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Habanero needs some serious help

MAFWIZ

MAFWIZ

Hello,

I'm posting for some advice regarding my approximately 1 year old habanero. I picked up a small plant from Home Depot last year and have been growing it in the back yard in a medium sized ceramic pot that was left by previous tenants. It did alright initially, but for most of it's life appears to have a nutrient deficiency - the leaves are a light shade of green and for lack of a better term "tacod" - folded together along the inner seam of the leaf..

To make matters worse, we had a freak hail storm last week and my plants all got buried beneath 2-3 inches of ice. (Keep in mind I live just east of Los Angeles, and it had been 80 degrees the previous week and is no back to 80 degrees.) I was able to get the ice off within 30 minutes or so, but the majority of the plants leaves were knocked off by the hail.

I'm assuming that the issue is some form of nutrient deficiency, but unfortunately I don't have much information regarding the soil I'm using, or the the ph of the water here. I'm using "Black Magic" potting soil (I thought I remembered a friend telling me it was decent many years ago, but I'm definitely considering a change this year), and the water is from the tap in Covina, Ca. I havn't been able to find any information regarding the ph of the soil or of my tap water, so that could be an issue. Also, the habanero has been outside all year, and temperatures have dipped to around freezing on a couple of occasions. The habanero has appeared to do worse when it gets cold, and really hasn't been doing well since the end of last summer.

I'm hoping that someone can give me some pointers or advice as how to bring it back, and maybe identify if there are any soil amendments that are needed (dolemite lime or something like that?)

(NOTE: will add pics as soon as i figure out how to upload em.)

Thanks a bunch gang,



Mike
 
well, the lime would add calcium, but would also affect your soils PH.

My first shot in the dark here is that it most likely needs a bigger pot... I'm not one who grows peppers in pots, but I've been told that 5gal is sufficient for the first year, but that you need bigger pots after that (8max? not sure).

Secondly the taco leaf could be from a bug... I forget the type (because I've never had a problem with them). But you might want to watch it around dusk...

Third RE the soil, have you fertilized it at all? If not, that might be a good idea... Something like Alaska Fish (5 1 1) is good for growing, and then maybe an all purpose one down the line. Most of the time Tomato ferts are good for peppers. If you are growing inside, go really light on the fertilizer, as its easy to burn your plant.

Lastly, if you can take a picture, that would help us give better advice :) We can make guesses, but plants speak to us through the way they look - something thats difficult to listen to without a picture.

Doing good to have kept it a live for a year, so you are doing more right than wrong - which is a great start.
 
i would get it out of potting soil and give it some real dirt. also since its a plant you seem to be keeping i would have it in a 7 gallon. try these first things first. i know nothging so im not saying this is right.also :welcome:
 
only adivce i can provide is with pics...
Upload them to photobucket. then all you do is copy and paste the img code into the window you type in.. and done.
I think you can only post 5 or 6 pics per post though
 
eventually, your potting soil's organic component breaks down and any microbes either die off or go dormant.

why not try adding some organic material to the potted medium, composted would be best or as an example you may add kelp meal or seaweed.

i always at a blend of ground alfalfa(i buy it in the pet section of a grocery store), this is for long term.

then my short term blend is rotting seaweed(i buy dried seaweed at a oriental grocery store and grind it up). i put a handful of the ground seaweed into a container and fill it with hot water and let it sit for a few days. then, as the seaweed settles to the bottom of the container, i drain off the clear liquid and use it for misting. i refill the container and let it sit. you will see a mucous like membrane start to form as the seaweed breaks down. then as i water my plants, i stir the rotting seaweed and put that on my soil plants.

that should give your plants a fresh recharge, hope you give it a try.

here are 2 pics, one of my seaweed mix, you can see the settlement on the bottom and somewhat clear liquid on top. next pic is of a few of my plants: 5 year old tepin, 3 year old fatalii, 2 year old yellow scorpian and 2 year old red scotch bonnet(there are 2 bonnet plants in the one container. 1 was raised in soil the other raised in hydro). the boats to the right are size 11. the camera is only 3.2 mp and poor zoom quality.

good luck.

HPIM2003.jpg


HPIM2002.jpg
 
I hope this helps some what, but the tap water in LA is 8.5 last time I tested with ph tester you should try letting water sit for a day and then use a ph down ( if your water is that high) normally plants don't like to get anywhere in the range ph 7 and higher they get into a nutrient lock. Try getting ph reader I got the GH for 20 bucks at hydro shop to test my water, but memmbers above already provided great recommendations on fertilizers to bring them back. Good luck
 
Thanks for all the responses guys. Heres a couple of pictures of pre-ice storm and then one pic of post-icestorm...

