• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

pics Can't figure out: yellow patches, dying leaves, curled new leaves (pics)

So I'm new to growing peppers and basically anything except my belly. This February I started some seeds from Pepper Joe: Habaneros, Jalapeno Early and Black, Big Jim, Atomic Starfish, Sepia Serpent, and Apocalypse Scorpion. Long story short today I have 10 plants and 8 of them are not doing well and I can't figure out why.
 
Every one except Jalapenos is developing light yellow dots on the leaves which later progress to bright yellow and then gray thin dots of dead matter. You can see it in the pictures. Old leaves affected, new ones are okay.
 
idD08KN.jpg

 
Here is full album with dates.
 
Some technical details:
 
Earth mix is fresh - just 1.5 months after re-potting. It has some osmocot in it, some compost and should be okay, at least that's what I was told by the local gardening shop owner. 
 
I went through all the deficiency charts I could find, but still no idea whats happening. I tried to feed them cal-mag and Chilli Focus fertiliser in small amount (half of the recommended). No effect after 10 days, new leaves still curled, light in color and deformed. 
 
Water ph is between 7 and 8. Earth mix should also be in range, but I can't test it. No aphids - 2 months ago treated the plants with confidor. (Re-poted since, but still no aphids)
 
I'm from Israel, so the weather is hot these days, it's 30 Celsius/86 Fahrenheit, even more on under the direct sun. So maybe I have burned them, don't know. Jalapenos and Starfish doing well under this sun.
 
I have new peppers getting ready to be poted and want to understand what I'm doing wrong and how to fix it. Grateful for any help and ideas. 
 
Curious_im said:
Water ph is between 7 and 8. Earth mix should also be in range, but I can't test it.
 

The yellow spots on the leaves look like they could be nutrient lock-out.
 
When the pH is above 7, nutrient lock-out is a possibility.  The closer you are to 8, the more likely you're having problems with a high pH.
 
In general, peppers like their pH to be below 7.  I've seen several people holding the opinion that below 6.5 is even better.
 
So my water is too high for sure... Thank you will look at that direction.
 
Still wondering, why is it happening just to some plants and not others and why now.
 
Can fertiliser change ph drastically? Cal-mag? 
 
 
 
ZumEMeC.jpg

 
So now it looks like mites, but I can't see any. And I never heard about board mites in Israel. 
 
Tested my tap water it's pH 7.8. Tap water mixed with soil (10 gram soil to 20 gram water) reads pH 5.5.
 
At this moment I'm very confused...
 
Curious_im said:
So now it looks like mites, but I can't see any. And I never heard about board mites in Israel. 
 
Tested my tap water it's pH 7.8. Tap water mixed with soil (10 gram soil to 20 gram water) reads pH 5.5.
 
At this moment I'm very confused...
 

Yeah, that's certainly confusing. :confused:
 
The things that can cause yellowing leaves covers a big chunk of the spectrum of pepper ailments.
 
I hate to over-focus on pH, but it would be nice to understand what's going on with your pH, and eliminate that as a potential source of problems.  Usually, pH problems are fairly straight-forward, but I don't understand what's going on here.
 
It's always good to stay vigilant for pests when growing just about anything.  I'm not an expert on broad mites.  But, from what I understand, you'll need a decent loupe magnifier to spot them.  Here in the U.S., I have a number of choices on amazon.com for $5-$20.  I'm not sure what you have access to in Israel.
 
I don't know if it's related to your current problem, but some of your containers look to be on the small-ish side.  And they only look to be ~2/3 full of potting soil.  I'm guessing most of you pepper plants are going to eventually become cramped in these containers.
 
7.8 isn't going to lock out nutrients.  It isn't optimal, but it's not the culprit.
.
What are you growing this in?  As in, what is the mix that you're using in that container?
 
solid7 said:
What are you growing this in?  As in, what is the mix that you're using in that container?
 
That's a local universal soil mix, can't tell what it consist of, no useful information on the package. Looks just any other soil mix here, I used few brands. No vermiculite or limestone, just some compost and osmocote. 
 
The plants are almost 2 months in this soil.
 
