Growing Concern

[azguy]

Hi,

I am new to the board. This is my second year with peppers. I am having a problem with two plants the first is a Thai Dragon & the second is Habanero. The problem is that the leaves just dont look right. Both are young plants purchased locally (Thai purchased a month ago and two weeks for the Habanero). Did a soil test today with a cheap rapitest meter and its reading around a 6.5. If anyone has any information I would greatly appreciate it. Both plants are in 5 gallon buckets drilled for drainage and about 2 inches of rocks covering the bottom. I live near Tucson Arizona and the peppers are outside.

Thanks
Dan

Thai Dragon

Thai Dragon

Habanero

Habanero

 

[SRBII]

Howdy,

from iowa

those buckets dont look very full of mix and with 2 inches of rocks(not needed btw there is another recent post about this its actually counter productive) that dont leave much left for your mix/roots.
what mix are u using

myself would take rocks out make sure u have 10-12 1/2 holes around the sides very close to the bottom and fill mix to an inch of the top of the bucket

*edit to add link to post*

 

[xxzombiepepperxx]

How long have you had em in those buckets? What kind of soil? Are you using ferts or nutes?

 

[Bleash]

from Portugal.

True, your plants look unhappy.

I'm going with what the other members said.

Maybe bad quality soil.

Bleash

 

[napalmxv3]

Soil would also be my first guess. Is the soil very heavy? Does it cake up when wet? And the buckets don't look filled very much, especially with 2 inches of rocks on the bottom.

If the soil's too thick or wet, it'll cause lotsa issues.

 

[azguy]

Thank you for the advice. I replaced the soil in the buckets and brought it up about 3 inches from the top. When taking out the plants I found that the soil was very hard an compact (don't remember the name of the soil) so I replaced everything other than what is around the root system. Used a 75/25 mixture of Miracle Grow Potting mix (75%) and Natures Way Cactus & Patio mix (25%).

The Natures Way Cactus & Patio Mix contains: Bark Mulch,Lava Sand, Humas, Peat Moss, Blood Meal, Kelp meal, Fish Meal, Dried Poultry compost, Cotton seed meal, alfalfa meal, and calcium Rock Phosphate

Also I drilled a few more holes at the bottom (already had 10 each).

Will give a couple of weeks and see what happens. Again thank you for the help.