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Issue with Carolina Reaper plant

alexxn

alexxn

Hi Everyone. My Carolina Reaper is starting to develop issues. Let me start off by saying it's approximately 4 feet tall, in a 16"x14" planter with a mix of potting soil and peat moss, South Florida climate. Miracle grow in the water around once a week. I've already harvested a good 20+ peppers but it's beginning to show signs of an issue. I know about the whitefly, I'm using an organic spray for that. There are black specs that wipe off on some of the insides of the leaves but I've also noticed new growth leaves starting to curl. I've attached photos. If anyone can help with diagnosing this I would be extremely grateful !
 
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Looks like aphids, whiteflies, and/or mites, and possibly other insects as well. Start spraying that oil everywhere, especially under the leaves, 2-3x per week preferably in the evening or early am. And provide shade for the plant, as the oil will cook it in the sun. That organicide smells terrible, and the smell lingers so wear coveralls or something.
 
thegreenman said:
Looks like aphids, whiteflies, and/or mites, and possibly other insects as well. Start spraying that oil everywhere, especially under the leaves, 2-3x per week preferably in the evening or early am. And provide shade for the plant, as the oil will cook it in the sun. That organicide smells terrible, and the smell lingers so wear coveralls or something.
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Great, thank you for the suggestion. Is there any other insecticide that would work well ? AzaMax ? The Organocide I use stinks to high hell of fish oil, any type of breeze and you get covered in it !
 
Yes I use Azamax, but it too must be used with caution as it can cause leaf deformation or burn related to sun and heat. Just apply in the evening or early morning and provide some shade from noontime sun.
 
thegreenman said:
Yes I use Azamax, but it too must be used with caution as it can cause leaf deformation or burn related to sun and heat. Just apply in the evening or early morning and provide some shade from noontime sun.
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Good to know. I just want to get away from that fishy smell  :neutral:
 
thegreenman said:
Yes I use Azamax, but it too must be used with caution as it can cause leaf deformation or burn related to sun and heat. Just apply in the evening or early morning and provide some shade from noontime sun.
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I'm planning to get some azamax for just such occasions. You ever use a surfactant, like yucca, or is it unnecessary?
 
Mr. West said:
I'm planning to get some azamax for just such occasions. You ever use a surfactant, like yucca, or is it unnecessary?
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I usually add about a tablespoon per gallon of Castile soap or Murphy's oil soap. Yes the floor soap. It's terrible for floors but good as a gentle surfactant.
 
Are Reapers harder to grow than a lot of other peppers or is it just that people gravitate towards it when they first get into growing peppers that you typically can't find in grocery stores?
 
Ruid said:
Are Reapers harder to grow than a lot of other peppers or is it just that people gravitate towards it when they first get into growing peppers that you typically can't find in grocery stores?
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Growing a nice looking plant is easy, getting it full of pods is the hard part
 
Powelly said:
Definitely insects, might be too late to save that plant
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A good 75% of the plant looks healthy, and I have small green peppers growing. I'm definitely going to make an effort to treat this now that I know about putting the plant in the shade and covering with the insecticide. I was only spot treating before.
 
TrentL said:
 
That's herbicide damage.
 
You were hit with glyphosphate, find out who sprayed and give them a gentle stomp to the groin.
 
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I don't see how that's possible - I own my home and my backyard is secure, no one has access. The only herbicide that's been used is the Organocide pictured above until a few days ago and the leaves have looked that way for a while now  :confused:
 
So I may be fighting a losing battle here and may be forced to cut my losses. I've removed several deformed leaves and leaves with issues, stopped all feeding (almost 2 weeks now). I treated the plant with AzaMax 5 Days ago and Neem Oil yesterday. We shall see. Such a shame for a large plant but I had similar issues with pests on Jalapeño plants.
 
Next go around for me will be to start seeds and grow plants indoors. We have an abundance of sun here in Florida and I have large sunny windows.
 
 
 
alexxn said:
 
I don't see how that's possible - I own my home and my backyard is secure, no one has access. The only herbicide that's been used is the Organocide pictured above until a few days ago and the leaves have looked that way for a while now  :confused:
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Certain types of herbicide (dicamba, especially) can drift for several miles on a thermal inversion, from the field it was applied to. 2,4-D, etc can also drift quite a long ways. I got hit with herbicide drift in my back yard a few years ago from a pre-emergent spray on a field 2.5 miles west of me.
 
I also got hit one year when a neighbor about 600 yards away had their yard sprayed for poison ivy.
 
Leaves cupping down like that is classic symptom of glyphosphate. (Round up)
 
You might be able to get a tissue test done if you have a local university with a decent lab? 
 
 
 
If you see any of this on new growth, the squiggled main vein, w/ small curled under leaves, then you were hit with a growth hormone (2,4-d or dicamba)
 
This was from a confirmed case of drift on a c. chinense pepper from 2014 at my grow
 
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With growth hormones (the synthetic auxins in 2,4-d, dicamba, etc) the plants will literally try to grow themselves to death. 
 
Cut off damaged leaves and prune the heck out of the plants, if they don't kill themselves off (dose wasn't high enough) they will grow massively bushy later in the season and produce pods like crazy. 
 
 
 
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