**FIRST POST** - - - Yellowing Leaves

AndMan3030

AndMan3030

Just joined the forum, happy to be here. 
 
I am SURE you have been over this topic again and again so please try to take it easy on me. I am somewhat new to the pepper hobby. I grew lots of Jalapenos, Cayenne's, Hab's, and Banana Peppers last year with good results. Those were purchased as plants, this year I decided to step it up and start with seeds. I have about 45 plants going, several varieties.
 
The seeds were planted on February 14th. Transplanted a few weeks later. I have them all growing in 16 oz. Solo Cups with Fox Farm Light Warrior growing medium.  I have 4 T8 plant/aquarium bulbs for my light source. They were growing green and fine for weeks. I decided to give them some fertilizer a couple of weeks ago and have since noticed them turning very light green, to yellow in some cases. I am a little concerned, but not exactly freaking out yet.
 
The fertilizer I gave them was Neptune's Harvest Organic Fish & Seaweed Fertilizer (2-3-1). I used the recommended amount for house plants because I wanted to go light on them. This was 1 Tablespoon per gallon.
 
Have any of you had experience with this product? Should I give them any other type of Fertilizer to help green them up?
 
I will post pics after work...
 
Thanks!!
 
:welcome: to THP! You should go say hi in the Welcome thread! Lots of good folks on here. 
 
Yellowing leaves can have as many possible causes as flower drop.... nute deficiency, too much water, too little water, yadda yadda yadda.... depends on your regimen and set-up. Check out the search function in the top right of the home screen for more info than you can stand in one day. Enjoy, and good luck!
 
BTW, if you transplanted them only a "few weeks" after sprouting from seed, and then proceeded to fertilize them, there's a good chance that you're rushing them, as their roots will not have had a chance to establish themselves in their new home and probably aren't strong enough to start putting through the rigors of transplant and ferts. Feb 14 wasn't that long ago. Might want to let them establish themselves a bit first. Keep in mind that when you buy young plants, they're just about root bound already and can take a lot more. Seedlings take a bit more patience.
 
Let us know what your watering schedule looks like. Any more than about once per week with very small seedlings in Solo cups is probably too much. Try letting the soil get quite dry between waterings.
 
I am watering about 3-4 ounces per plant, once a week. I am using double-stacked 16 ounce solo cups and watering from the bottom. I am not exactly sure about the 3-4 ounces, I generally fill to the "L" in Solo. I will measure how much that is. I have been pretty consistent at that level, once per week.
 
It would make sense to me that the plants were not ready for the fert. they were fine until then. I read something about using a Fish Emulsion in the early plant stage, after a couple sets of true leaves have grown.  
 
I promise to post a pic! at work again...
 
So, the information I read regarding feeding the plants fish emulsion also said it was a good idea to spray the leaves down with a solution of water and Epsom salt... This is supposed to help the leaves grow beefy and green. I am very leery of trying this.
 
Anyone spray with Epsom salt/water? They said to only do this once every few weeks...
 
well I took pics, but I sadly cannot figure out how to post a pic. this is embarrassing. Do I need to upgrade my membership to be able to post pics? ugh...
 
AndMan3030 said:
So, the information I read regarding feeding the plants fish emulsion also said it was a good idea to spray the leaves down with a solution of water and Epsom salt... This is supposed to help the leaves grow beefy and green. I am very leery of trying this.
 
Anyone spray with Epsom salt/water? They said to only do this once every few weeks...
Click to expand...
Foliar applications work well whenever the leaf stomata are open. For me that means late evening and early morning. I have done foliar feeds of epsom salt at 1 tablespoon per gallon (or less than one teaspoon in a quart spray bottle) and had good results. Epsom salts are highly water soluble, and therefore very fast acting. One classic fertilizer schedule suggests one week fish ferts watered into the soil, the next week foliar epsom salts. You may need to supplement phosphorus and potassium later though if your fish fert. is 5-1-1.
 
