Hello,
If anyone has suggestions for how to save my oldest habanero (or how to tell if it's still alive enough to save), I would be very grateful! It currently has a small number of wilted leaves, some green branches, and woody branches with green outer layers but hollow centers, mostly due to my earlier flailing-around-trying-to-save-it efforts. If I can save its life by not flailing ignorantly anymore, I would love to do so.
Here's what's happened so far -
For the last several months, all of my chile plants have been attacked by whiteflies, and my oldest habanero had some scale insects. I removed all of the scale bugs I could find with rubbing alcohol (i.e., soaked a paper towel in alcohol and scrubbed the bugs off the branches) and repeatedly sprayed the plants with soapwater (including the undersides of the leaves). Each time, I temporarily cut back the whitefly population, but never got rid of them entirely. Then I left town for about a month and left my plants under my roommate's supervision.
When I got back about three weeks ago, most of the chiles looked reasonably healthy, but my oldest habanero was definitely ill - it had fewer, limper leaves than when I left, when it was still bushy and producing fruit - and was covered in whiteflies and some scales. I killed the scales and sprayed the leaves with leftover soapwater, which seemed soapier than usual.
The plant didn't improve. I panicked and started watering with low-concentration organic fertilizer in the hopes that the habanero would grow more leaves, but realized after a few days that the pot wasn't draining well and the soil was perpetually damp, enough to grow some fungus on the surface (argh!). Earlier in the summer, I'd put diatomaceous earth in the pot itself and in a tray under the pot to try to stop ants (which didn't work - masking tape and Tanglefoot did, for a while), and the fungus seemed to love growing on the D.E. Meanwhile, the tray was deep enough to hold standing water, which wasn't a problem until we got heavier rain and I started to overwater. I removed the tray and scooped out all of the visible D.E. and fungus, but now I'm afraid that I added root rot or bacterial/fungus infection to my plant's problems.
The remaining leaves hadn't visibly died by about a week and a half ago, and all of my plants were covered in whiteflies again, so I soap-sprayed again. For my ill habanero, I also added a few more Tanglefoot-and-masking-tape collars around individual branches, since the first collar was covered in debris so the ants could cross it. The ill habanero's leaves began to wilt, and some of the other chiles lost leaves.
I finally realized that the soapwater might have been too soapy, so I spent last weekend trying to clean the whitefly eggs off of every leaf with soapwater first, then a very thorough tapwater rinse. The other chiles seemed fine afterwards, but I think my sick habanero's leaves were already dying or that was the final straw, because they completely wilted. I dumped plain water on my habanero until the pot dripped, but the leaves didn't revive.
I left the plant alone for the next few days and watched carefully to see if it would sprout new leaves. It hasn't yet, and the wilted leaves stayed on the branches, but stayed dry, even though the soil is still (TOO) damp.
Today, I panicked again and cut off some of the still-green branches to try to root as cuttings, with the vague idea that if the roots are dead or dying of a wilting disease, maybe the branches are salvageable. Some of the branches have green outer layers, but there's a weird lengthwise hole through the heartwood of each branch that I cut (about a millimeter or two wide). I left some green branches on the plant in case it's still alive, but right now it has no unwilted leaves and I snipped off most of the wilted leaves, too, so it's essentially bare.
So - does this sound more like a soap-poisoning issue, a fungal/bacterial wilt issue, or maybe some combination? Are there ways to check? Is repotting a good idea, to get it out of the badly-draining fungus-contaminated pot, or only likely to kill it if it's on the edge? And if it's alive, does anyone have recommendations for how to encourage it (or its cuttings) to grow new leaves???
Thank you so much for any advice!
P.S. Some background - I am willing to go to any length to rescue this plant. It's at least four or five years old and the first plant that survived my care for any reasonable length of time. Right now, all of my chiles - several habaneros, a ghost pepper, and two Thai hot peppers, along with a mystery probably-habanero - live on a sunless north-facing balcony, so they're making do with a constellation of LEDs, but this habanero used to flourish beautifully on a nice sunny patio, and it's produced many delicious finger-burning golden fruit every summer. For sentimental reasons, I won't willingly give up until the plant is dead. I just don't know if it is, or what to do now.
I've seen frogs and anoles on this balcony, so I don't want to use highly toxic insecticides if I don't have to, hence the (supposed-to-be-mild) soapwater. But if anyone can recommend a good way to kill or deter whiteflies without killing the rest of my plants, please let me know! Because they're back, on my other chiles...