IMG00019-20120222-1218.jpg


IMG00020-20120222-1218.jpg


IMG00022-20120303-1137.jpg



As far as fertilizing, I have only done a minimal amount. During the summer I had a fertilizer (cant remember the name or the NPK) that I used once a week or so...it ran out in the fall and I just recently got some Schultz "Plant Food Plus" 10-15-10 that I gave to the plant twice before my girl met her frosty fate.

I'll definitely think about letting the water sit for a while before use, would it be beneficial to add a little lemon juice to the water as a natural ph-down? I have a fairly bountiful lemon tree in the back.

Also,as far as composts and teas, I wound be interested in doing some of that but the girlfriend probably wouldn't approve. (She shot down my plan to start a compost heap already.) So I'm probably going to have to use off the shelf products. Thanks for the advice though Burn, those are some nice looking plants you've got going there.
 
If it was my plant and I wanted to save it and make it productive the first thing I would do is cut it back. I would start a few inches up from the base and start cutting. Close to the stem at first and then as I go up I would gradually get farther away from the stem. I would keep the top branches less than 10 inches long.

Then I would take it out of that pot and trim the roots. Remove most of the dirt too. Then I would find a seven or maybe even a 10 gallon pot and replant it. I would use a good soilless medium, something like Pro Mix HP and water it good. I might use a transplanting fert/shock preventive mix at 25% strength. Then I would place it in the yard that gets six or seven hours of good sunlight. Then wait for that baby to grow into a monster.

That's what I would do if it was my plant.
 
patrick said:
If it was my plant and I wanted to save it and make it productive the first thing I would do is cut it back. I would start a few inches up from the base and start cutting. Close to the stem at first and then as I go up I would gradually get farther away from the stem. I would keep the top branches less than 10 inches long.

Then I would take it out of that pot and trim the roots. Remove most of the dirt too. Then I would find a seven or maybe even a 10 gallon pot and replant it. I would use a good soilless medium, something like Pro Mix HP and water it good. I might use a transplanting fert/shock preventive mix at 25% strength. Then I would place it in the yard that gets six or seven hours of good sunlight. Then wait for that baby to grow into a monster.

That's what I would do if it was my plant.
Click to expand...

+1
100% sound advice!!
 
I'm with patrick on this one! I would do the same! I also recommend mixing some bone meal( if you havent yet?) when you transplant. The nutes in your potting soil are depleted. When you transplant as well as getting rid of as most of the old potting mix as possible not only should you trim the roots but loosen them as well so they have some direction to grow in the new soil. water them with some No shock nutes, as well
 
patrick said:
If it was my plant and I wanted to save it and make it productive the first thing I would do is cut it back. I would start a few inches up from the base and start cutting. Close to the stem at first and then as I go up I would gradually get farther away from the stem. I would keep the top branches less than 10 inches long.

Then I would take it out of that pot and trim the roots. Remove most of the dirt too. Then I would find a seven or maybe even a 10 gallon pot and replant it. I would use a good soilless medium, something like Pro Mix HP and water it good. I might use a transplanting fert/shock preventive mix at 25% strength. Then I would place it in the yard that gets six or seven hours of good sunlight. Then wait for that baby to grow into a monster.

That's what I would do if it was my plant.
Click to expand...

+1 that's a great idea for this plant.
 
<p>Ok, I followed suit to the best of my ability with the trim and transplant. I didn&amp;#39;t trim the roots much, but a fair amount of roots were lost in removing the plant from the old pot. I don&amp;#39;t remember seeing them in the pot when I planted the pepper last year, but there were pottery shards in the bottom of the pot that the roots were all tangled up in and they did a fair amount of &amp;quot;trimming&amp;quot; on the way out of the root ball.&amp;nbsp;</p>
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I trimmed the plant about a week ago and did the transplant today. I am happy to report that at just about every node point there does appear to be new growth, that as far as I can tell at this early stage, is not showing signs of "taco-ing".
 
Awesome! It may take some time for it to realize everything you did was for the best but when it does look out baby! Great work MAFWIZ.
 
5 gallon buckets are actually larger than 7 gallon nursery pots....so good choice! Make sure you have plenty of good sized drain holes in that puppy and you'll be in the peppers in no time...and LOTS of them!

Good job!
Shane
 
Hey thought I'd update on the plants progress. It's doing really well in it's new digs, lots of new growth although its all so small a pic wouldn't really do it justice (yet.)

The few small peppers I left after pruning have all matured and are delicious. I've been eating them straight up and dicing them into food...had one in my tuna salad yesterday , it was great. I thought it was interesting how small they remained, maybe 1/4 or 1/6 of the average size of the peppers I got last fall (between 2 fruiting periods I probably got about 40-50 pods.) They also have small "Stingers" that I don't recall the full sized pods having. I took a pic today of the one I picked, although the stinger is less pronounced on this one than many of the others I ate over the last week.

 
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