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indoor indoor peppers, new growth dying

Doelman

Doelman

This is my first time growing peppers indoors and my Bhut is having some issues.  Some of the new growth is dying, many of the new leaves have dried tips, there's also some brown spots on the leaves but I haven't been to concerned about those.  I've never seen this before on my outdoor plants so I'm not really sure what's going on.  It also appears to be spreading to my Serrano peppers, where the two plants are touching there are a couple Serrano leaves nearby that have started to die.
 
Lights are 4 T5s 16 hours a day, they get watered once a week, get a fan a couple hours a day.  The Bhut has a ton of buds but NO pollen, so last week I switched from feeding it a 12-4-8 once every two weeks to Earth Juice Bloom (0-3-1).  I've pollinated them by hand with flowers from my outdoor peppers which have tons of pollen, no fruit.  There are some fungus gnats but not that many, I haven't seen any other pests.  I do water them from a rain barrel though.
 
Any ideas?  I'm thinking of cutting off the bad leaves and spraying with neem, just to see if it helps.
 
First picture is a close up of the worst node of the Bhut, second is a wider picture of the same plant, third picture is of the Serrano (damagedleaf at the top left is from contact with a bulb).  Damaged areas have circles.
 
 
 

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Hmmmm according to that guide it looks like copper deficiency?  I honestly have never heard of anyone having to amend their soil with copper before.  I have some copper fungicide which I believe is copper sulfate, I wonder if that will help.
 
You really should switch back to the other nutrients.  There was nothing wrong with your nutes (at least not the ratio), and contrary to popular belief, you won't get more blooms, just because you add bloom nutes.  You may induce blooming, by virtue of the fact that you've completely cut off nitrogen - but those will be short lived gains. (it's actually kind of a stressor)  You will eventually find yourself in full nitrogen deficiency.  This is Ok for marijuana growers, because they cull the entire plant at the end of the grow - and many of their plants end up yellow by the time they finish.  Mind you, I said "OK", not optimum.  But they believe what they want to believe.
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Bloom nutes are a scam.  Keep your plants somewhere between 3-1-2 and balanced - never more P and K than N - and you'll do fine.  We can grow our peppers as perennials, so it does well to keep the plant well fed throughout its entire life.  No cycling required...
 
solid7 said:
You really should switch back to the other nutrients.  There was nothing wrong with your nutes (at least not the ratio), and contrary to popular belief, you won't get more blooms, just because you add bloom nutes.  You may induce blooming, by virtue of the fact that you've completely cut off nitrogen - but those will be short lived gains. (it's actually kind of a stressor)  You will eventually find yourself in full nitrogen deficiency.  This is Ok for marijuana growers, because they cull the entire plant at the end of the grow - and many of their plants end up yellow by the time they finish.  Mind you, I said "OK", not optimum.  But they believe what they want to believe.
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Bloom nutes are a scam.  Keep your plants somewhere between 3-1-2 and balanced - never more P and K than N - and you'll do fine.  We can grow our peppers as perennials, so it does well to keep the plant well fed throughout its entire life.  No cycling required...
Click to expand...
well the reason I did that was because I had a TON of blooms, but there was absolutely no pollen on any of the flowers, not a grain.  From what I've experienced in the past, and read about here and other places, is that that is usually caused by too much nitrogen unless you have humidity/temp issues (I don't).
 
Doelman said:
well the reason I did that was because I had a TON of blooms, but there was absolutely no pollen on any of the flowers, not a grain.  From what I've experienced in the past, and read about here and other places, is that that is usually caused by too much nitrogen unless you have humidity/temp issues (I don't).
Click to expand...
 
It's an age old falsehood.  Too much (inorganic) nitrogen, and your plant will experience root dessication.  But the presence of nitrogen will certainly not prohibit blooms from occurring in their due time, and it certainly won't make sterile blooms. In fact, the plant doesn't stop requiring nitrogen while it's blooming.  Just like you or I wouldn't require no protein or carbohydrates, just because we worked a desk job.  Nature doesn't cycle nutrients.  If it's there, it's available.  No reason for us to, either...
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It's kind of a controversial subject, because a lot of money is made selling these products.  (when in fact, one balanced fertilizer could probably grow every plant type in the entire world)  Nevertheless, I like helping people grow peppers.  I don't give a damn about putting $ in the pocket of snake oil salesmen.
 
