Habanero plant stunted and leaves curling up

S

Seggaeman

Hi everyone. The habanero plants in the photos are about five months old. They have unfortunately stopped growing and the flowers they produce fall off. As you can see the newer leaves are deformed and curling up. What problem could it be? Nutrient deficiency, aphids?
 
I have applied NPK fertilizer as well as fungicide.
 
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Seggaeman, :welcome:
 
Looks like you have something that likes to chomp your leaves, but it doesn't look to me that this is the main problem.  I can't tell from the leaves (pictures) what the problem is.
 
What kind of soil are you using ?  Native soil with amendments ?  From the pictures it looks to me that the soil should have enough nutrients, so adding ferts shouldn't be necessary. This is not absolute though.
 
How bout temperatures ?  How has the weather been lately ?  
 
Peppers don't need a lot of fertilizer, and they take a long time to grow. Adding too much nitrogen to the soil can cause the curling leaves. But then again there are many things that will cause the eaves to curl.
 
Whatever you try to do to address your problem, just keep in mind that any change you make can take a while (weeks?) before you see a change. Try one thing and let that run for a while.
 
If I were in your shoes and had your plant, I would cut way back on watering for a while. Let the plant beg you for water (don't kill it of course).  I am suspecting that your roots are too wet, or are not developed.  Peppers do not like to have wet soil and from the pictures it looks like your soil can hold TONS of water...especially down deep.
 
My opinion is just that... MY opinion  :liar:  LOL
 
Good Luck,
 
Jeff
 
 
 
Thanks for the advice Jeff. A friend who had a look at them suggested that too much fertilizer was applied (notice how disproportionately big some of the leaves are). Lately it has been warm and also very rainy. This tends to make the soil waterlogged.
Yes the soil contains amendments. I have a composter that I use to enrich it. Maybe it is not too appropriate because it encourages proliferation of worms and insects.
 
I have some more seeds that I will try sowing in dry pots. Habaneros are not native to where I live, but I feel it should be possible to cultivate them because climate is subtropical.
 
Finally some good news after a discouraging first four months. The plants are producing pods. The one in the photo has about seven of them.
 
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It is pretty small though (not much more than 12 inches) and some of the leaves are curled up and tiny. Also the fruits are taking long to ripen. Some of them are more than 2 weeks old. What could be the problem? Or is it normal for ripening to be slow.
 
Btw this may be scotch bonnet and not habanero. The fruits don't have a pointy tip. 
 
I have many issues where I grow. Fruit fly explosions, poor soil, birds, snails and bloody mites. It looks like mites to me. Took me a while to nail it. In fact, it took my microscope to nail it.

Just like yours on the largest leaves, then the new growth would all curl up, crunchy looking like spinach even.... Just like yours. Exactly like yours. They fruited but not as much or as hot.

Get a few leaves and put them under a microscope on the underside. Not a magnifying glass, a microscope because they are, well, microscopic. I bet you will find a party of mites. I used a cheap plug into the imac kids scope. Was mite party central and egg sacks everywhere. How that many can be on a leaf and not even see it..... It's a magnificent world.

Now I have them under control with rotation Mancozeb plus and lime sulphur and or wet table sulphur. Have to rotate these because they can be all Borg like and adapt.

Let me know if you get the pleasure of seeing them through a microscope. Amazing and infuriating at the same time.
 
Seggaeman said:
Thanks, I will try the tips. I have Mancozeb. Not sure where to get lime sulphur. Microscope will take a few weeks to arrive.
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The Mancozeb Plus is the one with miticide so you will need that.  Here are some links for reference to what I use and they work.  I use them all because I rotate the usage for previously mentioned reasons ie: adaptability of the mites.
 
https://www.yates.com.au/products/disease-control/concentrates/yates-lime-sulphur-spray-fungicide/
 
https://www.bunnings.com.au/yates-150g-mancozeb-plus-garden-fungicide-and-miticide_p3010237
 
https://www.bunnings.com.au/manutec-500g-wettable-sulphur_p2961530
 
Good luck with the microscope. I hope you don't have mites but if you do you will be onto of them pretty quick.  Mostly underneath the leaf if I recall correctly.  
 
At about 30x you should see them zipping around if they are active, at 60x the mites will be clearly visible but at 100x they have no where to hide and the eggs are super freaky :). The higher the magnification the harder it will be to pinpoint them.  Start low and move up power as you re-centre them or you can lose track of where they were on the leaf.  I did with mine, maybe because it's only a $50.00 USB cheapie?
 
Here is a pic of mite eggs:
 
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... and some mites:
 
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little shits LOL
 
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