Issue with Carolina Reaper plant

[alexxn]

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. 
 
 

Im not really familiar with pruning, how would I go about doing it ?

 

[alexxn]

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
 

 
 

I dont see anything squiggly at all on my leaves

 

[TrentL]

Im not really familiar with pruning, how would I go about doing it ?

 
Just grab a clean pair of scissors and cut. Try to cut above a node when you prune (a node being where leaves grow out of the stem)
 
Pruning will cause a plant to bush out more. It'll trigger some natural growth. Useful if your plants are tall and lanky, or have lost a lot of leaf cover when hardening off, whatever. Lots of uses for it.
 
Pruning is also an art form. You can experiment, it takes about a week or so to see effects on the plant, so patience is necessary.
 
But, damaged leaves? Pull 'em off. The plant will waste energy trying to heal damaged leaves that it could put in towards new, healthy growth.

 

[TrentL]

I dont see anything squiggly at all on my leaves

 
It takes about 2-3 weeks from exposure before new growth will show it, if you caught drift from a growth hormone.
 
If you don't see it, just downward curled leaves, and general uglyness, then it's more likely glyphosphate, which is bad news on a pepper. It takes 0.01% of the label rate to damage peppers - just a few parts per million on the wind, is enough to do severe damage.
 
We have our highest risk of it around here (Illinois) in late March through late April, for pre-emergent herbicide applications. Then again in mid June for post-emergent applications.
 
Herbicide drift damages millions of acres of sensitive crops every year in the US, and home gardens aren't ever counted in that damage. It's a pretty damn serious problem in the midwest.
 
In 2017 in IL we had over 500,000 acres of reported damage, just from dicamba alone.
 
I had 2,4-D get in to my water supply at the farm and kill plants INDOORS. Last year I had to pay over $16,000 to drill a well much deeper than the old one - 140' deep, down to the aquifer, and the shaft was sealed to prevent upper water table intrusion so it didn't happen again. 

 

[alexxn]

Another update: after 2 applications of Neem Oil, 4 Days apart, no Miracle Grow or any other fertilizers, and just watering I'm seeing new growth. I've also been removing yellowing, or burned looking leaves Daily.
 
Here are some photos, am I on the right track here ?
 
 
 

 

[alexxn]

OK, another update, 3 Months later......after systematically picking off all diseased looking leaves and some pruning, NO MORE Miracle Grow at all, just water, the plant has taken off, FULL of Peppers. See below