health Carolina Reaper plant - whats wrong? (Need help)

Frekk · Dec 19, 2018

I have a Carolina Reaper plant. It has been indoors all it's life. It has been flowering for about 2-3 months, but all flowers drop and no sign of pods yet. I hand polinate using a paintbrush/shake and blow.

Recently a few brown spots started to appear. They seem to slowly affect more and more leaves and the spots on the effected leaves seems to grow larger and larger. Some leaves have started to get holes in them.

Another finding, I don't know if it's connected to the brown spots, are some kind of deposition under the leaves. These deposition mainly follows the center line under the leaf.

After searching for a week, I thought I needed to turn to the proffesionals.

Does anyone have any idea of what this is, and more important can I do anything to stop it?

Regards
Fredric

View attachment 71378

Mr. West · Dec 19, 2018

Edema

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhmFPvJldeI

Frekk · Dec 19, 2018

Thanks för the reply. After looking, the small stuff alpng the leaves center line could very well be Edema. But I cant find any info on if Edema can cause the browning of the leaves?

Mr. West · Dec 19, 2018

I think the lesions are a symptom of progressive edema. The crystalline deposits on the underside definitely are.
Other than that, it doesn't necessarily look overwatered. It looks healthy. Leaves appear dark green and shiny.
Maybe if it's staying too wet, then it will be enough to adjust your watering habits.
Or it could be a result of compacted media, reducing it's oxygen holding capacity.
If you plan to repot, you could use more aeration amendments for faster draining and also increased pore size (reducing the potential for compaction).

Frekk · Dec 19, 2018

Thank you very much Mr.West! I dont think I over water, rather the air is too still for the plant to be able to successfully sweat out the excess water and therefore the edema. After your last post, I went to my nearby techstore and bought to small fans, one for each planting area.

I think (hope) this will sufficient airflow to allow for proper sweating...

Thanks Mr.West

Mr. West · Dec 19, 2018

You're right. I might have added that.
Well there you go. It sounds like you've got a good fix on it.
All credit due to your own research, critical thinking & problem solving abilities.
Again, nice looking plant. Good growing, frekk.

moruga welder · Dec 19, 2018

yup , over watering , as for pods your gonna need some more serious lumens ,
:party:

Frekk · Dec 19, 2018

Great and fast replies from all of you, thank you! And Mr.West - never seen that video before - interesting

Moruga Welder, of course my aim is to make the plant put out som pods. As I've heard, you can never hade too much light, unless you burn the plant. As for now, I don't have a dedicated grow lamp on the plant, but instead I have
7 pieces of 1500 lumen leds, crammed into a metallic up-side-down trash can with a cord hole in the bottom (top)...

So...far from ideal. But it pops out around 10500 lumens (I know lumen isn't a proper unit for growth light, but rather PPFD...) I use regular white LEDs, so a lot of the light is in wavelengths that the plant can't use, since it mainly uses the red and blue spectrum. But, as I think, within the white light that I now have, there are blue and red wavelengths (and a lot of "waste" light), but is the amount of the useful wavelengths I have anywere near enough for pods, or do I need to re-think the light-thing all together?

Regards
Fredric

Mr. West · Dec 20, 2018

Frekk said:
As for now, I don't have a dedicated grow lamp on the plant, but instead I have
7 pieces of 1500 lumen leds, crammed into a metallic up-side-down trash can with a cord hole in the bottom (top)...

Oh so thats what that is.
LED bulbs are usually made to point in a single direction. So, you might not need the diy reflector.
Instead, you may want to put reflective material (like mylar horticultural film or just white panels) around the sides of the plant and the hangman's gallows.
This might require adjusting your fan position. Alternatively, you could add supplemental side-lighting to reach the shaded leaves below the canopy.
Or you could selectively prune to thin the leaves, which would allow more light penetration and air circulation within the plant's foliage, thus aiding your leaf transpiration issue.

Mitzi · Dec 20, 2018

In my experience it's normal for most Reaper flowers to drop even after hand pollinating. It's not the most productive of peppers, at least for me. You might find though that all of a sudden the pods start to set and then you'll get quite a few. The plant will keep flowering so you'll excitedly pollinate the next bunch of flowers... and they'll all drop off again. Good luck with it.

stc3248 · Dec 20, 2018

The new fans should help with pollination and will fix the edema...but as mentioned these plants will typically drop a lot of flowers before they start to set pods. Be patient, keep your temps between 70 and 80 in your grow area and eventually you'll get some pods.

