My sick Habanero plant :-(

[Dot Com]

Seems the leaves are yellowing then dropping- off. The plant next to it gets the same amt of water and sunlight but is doing very well. I notice some other people are having problems w/ some of their plants too

Here's the sick Hab plant (see how the leaves are yellowing & dropping- off on the right of the pic?):

Here's the healthy hab plant that sits 3 ft away from the sick one:

 

[Avon Barksdale]

Looks like you have some fertilizer burn, there are a lot of burnt tips on those leaves. I think there is something else going on though. I think that needs potted up too, that is a pretty large plant for that pot and may be at least partly why it's dropping leaves. Could probably use some calcium too judging by the cupping leaves. I would flush it, pot it up, and give it some calmag if it were me. Why isn't it outside by the way? Should be warm enough now...

 

[Dot Com]

Looks like you have some fertilizer burn, there are a lot of burnt tips on those leaves. I think there is something else going on though, since the leaves are yellowing in spots, maybe over watering. When I over fertilize it seems like the whole leaf yellows all at once then drops. I think that needs potted up too, that is a pretty large plant for that pot and may be at least partly why it's dropping leaves. Could probably use some calcium too judging by the cupping leaves. I would flush it, pot it up, and give it some calmag if it were me. Why isn't it outside by the way? Should be warm enough now...

Thanks. I used some of that pre-mix soil. It is recycled too in that I've used the same dirt w/ other plants. I was wondering if you use the same dirt, will the nutrients be diminished? I have tried to ease- up on the watering as you mentioned too. I think I'll do as you say, pot- up, flush it, maybe use different dirt. OH! It isn't outside because I live on a 4th floor and it gets very windy.

 

[DudeThtsBad]

take a look at this. http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg57_000.pdf
& the healthy onee looks niiice !

 

[Avon Barksdale]

Thanks. I used some of that pre-mix soil. It is recycled too in that I've used the same dirt w/ other plants. I was wondering if you use the same dirt, will the nutrients be diminished? I have tried to ease- up on the watering as you mentioned too. I think I'll do as you say, pot- up, flush it, maybe use different dirt. OH! It isn't outside because I live on a 4th floor and it gets very windy.

What do you mean by pre-mix soil? Or did you mean to type pro-mix? How often are you watering? With those being indoors they probably don't need watered very often (maybe every ~5-7 days) since there's no wind and they're at room temperature (and probably slow growing since it doesn't look like they get a whole lot of light). The pot should be pretty light before you water, even if the potting mix is bone dry on the top, that doesn't mean it's not really wet underneath. If you're not sure you can wait for them to start to wilt before you water. Chile plants wilted from lack of water will bounce back completely within a few hours, it doesn't faze them.

It's ok to reuse potting mix, but after a year or more the peat will break down and won't drain as well, so if you're going to reuse it you should mix it with some fresh potting mix or fresh peat/perlite or something similar every year to maintain drainage. What have you used for fertilizer?

Also I noticed those pots have the water-catching bottom things on them. I would take those off and see if there is any standing water in there.

How windy is it outside? Too windy even if you stake them?

 

[Oziam]

+1 on fert burn

All is not lost!

I have had the same thing happen to me using liquid ferts, it's easy to get carried away overfeeding your babies,
I had a Bhut Jolokia that looked similar to your hab , I flushed the pot with 2 large buckets of tepid water,
I removed the worst of the burnt leaves leaving the plant a virtual stick, needless to say that it did slow the growth
considerably but bounced back with fresh new growth weeks later, it is now quite healthy, I learnt that "Less is more" when fertilising.

 

[franzb69]

i recommend taking the pods off your hab while it's recuperating to help the plant focus its energies on leaf growth.

=D

 

[Dot Com]

What do you mean by pre-mix soil? Or did you mean to type pro-mix? How often are you watering? With those being indoors they probably don't need watered very often (maybe every ~5-7 days) since there's no wind and they're at room temperature (and probably slow growing since it doesn't look like they get a whole lot of light). The pot should be pretty light before you water, even if the potting mix is bone dry on the top, that doesn't mean it's not really wet underneath. If you're not sure you can wait for them to start to wilt before you water. Chile plants wilted from lack of water will bounce back completely within a few hours, it doesn't faze them.

It's ok to reuse potting mix, but after a year or more the peat will break down and won't drain as well, so if you're going to reuse it you should mix it with some fresh potting mix or fresh peat/perlite or something similar every year to maintain drainage. What have you used for fertilizer?

