Mites

[chico24]

I bought some fatalii plants from the farmers market (I've bought terrific plants from there in the past).

I potted them in mg potting soil in 5 gal pails. They looked great and showed new growth almost immediately. The leaves were bushy and broad, although a few had some tears in them (I assumed this was from the travel to and from the market.)

Fast forward 1 week... The damaged leaves (among others) fell off and the new growth looks shrivelled and small. Could it be mites? Nutrient deficiency/overload? The only 2 plants affected are the ones from the market.... They are also the only ones potted in straight mg.

Any ideas? Am I worrying about nothing?

 

[Jeff H]

I don't see anything that looks like mite damage. All the new growth looks pretty healthy to me. Some of the old leaves aren't so hot but several things could have caused that and mites aren't one of them.

 

[chico24]

I was thinking mites because the leaves look a lot curlier than any of my other plants... The intended title for the thread was "Mites?"

I've never dealt with them before, so I was unsure.

I'm just concerned that these 2 plants which looked so healthy a few days ago now look like this. These plats were over 12" wide when I left town on Thursday.

 

[z_malloc]

Looks like calcium deficiency.

I had that problem this year as well. For me it was caused by doing my initial planting in a heavy coir mix.  You might want to hit them with calmag and/or transplant in proper soil with slightly acidic ph level 5-6.  I've used both gypsum and fast acting lime blended in my mix to help with this problem.

 

[chico24]

As an update, the leaves uncurled in the 2 days after I posted the pic.  The damaged leaves were shed, and new growth started filling in. 
 
The 2 plants I was most worried about (while they are no the fullest looking plants) now have the most flowers of any of my fatalii's and my first pod is starting to form!
 
I'm guessing that the struggles were just the plant acclimatizing to the new surroundings.  I bought them from a farmers market... they were slightly root bound and I don't know what they were originally planted in.  They seem to be on the right track now.
 
As  a new grower, its tough to do, but people are right when they say "the best thing you can do for your plants is leave them alone"... I now understand this.