If anyone has suggestions for how to save my oldest habanero (or how to tell if it's still alive enough to save), I would be very grateful! It currently has a small number of wilted leaves, some green branches, and woody branches with green outer layers but hollow centers, mostly due to my earlier flailing-around-trying-to-save-it efforts. If I can save its life by not flailing ignorantly anymore, I would love to do so.
Here's what's happened so far -
For the last several months, all of my chile plants have been attacked by whiteflies, and my oldest habanero had some scale insects. I removed all of the scale bugs I could find with rubbing alcohol (i.e., soaked a paper towel in alcohol and scrubbed the bugs off the branches) and repeatedly sprayed the plants with soapwater (including the undersides of the leaves). Each time, I temporarily cut back the whitefly population, but never got rid of them entirely. Then I left town for about a month and left my plants under my roommate's supervision.
When I got back about three weeks ago, most of the chiles looked reasonably healthy, but my oldest habanero was definitely ill - it had fewer, limper leaves than when I left, when it was still bushy and producing fruit - and was covered in whiteflies and some scales. I killed the scales and sprayed the leaves with leftover soapwater, which seemed soapier than usual.
The plant didn't improve. I panicked and started watering with low-concentration organic fertilizer in the hopes that the habanero would grow more leaves, but realized after a few days that the pot wasn't draining well and the soil was perpetually damp, enough to grow some fungus on the surface (argh!). Earlier in the summer, I'd put diatomaceous earth in the pot itself and in a tray under the pot to try to stop ants (which didn't work - masking tape and Tanglefoot did, for a while), and the fungus seemed to love growing on the D.E. Meanwhile, the tray was deep enough to hold standing water, which wasn't a problem until we got heavier rain and I started to overwater. I removed the tray and scooped out all of the visible D.E. and fungus, but now I'm afraid that I added root rot or bacterial/fungus infection to my plant's problems.
The remaining leaves hadn't visibly died by about a week and a half ago, and all of my plants were covered in whiteflies again, so I soap-sprayed again. For my ill habanero, I also added a few more Tanglefoot-and-masking-tape collars around individual branches, since the first collar was covered in debris so the ants could cross it. The ill habanero's leaves began to wilt, and some of the other chiles lost leaves.
I finally realized that the soapwater might have been too soapy, so I spent last weekend trying to clean the whitefly eggs off of every leaf with soapwater first, then a very thorough tapwater rinse. The other chiles seemed fine afterwards, but I think my sick habanero's leaves were already dying or that was the final straw, because they completely wilted. I dumped plain water on my habanero until the pot dripped, but the leaves didn't revive.
I left the plant alone for the next few days and watched carefully to see if it would sprout new leaves. It hasn't yet, and the wilted leaves stayed on the branches, but stayed dry, even though the soil is still (TOO) damp.
Today, I panicked again and cut off some of the still-green branches to try to root as cuttings, with the vague idea that if the roots are dead or dying of a wilting disease, maybe the branches are salvageable. Some of the branches have green outer layers, but there's a weird lengthwise hole through the heartwood of each branch that I cut (about a millimeter or two wide). I left some green branches on the plant in case it's still alive, but right now it has no unwilted leaves and I snipped off most of the wilted leaves, too, so it's essentially bare.
So - does this sound more like a soap-poisoning issue, a fungal/bacterial wilt issue, or maybe some combination? Are there ways to check? Is repotting a good idea, to get it out of the badly-draining fungus-contaminated pot, or only likely to kill it if it's on the edge? And if it's alive, does anyone have recommendations for how to encourage it (or its cuttings) to grow new leaves???
Thank you so much for any advice!
P.S. Some background - I am willing to go to any length to rescue this plant. It's at least four or five years old and the first plant that survived my care for any reasonable length of time. Right now, all of my chiles - several habaneros, a ghost pepper, and two Thai hot peppers, along with a mystery probably-habanero - live on a sunless north-facing balcony, so they're making do with a constellation of LEDs, but this habanero used to flourish beautifully on a nice sunny patio, and it's produced many delicious finger-burning golden fruit every summer. For sentimental reasons, I won't willingly give up until the plant is dead. I just don't know if it is, or what to do now.
I've seen frogs and anoles on this balcony, so I don't want to use highly toxic insecticides if I don't have to, hence the (supposed-to-be-mild) soapwater. But if anyone can recommend a good way to kill or deter whiteflies without killing the rest of my plants, please let me know! Because they're back, on my other chiles...
