seem vague, I'm new to pepper growing but I'm enjoying the process! :)
 
Personally, I would top it to just above the lowest leaves on the tall part.. leave that little short offshoot branch as is, increase the hours and put the light closer...also top off with some new miracle grow soil if you have it or better yet get some fert like Osmocote (home depot) and feed it some... i also drop any fallen leaves right in the pot to let them degrade back into the soil... Plant that tall also seems like a small pot... but you can go bigger next year... shrink it down,feed it, increase the hours and if its not really changing colors etc its probably just going dormant.. the smaller branch looks full and healthy.. that tall one may be too much for it to upkeep indoors with less light hours and intensity... looks like an led since the plant is black in the pic...top it and get it closer...just my 2 cents

and :welcome:  to thp

to be honest, id probably remove the tall one entirely and let the smaller fuller branch become the new main plant as well as feed and increase light...

remove both tall ones and make the little one the new main plant...

after you remove the tall ones strip their leaves, crush em up and throw them on top of the soil to degrade
 
Better pictures might help but seems just by some statements it could be over watered. What is the soil temp in the pot? A cup of water every other day seems excessive and the plant looks very lanky.  
 
One other question no one has asked form what I see is did it produce pods during the season at all? If so it might have went into a dormant state due to the shock of soil temps, watering schedule, and also a biggie is that this pot appears to be like a 2 gal or smaller.
It is possible that it may need an up potting
 
Pepperhead1989 said:
One other question no one has asked form what I see is did it produce pods during the season at all? If so it might have went into a dormant state due to the shock of soil temps, watering schedule, and also a biggie is that this pot appears to be like a 2 gal or smaller.
It is possible that it may need an up potting
I was going to ask that but due to size I assumed no way possible. 
 
No pods. I can move this to a five gal. container. The reason why the plant got lanky was it was originally not getting proper lighting.

It's been a learning experience that's for sure. I'll try and salvage the plant and see what it does. And will start with fresh seeds and better knowledge on what to do.

Thanks for the replies :)
 
JUR-Z-Devil said:
12-13 hours of light is winter lighting... it could be going into a dormant state... go up to 16-18 hours on...
 

Don't hot peppers grow well in the equatorial zones?
 
I'm wondering if I really need to keep my lights on for 16 hours. I have early babies but I don't much care about them growing large for a while.
 
This is true, but his plant isnt getting 12straight hours of equatorial sun... Plus he is using a rather small LED from what i can tell by the pic... I would suppose it would depend on the light intensity but someone who does indoor growing of peppers would need to weigh in on this as im going of marijuana grows that have vegging and fruiting stages... peppers may be different...
 
I suppose alot of factoes go into that..like my over winters... I have them in the basement under 24 hours of light via t8's but it stays relatively cool down there...once a week i give them a night of darkness... They simply maintain themselves... grow a little.. make some flowers but never fruit.. and thats with 24 hours of light while yours has fruit setting in at less hours and warmer temps and id guess higher light intensity... mine simply remain the same all winter...
 
Do you get aphid issues while overwintering in the basement?
 
 
JUR-Z-Devil said:
I suppose alot of factoes go into that..like my over winters... I have them in the basement under 24 hours of light via t8's but it stays relatively cool down there...once a week i give them a night of darkness... They simply maintain themselves... grow a little.. make some flowers but never fruit.. and thats with 24 hours of light while yours has fruit setting in at less hours and warmer temps and id guess higher light intensity... mine simply remain the same all winter...
 
 
grover said:
Do you get aphid issues while overwintering in the basement?
 
 
 
 

I use too... every winter... Not once did i ever see an aphid on my plants outdoors but when brought indoors they would just explode... few years ago i started treating them immediately when they came inside to avoid the problem... Oddly this year, I did not treat them and may have stumbled upon quite an interesting find that i will need to post so others can help me test the theory... I had aphids show up this year... lots of them... BUT, it would seem that aphids have a taste for other plants before peppers...  In with my peppers were all my herbs too...
 
it would appear that every aphid went straight for my peppermint and spearmint plants and never looked back... inches away from my pepper plants and not one aphid on my peppers... left the mint plants there for a few days trying to rid the of the aphids but they kept coming back... finally took the mint plants and all the aphids outside to kill the aphids, and till this day still not a single aphid on my peppers...100% untreated...
 
Seems i baited them to the mints and then just removed them all together... Must be experimented with...
 
For the purpose of experimenting with different overwintering conditions I put two of my plants in a south window of the 5th wheel camper rather than putting them in my hillbilly winter shelter. Now I have an infestation of ladybugs in there that has just blown up since it got really warm a few days ago. Yeah. Better than bad bugs but don't need a RV full of ladybugs either.
 
DWB said:
For the purpose of experimenting with different overwintering conditions I put two of my plants in a south window of the 5th wheel camper rather than putting them in my hillbilly winter shelter. Now I have an infestation of ladybugs in there that has just blown up since it got really warm a few days ago. Yeah. Better than bad bugs but don't need a RV full of ladybugs either.
 

maybe it would be possible to throw some in  jar with some moist leaves and keep them in the fridge till needed... not sure but something to look into...
 
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Upon further review, it appears the infestation must be outside but a great many have come inside. I guess (?) They are crawling all over the exterior of the camper and a white car parked next to it.
 
Good job I have no shortage of these critters around here. That may explain why I've never seen an aphid. I also have a mantis, a tree frog and several chameleons living in my overwinter pepper shack.
 
I'll collect a bunch of them in a coffee can. A little while ago I got a bunch in a bucket and let them loose in the pepper shed.
 
JUR-Z-Devil said:
12-13 hours of light is winter lighting... it could be going into a dormant state... go up to 16-18 hours on... 
 
The plant doesn't really care how much light it gets.  Dormancy isn't triggered by light - it's triggered by soil temperature.  If light duration was a trigger, we'd not be able to grow in partial shade.  I'm growing 4 plants right now in an area of my yard that never sees full sun - and have new growth rolling out - in the shortest days of the year, no less. 12-13 hours of indoor lighting is more than adequate for a non-fussy plant, like a pepper.  You can get away with as little as 5-6, or as much as 24.  It's not the area to focus on, though.
 
The plants sound overwatered.  OP - just because the top layer of potting mix seems dry, doesn't mean that it's dry throughout.  Back off of your watering to once a week, or until the plant tells you that it's thirsty.
 
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