So when I started growing my Habanero seeds that I bought from Home Depot, I added bone meal to the soil-maybe too much. In turn, it started to get buds on it and flower. I have one pepper growing-it is getting bigger every week it seems and looks nice and green. The other flowers and leaves lasted a bit until they fell off. I have several leaves that are slightly yellow and the potential buds look like someone took a match to them. I'm convinced too much bone meal is causing issues. What can be done to fix this? Reading online it says to rinse the soil with water? Do I want to do that and risk doing damage to the pepper that is healthy and growing? I have another flower that is open and showing maybe it will start fruiting. I don't want to do any more harm.
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plant-care bone meal issues
- Thread starter hotmanPete
- Start date
You must use bone meal in moderation & it can change soil PH.
whyfarmit.com
Bone Meal for Pepper Plants: What To Know Before Using
There is a strong advocacy among a group of gardeners for the use of bone meal due to its numerous benefits.
whyfarmit.com
But have read that too much will cause issues. I added too much I feel in the beginning. Remember growing them in pots in my apartment. I must have done something right to get at least 1 pepper so far.
If that is the issue, you'll likely need to repot the plant into fresh soil. Flushing doesn't work particularly well with solid versus liquid fertilization. There's not much to go on here though to know if that's the issue. The best thing you can do for your peppers until you get used to growing them is to buy decent quality container soil and leave them alone for a while. If/when you eventually get deficiencies, it will likely be an N boost they need and you'll likely have time to make smaller adjustments with a liquid fertilizer without any real issues.
The only other issue I can think of is Bone meal can grow a lot of mold as can Blood meal.
I believe I would take a PH test to check the soil..
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That looks like you very well could have nute OD/burn issues. I'd definitely repot that one into fresh soil, removing the extra soil from around the root ball so the problem doesn't transfer with it. If it weren't for wanting to save the pepper fruit on it, I'd likely top it back to the lower several confirmed healthy growth nodes after transplant as well, as the upper growth tips look like they've had some significant damage. I'd also get it into warm, low-light conditions for a few days after transplant.
I did what you said CaneDog. I put it into a slightly bigger pot and brushed off the soil from the root ball. I use Happy Frog soil and just got to run to Home Depot and get some stakes to hold it upright.
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LOL, what did you do!!! I have never in my life seen this! I don't normally trust those digital testers but it says 7?? My guess would be root rot, assuming you added LOADS of bonemeal, the medium would have very high water retention. Assuming the pH isn't way off and there is plenty of phosphorus there 'should' be plenty of root growth, unless it's root rot. How did the roots look? When stuff goes wrong like this it's a fantastic learning experience.
That sounds good. I think Happy Frog is pretty hot soil, meaning that it already has a lot of nutrients in it. Some people mix it 50/50 with soil with lower nutrients (and cheaper soil) for use with peppers, especially young ones. I think it should be okay, especially if you get the plant into much weaker light for a while to help it root in and take away stress as it starts to cycle through the remaining nutrient concentration.
You might want to watch how it grows. If the growth tips are dead or in really bad shape, it will respond and ultimately grow better by pruning it back to lower healthier growth nodes (over-dosed nutrients travel to the farthest reaches away from the roots and then, with nowhere left for them to go, they concentrate and do damage). If there are healthy growth nodes lower on the plant, likely beneath the y-split in this case, pruning back to these lower nodes will get the plant to grow back quicker and also give you a shorter bushier plant, which is a good growth pattern indoors.
I hope it does well for you!
You might want to watch how it grows. If the growth tips are dead or in really bad shape, it will respond and ultimately grow better by pruning it back to lower healthier growth nodes (over-dosed nutrients travel to the farthest reaches away from the roots and then, with nowhere left for them to go, they concentrate and do damage). If there are healthy growth nodes lower on the plant, likely beneath the y-split in this case, pruning back to these lower nodes will get the plant to grow back quicker and also give you a shorter bushier plant, which is a good growth pattern indoors.
I hope it does well for you!
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I looked at the roots when I moved it into a bigger pot-stringy but not root bound and no signs of rot.
Then I guess it is nute burn, but very odd to see the pH go up, not down, in a nute overdose.
I got plant stakes at Home Depot and inserted them into the new soil to keep the plant upright. I moved the plant off to the side of my grow light so it is not in the direct light.
@hotmanPete I'm going to answer your questions on both this thread and on the other one that you made (asking what you should do next). I personally don't think your issue is nutrient burn from bone meal, because bone meal releases nutrients very slowly over a period of time, so in order for you to get nutrient burn from bone meal you'd have to add an awful lot of it. You could have had a nutrient lockout from it, but that's another conversation.
Moving forward, I think it was a good idea to use Happy Frog and stake it. I don't recall what size your pot is, but my advice to you is as follows:
1) Assuming that you have drainage holes in the pot, water it again very deeply, wait 5 minutes and then do it again. Make sure that the soil is completely wet. Let it drain completely. You don't want any standing water in the bottom.
2) Don't pinch, prune or remove anything. Don't feed it either. Put it in a spot where it gets some natural light (not complete shade) for a few days, then move it back under the grow lights. Otherwise, leave it alone. Don't water it, feed it, or touch it at all, and take another look at it again in a few weeks. I'm willing to bet that you'll see new growth and it'll look better than it does now.
When I first started growing, an acquaintance who had much more experience with growing than I did told me that peppers thrive on benign neglect. I found that to be true, you can love your plants to death. Now that it's been potted, get it watered in and give it time to settle in. It'll tell you what it needs down the road.
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I am starting to see the stamen slowly emerging. it is not under the grow lights. I have hope yet for this.
I moved the grow light back on it this morning. Still looking good.