hydroponic Leaf Curling problem, Help with ID!*Hydroponic Peppers*

S

srgtpepper

Hi everyone,
I have been noticing a lot of leaf curling in my pepper garden and am concerned it might be leaf curling virus. But there is a distinctive pattern on the leaves with the spine of the leaves curling up that I think should be able to help definitively ID the problem.
 
Some quick things to note:
All these are being grown hydroponically, so it COULD be a nutrient issue, such as lack of calcium. However, I've recently noticed this curling issue on one of my tomatoes which is being grown in soil.
 
However, that tomato is the tallest, so I'm also wondering if this could be cause by too much sun or possibly wind?
 
So my suspicions are:
-too much sun
-too much wind
-too much nutrients
-too little nutrients
-or the dreaded leaf curl virus...
 
Any insight would be extremely helpful!
 
Here are a few pictures for reference of the issue:
http://imgur.com/a/M7YQI
 
That looks like broadmites to me. The downward hooking, squiggly vein & mutated looking foliage is a good sign of mites.
 
Squiggly vein:
 
B9UCntsh.jpg

 
Downward hooking mutated looking new growth:
 
rNa2jK8h.jpg
 
TXCG said:
That looks like broadmites to me. The downward hooking, squiggly vein & mutated looking foliage is a good sign of mites.
 
Squiggly vein:
 
B9UCntsh.jpg

 
Downward hooking mutated looking new growth:
 
rNa2jK8h.jpg
Click to expand...
 
 
 
Hey!
 
That sounds like better news than what I was thinking...
 
Is there a go-to cure for mites?
 
Are these guys doomed or is it reversible?
 
Thanks again!
 
I almost always fight broad mites on a couple plants every spring & have pretty good luck with spinosad and azamax. I keep spinosad on hand for thrips & azamax for aphids and everything else that chews on plants and one or the other will usually knock mites out after a couple applications. Make sure to coat the bottom of leaves and new growth really well. If a plant is seriously affected like in that pic I posted I'll also trim off some of the worst looking growth since that part won't recover anyway & it helps reduce numbers of mites. 
 
There are also products that are specifically designed as miticides but I'm not familiar with them so wouldn't know what to suggest. I believe some people use sulfur for mites.
 
Basically the leaves that look messed up will never recover but once you get rid of the mites new growth should start looking just fine.
 
okay great. I'm happy to hear it's reversable.
 
For what it's worth, I found a product called safers 3 in 1 that proposes to be an organic wettable sulphur specifically designed to kill broadmites and other insects.
 
I'm going to give it a shot and will report back.
 
Thanks again for all the help.
 
Don't go organic, they're just a big marketing scam. Go for imidacloprid if possible. Those things are a systemic insecticide that will grant long lasting protection against any future pests.
 
resili626 said:
Don't go organic, they're just a big marketing scam. Go for imidacloprid if possible. Those things are a systemic insecticide that will grant long lasting protection against any future pests.
Click to expand...
 
If you do go with imidacloprid be sure to read the label though because it can have a pretty long pre-harvest interval. They Bayer one I was looking at this year had a 21 day PHI. 

 
 
TXCG said:
 
If you do go with imidacloprid be sure to read the label though because it can have a pretty long pre-harvest interval. They Bayer one I was looking at this year had a 21 day PHI. 
 
Click to expand...
 
That's like the gold standard ain't it? The only imidacloprid that I can find here are termite-grades lol at 18.4. Can you tell me what's the recommended dose of Bayer at what concentration? 
 
resili626 said:
Don't go organic, they're just a big marketing scam. Go for imidacloprid if possible. Those things are a systemic insecticide that will grant long lasting protection against any future pests.
Click to expand...
 
Long-term systemic that works proactively to kill future pests.

Sounds a bit like fallout poisoning, when you say it like that...
 
resili626 said:
 
That's like the gold standard ain't it? The only imidacloprid that I can find here are termite-grades lol at 18.4. Can you tell me what's the recommended dose of Bayer at what concentration? 
Click to expand...
 
Here is the label for the one I was looking at, it has dilution ratios for different plants. Concentration is only 0.235% imidacloprid (99.765% other ingredients)
 
Link
 
solid7 said:
 
Long-term systemic that works proactively to kill future pests.

Sounds a bit like fallout poisoning, when you say it like that...
Click to expand...
 
