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indoor Leaves Dropping After Moving Indoors

P

pure_bordem

Hey all question,
 
I recently had to move my peppers inside because the nights were hitting 45 degrees only peaking at 70 tops by 3 in the afternoon (damn Pennsylvania). However I am starting to notice that seemingly healthy leaves are falling off fairly easily if brushed against. What would be the primary culprit after only a few days inside?
 
The plants are currently in my unfinished basement  under some generic shop lights while my grow lights are en route. Problem is they will not be here for at least a week. I have not been watering them since the soil seems a moderate wetness and do not want to over-saturate them. I also sprayed for aphids using an organic oil based spray and it seems to have killed off any remaining buggers. This leads me to believe it is either a light or temp issue but maybe I am wrong? Could it simply be shock?
 
~PB
 
I'm in Cleveland, OH and can tell you it's ok to leave them outside a bit longer. Chile plants don't like their roots to get below 50F on a consistent basis - night time temps getting below 50F is ok as long as it's warming up during the day. 
 
Regarding your leaves dropping, could be any number of things - pics will help. Let's start with watering, though. There are two things that can reliably tell you when it's time to water. The first is the leaves starting to droop. The second is the weight of the pot. Leaves drooping is easy. Weight of the pot - water well, until the water runs freely from the drain holes. Pick the pot up off the ground just a tad and make note of how heavy it is. Wait until the leaves droop just a tad, then pick the pot up again, noting how light it is compared to when you first watered it. You want the pot to get just about that light before watering it again, every time. The surface wetness isn't reliable, as the water can only be at the top (say from a rain), or hidden deep inside (after you've watered.) Weight and/or leaf droop are the only really reliable methods. The most common sign of overwatering is leaves turning yellow - were your leaves starting to yellow?
 
Other than that, it sounds like the most likely culprit is underwatering at this point. However, the thing to know about aphids is they are nasty little creatures that multiply at a great rate and are very difficult to eradicate. Their eggs often are not affected by pesticides. To truly eradicate them with pesticides,  you have to spray and spray and spray and spray and..... you get the idea. So yes, the problem could be the aphids. Or a combo of aphids and not watering enough once you moved them inside. There's a good chance you turned the heater on inside your house, and it's drying up the pots faster than you realized. d
 
I'm certainly not one of the experts here, but I do know that whenever you first transplant a plant it's good to give them extra water to help their roots gain the extra energy they need to adjust to the new soil, etc. It could be a temperature as well, definitely. I made the mistake of not acclimatizing the young pepper plants I had in my outdoor garden and ended up losing 3/4 of them. Somehow a Bell pepper managed to survive, though it isn't been a while and it isn't really started to show new leaves yet. :)
 
*cough* What geeme said ^ :)
 
You moved it inside. The sun is no longer available.

You have massive muscles and no longer lift 400 pounds on a daily basis, they turn to fat.

Leaves drop because you didn't prune when you moved them in and they don't need as many leaves nor do they want to support/feed them all with less light.
The plant will be fine until your new lights get there.
 
could also be to the soil being too wet.  Outside the sun helps dry it off.  Depending on your indoor water cycle they could have wet feet since it takes longer for soil to dry out indoors. Add an oscillating fan to help with that and monitor soil mositure
 
geeme said:
I'm in Cleveland, OH and can tell you it's ok to leave them outside a bit longer. Chile plants don't like their roots to get below 50F on a consistent basis - night time temps getting below 50F is ok as long as it's warming up during the day. 
Click to expand...
 
Are you sure? I thought most peppers did not want to go consistently below 60F, especially the Bhuts and Scorps?
 
At this point would I cause more shock by putting them back outside? My lights should be in no later than the 20th.
 
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