Right now I have several plants from ten different varieties at different early stages of development. This is my first foray into growing vegetables and I've come to a hurdle. Look at this comparison picture:
The plants on the left are Trinidad Scorpion Morugas, on the right are Cayenne Long Slims. The Cayennes are 2-3 weeks older, but they were also my guinea pig plants. They're longer probably because of subpar lighting conditions leading to etiolation (early on when I crowded too much stuff around one bulb), but hopefully also a bit because they're older (or maybe they just grow more like that - though my Carribean Reds and Jalapenos are doing the same thing). Ignore the lighting in the picture; I moved them to the front of my setup for the pic, they'd normally receive equal lighting. The height doesn't concern me as much as the yellowing of the embryonic leaves and the upwards curling of the true leaves (we're talking about the cayennes). One embryonic leaf on a Jalapenos fell off. There's also green algae on some cells (I think I give ample time between bottom waterings, but maybe I saturate it too much and I need to improve the airflow. I have a fan I just set up today, but I'd like to get a timer and a PWM control for it before I use it for more than a few minutes here and there.
Sorry, I digress. I'm most concerned about the leaves. It seems to be affecting the oldest, tallest plants the most, but like I said that might be because of newbie mistakes rather than age - I also don't really know what they're supposed to look like. I planted the sprouted seeds mid-January I think. So they're maybe 6 weeks old at this point (the cayennes, the TSMs are maybe 3-4 weeks). I don't know if the embryonic leaves yellow and fall off normally at this point or if that's indicative of a problem. The curling I've read can be over watering or nutrient issues, or both. I've only used nursery soil which has some general nurtients and ferts mixed in, no added ferts/neuts. I was needlessly worried about compaction early on, so I added Miracle Gro perlite to the mix in a 1:2 mix for the earliest peppers (including the cayennes here), then progressively less until I phased out the addition completely - realizing it wasn't needed The MG perlite had some added fert I tried to wash out before adding. I noticed the cells with the most clumps of perlite at the top seem to be hit with the algae the worst.
I just realized in writing this out that the excessive perlite might be to blame for the issues. If not the perlite, then the lack of soil when combined. At least that's one theory.
Here's a link to my GLog if you're like to see more of my setup, but I'd like to add this picture of the lighting so you can judge whether it's adequate at this stage, or if it may be part of my problem:
To rehash:
- Why might the embryonic leaves be yellowing?
- Why might the true leaves be curling upwards?
- Is the 1:2 perlite-soil mix ratio in the cayenne cell to blame for many of these problems?
- Should I carefully replant these in just the soil mix in the same cell, or move on to something bigger maybe?
- Should I be using any ferts/neuts at this stage (or shortly down the road? help me, I'm clueless)
- Does that lighting look adequate, or should I stick two more 1600 lumen, 6500K bulbs in there?
I apologize for so many questions. Hopefully the information I've provided is useful. If I missed anything, please let me know. Thank you for any assistance you might be able to provide. My peppers thank you.
The plants on the left are Trinidad Scorpion Morugas, on the right are Cayenne Long Slims. The Cayennes are 2-3 weeks older, but they were also my guinea pig plants. They're longer probably because of subpar lighting conditions leading to etiolation (early on when I crowded too much stuff around one bulb), but hopefully also a bit because they're older (or maybe they just grow more like that - though my Carribean Reds and Jalapenos are doing the same thing). Ignore the lighting in the picture; I moved them to the front of my setup for the pic, they'd normally receive equal lighting. The height doesn't concern me as much as the yellowing of the embryonic leaves and the upwards curling of the true leaves (we're talking about the cayennes). One embryonic leaf on a Jalapenos fell off. There's also green algae on some cells (I think I give ample time between bottom waterings, but maybe I saturate it too much and I need to improve the airflow. I have a fan I just set up today, but I'd like to get a timer and a PWM control for it before I use it for more than a few minutes here and there.
Sorry, I digress. I'm most concerned about the leaves. It seems to be affecting the oldest, tallest plants the most, but like I said that might be because of newbie mistakes rather than age - I also don't really know what they're supposed to look like. I planted the sprouted seeds mid-January I think. So they're maybe 6 weeks old at this point (the cayennes, the TSMs are maybe 3-4 weeks). I don't know if the embryonic leaves yellow and fall off normally at this point or if that's indicative of a problem. The curling I've read can be over watering or nutrient issues, or both. I've only used nursery soil which has some general nurtients and ferts mixed in, no added ferts/neuts. I was needlessly worried about compaction early on, so I added Miracle Gro perlite to the mix in a 1:2 mix for the earliest peppers (including the cayennes here), then progressively less until I phased out the addition completely - realizing it wasn't needed The MG perlite had some added fert I tried to wash out before adding. I noticed the cells with the most clumps of perlite at the top seem to be hit with the algae the worst.
I just realized in writing this out that the excessive perlite might be to blame for the issues. If not the perlite, then the lack of soil when combined. At least that's one theory.
Here's a link to my GLog if you're like to see more of my setup, but I'd like to add this picture of the lighting so you can judge whether it's adequate at this stage, or if it may be part of my problem:
To rehash:
- Why might the embryonic leaves be yellowing?
- Why might the true leaves be curling upwards?
- Is the 1:2 perlite-soil mix ratio in the cayenne cell to blame for many of these problems?
- Should I carefully replant these in just the soil mix in the same cell, or move on to something bigger maybe?
- Should I be using any ferts/neuts at this stage (or shortly down the road? help me, I'm clueless)
- Does that lighting look adequate, or should I stick two more 1600 lumen, 6500K bulbs in there?
I apologize for so many questions. Hopefully the information I've provided is useful. If I missed anything, please let me know. Thank you for any assistance you might be able to provide. My peppers thank you.