Drastically different things. One's radioactive, one's a neonicotinoids with very low mammalian toxicity ;) 
 
TXCG said:
 
Here is the label for the one I was looking at, it has dilution ratios for different plants. Concentration is only 0.235% imidacloprid (99.765% other ingredients)
 
Link
Click to expand...
 
If my math is correct, I would have to dilute a 18.3% imidacloprid 5,111 times in order to get to the dilution rate of Bayer's 0.235% at 0.5 ounce per quart per 10 square meters? 

That means... I would have to extract 1 ml of that shit and make a 5.111 liter solution to use lol. Can you double check if my math is correct? 
 
I have this same problem on mine now. I hope it's not a virus. I'm going to treat for mites, have a spray that's part sulfur and part pyrethrin. The sulfur should kill the mites, and pyrethrin will kill aphids, which are a vector of virus if that's what it is. I've had aphids around recently too, but not seen any on the plants for a while. Either way it should help I hope.
 
https://youtu.be/nygjhwgabqE
 
I'm fairly new, but the tiny white spots also on the leaves that shows where mites have sucked out the cholorphyl.  Looks like what I have researched about Broadmites also.  Good job nailing it, i think, TXCG =)
 
Here's a closeup of some of my affected leaves. It's the day after though, that I sprayed with a mix of sulfur and pyrethrin.
 
 https://youtu.be/WnIGlHoNmkE
 
 
Did you ever find out what was wrong with your pepper plants? Did the mite spray work? My plants look similar to yours with that squiggly vein so im not sure if its the mites or over fertilization :(
 
cathee said:
Did you ever find out what was wrong with your pepper plants? Did the mite spray work? My plants look similar to yours with that squiggly vein so im not sure if its the mites or over fertilization :(
Click to expand...
Not sure if you're asking me or the OP, but I'll share what I've done so far. I first sprayed a bunch of Natria, which has sulfur and pyrethrin. A few days later I trimmed affected leaves and sprayed wettable micronized sulfur, at 2 Tbsp/gal using this sprayer. I like the sprayer because the deflector can be twisted around to make the spray go at an up or down angle, which makes it easier for getting under the leaves. After a week (3 days ago) I was seeing more affected leaves. I trimmed those and sprayed again at 4 Tbsp/gal. I also suspect possible overfertifization (too much N), as the stuff I'm using has urea based nitrogen, which releases faster that what I used before. Plus it was designed for fertiziling turfs, golf course lawns, etc... I was misinformed by the guy at Southern Ag that it was the same as osmocote. After I found out it wasn't I took a gamble and used it anyway. In case it's that, I decided to flush my containers really well and started the drip system to run 30 min every day. After that is all flushed out, I'll go back to using osmocote. I've seen a few bad leaves since, but the new growth is looking good so far. I'll do another round or two of sulfur at 4 Tbsp/gal and flushing, as one of the two or both seem to be helping. Hope this helps.
 
Peter S said:
Not sure if you're asking me or the OP, but I'll share what I've done so far. I first sprayed a bunch of Natria, which has sulfur and pyrethrin. A few days later I trimmed affected leaves and sprayed wettable micronized sulfur, at 2 Tbsp/gal using this sprayer. I like the sprayer because the deflector can be twisted around to make the spray go at an up or down angle, which makes it easier for getting under the leaves. After a week (3 days ago) I was seeing more affected leaves. I trimmed those and sprayed again at 4 Tbsp/gal. I also suspect possible overfertifization (too much N), as the stuff I'm using has urea based nitrogen, which releases faster that what I used before. Plus it was designed for fertiziling turfs, golf course lawns, etc... I was misinformed by the guy at Southern Ag that it was the same as osmocote. After I found out it wasn't I took a gamble and used it anyway. In case it's that, I decided to flush my containers really well and started the drip system to run 30 min every day. After that is all flushed out, I'll go back to using osmocote. I've seen a few bad leaves since, but the new growth is looking good so far. I'll do another round or two of sulfur at 4 Tbsp/gal and flushing, as one of the two or both seem to be helping. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
 
Hmmmm, im guessing it has to do with fertilization for me then because I have tomato plants growing right next to them and so far they are perfectly healthy. Its only the pepper plants that are affected so I am going to trying flushing it out rather than buying the spray for mites. I should have used osmocote too! I used them last year and my plants grew great. This year I tried tomatotone and MG, which I guess was too much for them. 
 
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