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Chilli plant dying after repotting

M

Maxjevans

Hi guys, new member here. I have a chilli plant (one of those grow your own plants that comes with a tin of enriched soil and some seeds) that has been growing nicely for a few months now until I repotted it. It had just started to grow its first chilli but started to lose it's colour. I took this to mean it needed repotting as it was only in a very small pot fòr the past 6 months. After repotting it is still losing colour from the leaves and has started to drop leaves. Is this a consequence of me waiting too long to repot or have I harmed it in some other way. Any advice would be grateful as I would like tonsave this plant if possible.
 
Hello and welcome! It's probably a combination of being root bound and transplant shock. It may get worse before it gets better but hopefully it'll bounce back. Do you have a picture you can post by any chance?
 
It's tough to see your plants suffer from something that you aren't sure about what's causing it. Happens to me every few weeks  :shh:
 
Perhaps the original problem wasn't that it was in need of being transplanted. Maybe it was a nutrient problem. Could have been a watering problem. Possibly a soil temperature problem ? Pests ? Bugs ? So many things to consider... IKES !!
 
Now that you have transplanted, the only thing you can do is wait it out. As long as it has nutrients (don't feed it too much), light, water and some evening lovin, it should recover. Give it some time and see how it goes.
 
Pics are always helpful (under natural white light if you can).
 
Happy Growing,
 
Jeff
 
The lighting is a bit off in this photo but hopefully it should be helpful
 

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If that's a 6 month old plant your seed stock might be really crappy. Even in not very good conditions a 6 month old plant should be several times that size.
 
Maxjevans said:
The lighting is a bit off in this photo but hopefully it should be helpful
Click to expand...
 
It's my first year growing peppers, and I've had a lot that looked like that at one or several points in time. I'm fairly confident when I say it's from over watering. My leaves turned yellow, and started falling off until my plants were twigs and I panicked and felt despair. The good news is, I started paying some attention to them and started only watering when the top inch was dry. My twigs are now doing much better.
 
Here's a before and after. They were looking really well before I put them in the yellow buckets.
 
https://imgur.com/gallery/7qfjn
 
Hey guys, my plant has recovered since I let the soil dry out. Thank you
 

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I don't look at this plant and say it's recovered. Not trying to be an (sphincter) but those leaves are very pale. The leaves are suffering because the roots are suffering from too much water.
 
After a while the roots will recover. And then the leaves will give you happiness !! And fruit hopefully.
 
Don't give it too much water and then just wait for a while. All will be good !!
 
Good luck !
 
Jeff
 
I agree that it's not fully recovered but some colour has come back to the leaves and they aren't looking so frail :) only watering a little once a week now trying to keep the soil dryish
 
A tip you might want to try is fabric pots. I use "Smart Pots" since it's a reputable brand (and I'm hoping these have a better chance of lasting), but I'm strongly suspecting that the brand really doesn't matter functionality wise.

Why fabric instead of rigid pots? It serves several purposes:
  • ​Air pruning: Root tips dry out when they hit the wall which triggers lateral growth instead of spinning into a dense rootball around the pot (main reason people use aerated pots)
  • Soil aeration: Air can get into the pots from all sides, which increases the aeration of the soil, likely with a positive impact on the microbiome and e.g. nitrogen fixation
  • Wicking: The fabric wicks the water all around the pot which increases the homogeneity of the water distribution through the soil, quite noticably
  • Wetness: It's extremely easy to detect if the soil is wet or not, and how much and deep, though simply putting your hands on the fabric
  • Drying: The soil drains much better in fabric since it can evaporate from all sides and not only the top, reducing the time window the soil stays dangerously wet
The two last points, and maybe also the soil aeration, would probably be of use in this case (although I don't recommend repotting that plant until it looks more healthy). I really find fabric pots super neat and can't speak highly enough of them. If you have problems with water logged soil, give them a try. Not wanting to spend money on them? Try to sew your own from some strong airy fabric (e.g. potato sacks or something)!
 
SwedishGhost said:
A tip you might want to try is fabric pots. I use "Smart Pots" since it's a reputable brand (and I'm hoping these have a better chance of lasting), but I'm strongly suspecting that the brand really doesn't matter functionality wise.

Why fabric instead of rigid pots? It serves several purposes:
  • ​Air pruning: Root tips dry out when they hit the wall which triggers lateral growth instead of spinning into a dense rootball around the pot (main reason people use aerated pots)
  • Soil aeration: Air can get into the pots from all sides, which increases the aeration of the soil, likely with a positive impact on the microbiome and e.g. nitrogen fixation
  • Wicking: The fabric wicks the water all around the pot which increases the homogeneity of the water distribution through the soil, quite noticably
  • Wetness: It's extremely easy to detect if the soil is wet or not, and how much and deep, though simply putting your hands on the fabric
  • Drying: The soil drains much better in fabric since it can evaporate from all sides and not only the top, reducing the time window the soil stays dangerously wet
The two last points, and maybe also the soil aeration, would probably be of use in this case (although I don't recommend repotting that plant until it looks more healthy). I really find fabric pots super neat and can't speak highly enough of them. If you have problems with water logged soil, give them a try. Not wanting to spend money on them? Try to sew your own from some strong airy fabric (e.g. potato sacks or something)!
Click to expand...
 
How much do the budget options for fabric pots run for the cheaper brands and are there any online stores you'd recommend with good prices? Also, how long would you say the average one lasts? I've been using buckets and have been considering just drilling holes in the sides.
 
Edit: Impulse bought a 5 pack of 25 gallon bags from amazon for about $23. I thought they'd be a lot more expensive. 
 
adrian089 said:
 
How much do the budget options for fabric pots run for the cheaper brands and are there any online stores you'd recommend with good prices? Also, how long would you say the average one lasts? I've been using buckets and have been considering just drilling holes in the sides.
 
Edit: Impulse bought a 5 pack of 25 gallon bags from amazon for about $23. I thought they'd be a lot more expensive. 
Click to expand...
 
The average one lasts maybe 3 re-pottings or so before they start to disintegrate. They obviously have a limited lifetime, but it can be quite good still. Drilling holes in buckets would not match all of the pros I mentioned, but certainly some of them to some extent. Of course you might start to leak soil everywhere to, or crack the pots. I can also imagine that watering would be a bit more messy.
 
Nice! I bought "Smart Pots" for all my plants which did end up costing... probably too much. The things you do out of (hot pepper) love. It was certainly more than what you paid. Good deal; I hope you get as satisfied with the fabric life as I am!
 
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