The pics took me a while to figure out. Don't be embarrassed. I use photobucket, cut and paste the IMG link in info on the specific photo. Word of warning, when i downloaded photobucket it accessed iPhotos and copied all of my photos, twice. Sucked to delete, delete, delete, delete...
 
I am on Photo Bucket now.... I uploaded a couple pics to my PC and uploaded them to Photo Bucket. I clicked on the individual pic and copied the URL. I then clicked that little image button in the message toolbar, it says image properties and a box below that says URL. I then paste the copied URL and it says "you are not allowed to use that image extension on this community."  I feel so close! Help!
Just tried postimage.org too. CANT FIGURE THIS OUT :(
 
Use the BBC code, but not the entire code... just the part between the
 
Fatali%20vs%20Fatali_zpsnk4gkzge.jpg


Success!
 
 
Viper%20vs%20Viper_zpskjiu3kig.jpg


 
Obviously, the plants on the right were fed the Fish Emulsion. The plants on the left were not, AND they were 3 - 4 weeks behind the ones on the right. The healthy looking plants sprouted later that the others, and were way to small to even consider giving fertilizer. They have since grown bigger and fuller and greener than the ones I fertilized. They were about the same size as they are now, and I gave it to them just over 3 weeks ago. They have not grown since. I am sure they will come around, but I am wondering what I can do to help? I took about a dozen (half) of the treated plants and watered them from the top until it drained several ounces out the bottom in attempt to "flush" the plants, letting them drip until it stopped before placing back in the bottom cup.
 
 
Any other suggestions? I will post some more pics of the whole crew.
 
Thanks for the help with the Photo's PHIL!!
 
I can say that my current round of bhuts got transplanted into soil with Black Hen and mushroom compost. I have not fed them at all and they stalled. The soil holds too much moisture for too long which has caused both edema and fungus gnats. The combination of too much water and too many nutrients can lock the plants out I think.

I would say in your case if the soil doesn't hold water for too terribly long you could thoroughly water and then get a fan on them. This will flush some of the nutrients out of the soil, and the fan can help prevent edema/promote quicker drying of the soil. I moved my bhuts out into the shade outside from under my grow light, removed many of the leaves with edema, thoroughly watered, and within days new growth was blasting out.
 
Jalapeno_zpsky21dw8j.jpg

 
A lot of my jalapeno's look like this now, several others are yellowing as well.
 
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Group shot above. My light sits closer, I moved it for the picture. Lots of yellow still :tear: . I flushed with water and let drain last week, and again today. I am starting to think its nutrient deficiency, rather than a reaction to the Fish Emulsion I gave them. Other than that I have not fertilized them at all. Using Light Warrior from Fox Farm. I'm thinking they started yellowing in the first place because they got to a certain size and developed enough roots to suck all the little nutrients they had available up.
 
 
Vipers%20Fatalis%20Habs_zpsrp9zjlmz.jpg

 
My hotter peppers have been dropping leaves as bad, but they definitely look angry. I gave them a lot of water and let it drain for a long time before putting them back in the bottom cups. I have a fan on them and am hoping they green up soon and start growing or I am going to be pretty bummed out. What are the chances all they need is some standard 5-5-5 or 10-10-10 ? I thought the spots on the leaves and the yellowness meant they didn't like the Fish Emulsion I gave them. Was I wrong? I was planning on putting them in the garden on May 30th (Just over 2 weeks after our last day of frost on average in Minneapolis). I was hoping they would be in better shape by then.
 
 
 
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This last pic shows the 2 Viper plants I posted in the previous post, where I explained the one on the left had not been fertilized, and the one on the right had. Well now the one I didn't give any fish emulsion to is starting to behave the same way?  What am I doing wrong? I am using cheap lights from the home depot, but they are "plant and aquarium" spectrum, T8's. They hang about 2 - 3 inches above the plants. I am leaving them on 24 hours a day. I water once a week. Is it my lighting schedule? Could it be my tap water? Are they needing to get into bigger pots?
 
Sorry for all the questions, Thanks in advance!
 
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