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If you continue to use the bloom juice, please make a note of what I've said here.  You will, for certainty, experience yellowing and possible bloom drop later on, from the nitrogen deficiency.  It will be remedied almost immediately, when you resume feeding the Nitrogen.
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As for your present predicament, it sounds like you're feeding with miracle grow.  Can you confirm?
 
solid7 said:
 
It's an age old falsehood.  Too much (inorganic) nitrogen, and your plant will experience root dessication.  But the presence of nitrogen will certainly not prohibit blooms from occurring in their due time, and it certainly won't make sterile blooms. In fact, the plant doesn't stop requiring nitrogen while it's blooming.  Just like you or I wouldn't require no protein or carbohydrates, just because we worked a desk job.  Nature doesn't cycle nutrients.  If it's there, it's available.  No reason for us to, either...
.
It's kind of a controversial subject, because a lot of money is made selling these products.  (when in fact, one balanced fertilizer could probably grow every plant type in the entire world)  Nevertheless, I like helping people grow peppers.  I don't give a damn about putting $ in the pocket of snake oil salesmen.
 
.
If you continue to use the bloom juice, please make a note of what I've said here.  You will, for certainty, experience yellowing and possible bloom drop later on, from the nitrogen deficiency.  It will be remedied almost immediately, when you resume feeding the Nitrogen.
.
As for your present predicament, it sounds like you're feeding with miracle grow.  Can you confirm?
Click to expand...
 
Yeah it's MG.  Yeah the intention was to switch back to the other if I started seeing any signs of nitrogen deficiency, I wanted to make sure I reduced the amount of nitrogen available to get pollen production up since I was thinking I probably over did it with the nutes.  I've had probably 30 blooms drop off this plant so far and none of them have pollen.
 
Doelman said:
 
Yeah it's MG.  Yeah the intention was to switch back to the other if I started seeing any signs of nitrogen deficiency, I wanted to make sure I reduced the amount of nitrogen available to get pollen production up since I was thinking I probably over did it with the nutes.  I've had probably 30 blooms drop off this plant so far and none of them have pollen.
Click to expand...
 
So, I know where you're coming from, and a lot of people believe this is true.  I grow with the same 2 products, indoors and outdoors, all year round, start to finish.  I use 2 products, because one is organic, and one is not.  I have my reasons, which I won't go into depth about.  But the point is... There is no nutrient cycling for me. Ever.  If you have sterile blooms, or growth drop, my first suggestion is that you start looking at each element of your grow.
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1) Nutes. We know that you are using Miracle Gro and Earth Juice Bloom.
2) potting media - what have you got in the pots?  Does it have anything amended into it? Or pre-charged?
3) Do you know how to measure EC of your soil leachate? If so, what does it say?
 
solid7 said:
 
So, I know where you're coming from, and a lot of people believe this is true.  I grow with the same 2 products, indoors and outdoors, all year round, start to finish.  I use 2 products, because one is organic, and one is not.  I have my reasons, which I won't go into depth about.  But the point is... There is no nutrient cycling for me. Ever.  If you have sterile blooms, or growth drop, my first suggestion is that you start looking at each element of your grow.
.
1) Nutes. We know that you are using Miracle Gro and Earth Juice Bloom.
2) potting media - what have you got in the pots?  Does it have anything amended into it? Or pre-charged?
3) Do you know how to measure EC of your soil leachate? If so, what does it say?
Click to expand...
The pots have MG potting soil, precharged, they've been in the soil since the first of May.
 
I know how to measure EC but I don't have a meter.
 
solid7 said:
I actually think you're overdoing your feeding, to be honest.  I will let others weigh in...
Click to expand...
 
Could be, my plants outside are in vermiculite/peat moss/compost so I'm used to that feeding schedule.  I waited 3 weeks before feeding the indoor plants but that was probably too soon.
 
Doelman said:
 
Could be, my plants outside are in vermiculite/peat moss/compost so I'm used to that feeding schedule.  I waited 3 weeks before feeding the indoor plants but that was probably too soon.
Click to expand...
 
Well, ok, but my point was that you already have food in the potting mix, and then you're dosing 12-4-8 every other week.  That's a pretty strong dose.  And what you've shown isn't exactly altogether outside of the possibility of nutrient burn.  I can't be 100% for sure, but I would really back off on adding anything extra, for now.  If you want to dose regularly, it might be beneficial to go with something gentler, like fish juice.
 
Nutrient burn or too much salts in the soil might be what causes the look in the pepper plants, try using just water for now to see if they recover.
 
solid7 said:
 
Well, ok, but my point was that you already have food in the potting mix, and then you're dosing 12-4-8 every other week.  That's a pretty strong dose.  And what you've shown isn't exactly altogether outside of the possibility of nutrient burn.  I can't be 100% for sure, but I would really back off on adding anything extra, for now.  If you want to dose regularly, it might be beneficial to go with something gentler, like fish juice.
Click to expand...
I am diluting it pretty good, each plant is getting one teaspoon (mixed in a half gallon of water)
 
Chilidude said:
Nutrient burn or too much salts in the soil might be what causes the look in the pepper plants, try using just water for now to see if they recover.
Click to expand...
I'll top water next watering and cut off the nutes for awhile.  I did just spray them down with neem/copper fungicide, we'll see if there is any improvement this week. 
 
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