DontPanic said:
It's always good to stay vigilant for pests when growing just about anything.  I'm not an expert on broad mites.  But, from what I understand, you'll need a decent loupe magnifier to spot them.  Here in the U.S., I have a number of choices on amazon.com for $5-$20.  I'm not sure what you have access to in Israel.
 
I don't know if it's related to your current problem, but some of your containers look to be on the small-ish side.  And they only look to be ~2/3 full of potting soil.  I'm guessing most of you pepper plants are going to eventually become cramped in these containers.
 
They not so small, 10 litres actually. I was planing to re-pot some plants to bigger pots and leave others in smaller. Now they are in no condition to grow bigger.
 
About mites - I will inspect plants today at the evening. Looks like we don't have board mites problem here, people are talking about spider mites and gnats. So maybe I missed something...
 
I will take your username as my motto and will try to move step by step.
 
Not knowing what the mix is, is somewhat problematic.  Is it marketed as a container mix?  Or is it something that you buy in bulk?
.
For me, your plants look like they're struggling in their substrate.  But without more info, it's hard to make that definitive, or recommend a different course of action.
.
Always know what goes into your containers.  That's the beginning of all success or failure.
 
solid7 said:
Not knowing what the mix is, is somewhat problematic.  Is it marketed as a container mix?  Or is it something that you buy in bulk?
.
For me, your plants look like they're struggling in their substrate.  But without more info, it's hard to make that definitive, or recommend a different course of action.
.
Always know what goes into your containers.  That's the beginning of all success or failure.
 
Marked as premium universal potting soil. That's a good brand, I see it many specialized growers shops. But it may be not the best for peppers.
 
You are right about "know what goes into your container", I was naive and I'm learning from my mistakes. That was my first attempt at growing anything. My goal right now is to do understand where I failed. I have new peppers coming. Piri piri, habanero savina and carolina reaper are already germinated and growing.
 
 
About my current plants - looks like yellowing stopped, no new discoloration or patches, plants are fine now, which makes me think about some kind of a burn. Sun or chemical burn, one-time thing. That doesn't explain curling and deformed leaves, thou.
 
Also didn't find any mites or aphids. Plants are clean as far as I can tell.
 
Will see I'm going to just let them be for a week.
 
Here is my Black Jalapeno plant this morning.
 
RuNjUF1.jpg
 
Update on my plants, I think now I figured out what happened and that may help others.
 
I think I know what harmed the leaves - I used soapy water on my them and looks like dish soap had something bad in it. I also didn't wash plants with water after. Mistake I will never do again.
 
U6FtQPf.jpg

 
Also I found spider mites, which explains misshapen leaves. I wasn't easy, I first found them on another plant in the garden and then spent good 20 minutes inspecting every leaf on my peppers. Started neem oil treatment yesterday, today will buy something better against this kind of mites.
 
All plants are doing well and new ones are on the way.
 
rPJUES1.jpg
 
Dish Soap has detergents that are harmful for plants.  That, and the spider mites, could explain most of your troubles.
 
Just plain 'soap' isn't that bad for a plant, but it's become difficult to find just plain 'soap'.  Almost every common 'soap' has loads of detergent.  You need to find a soap like Dr. Bronner's or something similar that doesn't have any detergent added.
 
Dish soap = detergent. Huge no-no for plants. You need an actual soap. Which you'll need to use Need effectively.
 
So adding original dawn as a surfactant for neem foliage application is a huge no no?  1/2 tsp in a quart mix.  Is that level of dish soap harmful?
 
confidor at what rate ? how much ml per litre . 30 C is not that hot for pepper . I am sitting here with 43 C in my room at night . Noon temps go beyond 46C still all my habanero , reaper and ghost doing fine 
 
Yes, it's a huge no-no.  Detergents are not good for plants.  Use a soap like Dr Bronner's.
.
Also...  OP - that isn't characteristic damage of spider mites.  Spider mite damage is a serious of thousands of tiny little puncture marks, and eventually, the leaf begins to look patchy and bleached.  If that's any kind of mite damage, it would be broad mites.  Even at that, it's not the typical end product, but you can check for broad mites with a loop or microscope.
 
Back
Top