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Leaf curling problem.

A

adrian089

I'm a first time pepper grower struggling and learning from my mistakes. I had these in a Dutch bucket setup and ended up with root rot because I didn't rinse the perlite well enough and my medium was too sandy. I took them out of the system and put them where rain can't get them and have been hand watering every few days with master blend. They're looking much better now, but my leaves are curling, fading in color to an almost white, and the tips of some leaves are browning and drying out.

The twigs in 1 picture are ones I transplanted to soil and the leaves all fell off. They seem to be sprouting new leaves. Fingers crossed they recover.

1 https://imgur.com/gallery/KXCyx
 
Biggy said:
Did you move them from inside to outside?
Click to expand...
 
No. I had the outside in full Florida sun. I moved them to the front of my house under the roof to avoid rain. Now they get direct sun until maybe 3pm now. 
 
Did you checked the pH of your system when your had the plants in the Dutch Bucket system ?
 
Can you explain what you mean when you say you didn't rinse the Perlite and the soil was too sandy ? Why do you think that ? Seriously not trying to be assy... I am truly interested. 
 
So you took them out of them out of the Dutch system... to a place where the rain can't get them.  Was the rain getting to them while they were in the Ducth system ?
 
As for the leaf curl, it's tough for me to say for sure.  You have moved the plants and the root system could be stressed out. I have tomatoes that have had leaf curl for the entire summer. I don't think it's a disease. I suspect that in my case I have underdeveloped root system and ferts were too high. Don't know. I have NOT solved my problem, but it seems to me that this is a place to look.
 
Good luck to ya !
 
Jeff
 
There was a lot of dust from the perlite and it wasn't draining as well as it should have.

The rain was getting in the Dutch bucket system because it's outdoors. I'll be putting up a greenhouse and shade cloth next year.
 
I'm up in Gainesville, 40 min north, and have similar concerns with leaf curl, flower drop, etc.  We have gotten so much rain, and my plants have been outdoors, even with the 5-gallon bucket self-watering approach, another 15 gallons of rain from a thunderstorm doesn't seem to help.  Once I dry them out, they do better, but still, flowers keep dropping.
 
Chorizo857_62J said:
I'm up in Gainesville, 40 min north, and have similar concerns with leaf curl, flower drop, etc.  We have gotten so much rain, and my plants have been outdoors, even with the 5-gallon bucket self-watering approach, another 15 gallons of rain from a thunderstorm doesn't seem to help.  Once I dry them out, they do better, but still, flowers keep dropping.
Click to expand...
 
The daily rain definitely doesn't help. I'm thinking the flower drop might be from the sun/heat. I moved mine out of where the rain can get them and they have shade for half the day, so we'll see if that helps soon enough hopefully. What varieties are you growing this year? Maybe next season we can exchange seedlings and expand our varieties. Here's what I've got planned for next year so far:
 
Nagabrains Yellow
Reaper X (Long)
Nagabrains Chocolate Strain 1
Andy's King BOC
7 Pot Bubblegum Red
Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion
Carolina Reaper
Aji Charapita
Coyote Zan White
Bhut Jolokia (Ghost) Strain 2
Bhut Jolokia (Ghost) Peach WM
Black Panter (Orange Pheno)
 
I'm planning on starting these this year and keeping them indoors until next season then cloning, so if all goes according to plan I'd be more than happy to share. Ordered 6 varieties from https://www.whitehotpeppers.com/ and ended up with getting 6 free samples.
 
A little update on the twig looking plants in my pictures. They're slowly sprouting new leaves and it looks like they're going to bounce back.
 
I'm just growing a Golden Habanero and a Red Bhut this year, acquired, (shamefully) from a local home improvement store, which also sells 5-gallon buckets by which I am testing this self watering system concept.  Have always done raised bed gardening, but in recent years have had poor results, primarily to nematodes, too much rain/heat, etc.  Plus the white flies were brutal this year, but I think Irma took them to Atlanta.  Right now, everything has been in the garage until tomorrow, thank you Irma.  I am interested in a more controlled approach to growing, even with inside lighting over the winter.  Used to do the greenhouse thing, which was very successful with cloning assorted shrubbery flowering plants (hibiscus).  My plants were dong well, but we got so much rain before this storm, I took them out of the drip and pour zone to dry them out a bit, and trimmed them back, now they are looking healthier.  Were having leaf curl and a bronze tinge on the entire leaf bottoms.  Was treating with Neem and epsom salt solution every few days.  Would definitely like to follow up.
J.
 
I wanted to share an update. My twigs are now plants again and starting to flower. https://imgur.com/gallery/7qfjn
 
Once they started looking fairly healthy again and I know they'd recover, I transplanted them into bigger containers. The 1 datil, still has leaf curl and I have no idea why.
 
 
We've had some hot drier days lately (and I'm only 40 miles north), and my Red Bhut dried out good, is flowering again, and producing pods!!.  I had to let it dry out to the point of wilting, but it seems to have worked.  My Habenero has been floundering while the other flourishes.  It's leaves and nice color, but small and compact. I have it in a double-bucket self watering deal, but the soil was just too wet.  so I pulled it up (not out), because the roots did extend to the inner bucket bottom, so it was getting wicked up from the bottom.  So I mixed in a 50/50 mix of perlite and vermiculite with the existing soils, to lighten it up, lifted the plant about 3 inches, because it was sitting a little low in the bucket, and we'll see.  It appeared the soils were wet enough around it that no lateral growth had occurred.  I think drainage was a problem with the original mix. 
 
In a long-winded way, I think our local weather has bee brutal on many fronts.  At least the grass is growing, but i don't like to eat that.
 
J
 
Im also growing in Florida..... I exclusively grow in grow bags for this specific reason. Hot peppers hate wet feet and grow bags dry out quickly enough that it is never an issue for me.
 
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