Also I noticed those pots have the water-catching bottom things on them. I would take those off and see if there is any standing water in there.

How windy is it outside? Too windy even if you stake them?

I'm almost certainly over-watering it then. Thanks for the info.

 

[ZanderSpice]

Have those every gone outside? It would be pretty impressive to get habaneros with the light from a window.

As said before, make sure to take off the tray on the bottom so they can drain. You might want to water them with Tbsp of unsulfured molasses per gallon until water drains out the bottom. That will flush out any built up salt. If they stay indoors, once a month watering to runoff should be enough.

 

[Dot Com]

Have those every gone outside? It would be pretty impressive to get habaneros with the light from a window.

As said before, make sure to take off the tray on the bottom so they can drain. You might want to water them with Tbsp of unsulfured molasses per gallon until water drains out the bottom. That will flush out any built up salt. If they stay indoors, once a month watering to runoff should be enough.

Yep. They've only been outside for about 2 hrs in their entire lives.

 

[nitwit]

yo dot dude,
it looks like the hab is a little overfertilized
as others have indicated.

please back off on the fertilizer on all your plants

try to leach the excess ferts out of the one(s) showing brown leaf edges

you can put the plant(s) in the shower or tub and water until the water runs out

the bottom while they are in there and let it drain out {take the bottom off so they will drain}

put the water to them three or four times 'til it runs out and let drip drain to wash the excesses out

it also looks like some of them may benefit from a larger root area, i would pot up if you can

looking great with the number of pods. please tell us what they taste like green and orange if you can.

hope this helps

 

[Dot Com]

take a look at this. http://www.hgic.umd.edu/_media/documents/hg57_000.pdf
& the healthy onee looks niiice !

Forgot to thank you for that

yo dot dude,
it looks like the hab is a little overfertilized
as others have indicated.

please back off on the fertilizer on all your plants

try to leach the excess ferts out of the one(s) showing brown leaf edges

you can put the plant(s) in the shower or tub and water until the water runs out

the bottom while they are in there and let it drain out {take the bottom off so they will drain}

put the water to them three or four times 'til it runs out and let drip drain to wash the excesses out

it also looks like some of them may benefit from a larger root area, i would pot up if you can

looking great with the number of pods. please tell us what they taste like green and orange if you can.

hope this helps

I tried a ripe one and started hiccuping immediately. I've read where they're @ 30K S.U. but not exactly sure which strain I have. They were labelled "orange habs". I'm not a pro pepper- head like Neil so I'm a little new to the hotter peppers. Can't imagine eating a bhut or a scorp!!!

 

[nitwit]

that is way sweet,

the hot muthas make me hiccup too

glad you are biting the "bullet" and going all the way

please try to wash some of the ferts out and take it easier the next time

or take longer between fertilizing. this is part of the learning curve we all need

to make adjustments and corrections. see how much fun we are having now? next you will want

to put one out on the balcony so it can really grow "naturally" maybe you can get a pube or two to set fruit?

 

[Dot Com]

Took off some of the upper growth last night because there's secondary growth at the base that I'm going to let take over. Looks like the other 4 pods started ripening.

Here's a pic of the best specimen of the three adult hab plants that I have. The one I already attached has alot of pods but this plant has the uber- pods The bigger one is @ 4 1/2 cm long

 

[Avon Barksdale]

Forgot to thank you for that

I tried a ripe one and started hiccuping immediately. I've read where they're @ 30K S.U. but not exactly sure which strain I have. They were labelled "orange habs". I'm not a pro pepper- head like Neil so I'm a little new to the hotter peppers. Can't imagine eating a bhut or a scorp!!!

Orange habaneros are a lot higher than 30k scovilles. More like 100k-400k...

I can't really imagine eating a whole bhut or scorpion either, and I have a pretty high tolerance.

 

[Dot Com]

Orange habaneros are a lot higher than 30k scovilles. More like 100k-400k...

I can't really imagine eating a whole bhut or scorpion either, and I have a pretty high tolerance.

It must be 300K S.U.'s and a jalapeño is 30K. All I know is the one I tried had me hiccuping from the get- go and I put tabasco on almost everything I eat so I'm not a stranger to heat.

 

[Dot Com]

Plant doing better as I culled the excess foliage and let up on the watering. I was prolly drowning them, as was mentioned by another user in this thread. New growth started right up after the old leaves & non- producing branches were removed