Frekk · Dec 20, 2018

Thank you all for your fast input!

Mr.West, I will definately try to add something reflective, Ive done it in the other growing-area (a shelf with added reflective walls and lightning). And yes, the LEDs are more directional than normal bulbs, but far from as directional I would like them to be.

stc3248, the temp is fairly stable at 75 fahrenheit (or 23.8 celsius). Does the temp need to go down once a day to simulate night or is it ok to keep it constant?

As for the flowers Mitzi and stc3248 I guess Ill just have to be patient.

BUT after all this great feedback, the fans and soon-to-be reflectors - I expect miracles and a bunch of Reapers popping up

Regards
Fredric

stc3248 · Dec 20, 2018

steady 75 is fine...any time the temp drops below about 65 the plants will have a harder time setting pods. Post up pics when you finally get one to stick.

Frekk · Dec 26, 2018

I dont know what, but I think I might actually be doing something right! Despite it being in late december and outside temperature is below 0 degrees celsius - Ive managed to spot a Reaper-pod!

Thanks for all the quick replies in the thread, I dont know if it was actually the fan that solved the edema and at the same time fixed the pollination-issue, but it didnt ruin anything, thats for sure. I havent gotten around yet to build a reflective wall yet, but I hope I will find the time soon. I guess the light is enough, but Im sure it can be better. Right now it feels good to now that it has produced a pod without a single ray of sunshine

Lets just hope it doesnt fall off tomorrow, Ill keep you posted!

P.S I dont know why some pictures are rotated wrong, cant seem to fix it either on the phone or computer...

Regards
//Fredric

forestman · Dec 27, 2018

Hi! I have a similar problem. The leaves are falling. Bottom-white is a white film. Peppers 80 days. Lighting-30 watt 220 volt full spectrum diode . Pots-2.5 liters

Fertilized twice :

Three major macronutrients (NPK): nitrogen (N) - 6 %, phosphorus (P2O5) - 4 %, potassium (K2O) - 5 %
Main trace element: magnesium (MgO – - 1 %
Nine trace elements: boron, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, cobalt, as well as calcium and magnesium. Of these, six trace elements in chelated form: (iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, cobalt)
Vitamin complex: B1, PP, C
Growth promoter: succinic acid

Also the edema? Well-watered as dry

Frekk · Dec 27, 2018

Forestman: I am in no way an expert here, but Ive learned some things from the fellow pepperheads in this thread. In my case it turned out that the white spots, tje browning of leaves, even tellowing and dropping of yellow leaves was the result of edema.

In my case, as I think, the cause was that the air around the plant was too still, wich prevented the plant to transpire (sweat) the exessive water. This causes cells in leaves to rupture, hence the white/brown small dots under the leaf.

The solution that I was suggested, puting a fan close to the plant in order to make it transpire more (just like yourself in a warm day when your hot and sweaty, its pretty nice with a fan nearby).

It seems like this solution worked for me. I havent been able to notice any more spread of the white spots and discoloration of the leaves.

If you already have a fan nearby, I dont have a solution right away. I found a good site which describes plant-edema very thouroghly. Good luck!

http://kentcoopextension.blogspot.com/2009/02/greenhouse-edema.html?m=1

forestman · Dec 27, 2018

Frekk said:
Good luck!

Thank you! I have a room fan and I have already put it to my plants. I'll watch.

Ghost Pepper Revolution · Dec 29, 2018

You sure those arent aphid infestation, the pics show spots on the leaves which in my experience has been sugar/honeydew deposits?

forestman · Jan 1, 2019

I tried )))) - is not sweet.

Frekk · Jan 4, 2019

Well Im back again! The pods (two) are growing well, but the last two day a couple of leaves turned yellow and black spots appeared. The plant didnt have enough water 3 days ago and this might be the resut, but again, Im turning to the proffessionals here. I did add some epsom salt 4 days ago, does that have anything to do with the yellowing/blackening? Any syggestions on how to proceed?

PS, I added a pic of the largest of the two pods

Regards
Fredric

health Carolina Reaper plant - whats wrong? (Need help)

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