nutrients New Growth Falling. (Nutes/Pests?)

[jlacosta]

My Jalapenos are a foot tall and just started blooming. My problem is that 2-3 plants have their new growth falling off. I picked these new leaves and they seem to be darker in color and somewhat deformed/brittle.
 
I live in a tropical climate and it's the rainy season here. The plants are under a fiberglass shed that gets around 4-5 hours of sun. They are in 7Gallon pots with a soil mixt of 45% peat, 45% compost and 10% vermiculite. Plants are watered and foliar fed every other night with a brew of bat guano, worm casting and a small amount of fish emulsion.
 
My hunch is that the nutes are concentrated on the new growth and if there is some type of deficiency, that's where it's supposed to be evident. I see a few aphids (like a couple every now and then) but no other pests are on the bottom side of the leaves.
 
Any suggestions or previous experience that can help is very much appreciated.

 

[PepperDaddler]

Broad Mites.

 

[megahot]

I'm sure it would be pests! Better nuke em! Do you see tiny spots on the leaves or webbing? 

I'd add some perlite to your mix as well

 

[jlacosta]

Broad Mites.

Thanks for the headsup. I did a quick search and it seems like I might have em in my Jals. I would need to read more as it's not looking good at how others had unfortunate turns over a broad mite infestation.

I'm sure it would be pests! Better nuke em! Do you see tiny spots on the leaves or webbing? 

I'd add some perlite to your mix as well

I do notice a little webbing but the actual plants that have been experiencing deformed/falling new growth are cleaner that the others.
 
I'm having trouble finding perlite here in Manila so I will probably use Ipa (rice hulls) for extra drainage when I transplant my other seedlings.

 

[geeme]

Probably not broad mites, though it could be another type of mite. Broad mites tend to attack larger leaves instead of new growth. Also, they suck the matter out of individual leaf cells, leaving what appears to be a hole in the middle of the leaf. However, if you look very closely, you'll see the "skeleton" of the leaf remaining. They can, and do of course, also attack the edges of leaves, but that's not usually where they start. 

 

[jlacosta]

Probably not broad mites, though it could be another type of mite. Broad mites tend to attack larger leaves instead of new growth. Also, they suck the matter out of individual leaf cells, leaving what appears to be a hole in the middle of the leaf. However, if you look very closely, you'll see the "skeleton" of the leaf remaining. They can, and do of course, also attack the edges of leaves, but that's not usually where they start. 

Thank you Geeme. I will observe the plant and see what's up. I am paranoid that my previous experience a few years back might happen again.

 

[jlacosta]

I was wondering if any of you tried dish soap to control mites. I found this article and I might give it a go with one of my plants and leave the rest as a control. Then observe the plants for a couple of days.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05547.html

What do you guys think?

 

[jlacosta]

After a week, the new growth has worsened. Here are some photos of the worst plant of the group. Can anyone identify the pest in the last photo?
 
Any drastic measure I can do now?
 
 

 

 

 

[jlacosta]

Just an update on my Jalapenos. All the new growth fell and the plant basically stopped growing. No new growth from the sides for more than 2 weeks and I really gave up and basically wanted to take revenge on these broad mites. So what I did was I topped off all 5 plants leaving only around 8-10 true leaves (which weren't really in good shape and placed the containers they were in outside near the roadside where weeds were. I thought, might as well feed you to whatever predators can find you. 3 weeks later, as suspected, the leaves were teeming with aphids but surprisingly, there were ants to. I read in an article way back that ants control aphid colonies by biting off their wings and herd them in one place as a source of sweet dew and nutrients they produce. Started brewing some compost tea and blasted the underside of the leaves and ended up with clean waxy foliage.
 
What really surprised me is that in just 3 weeks, new growth were growing and they were all in good condition (except for a few leaves where some caterpillars and hoppers went to dine). But still, letting nature do its thing somewhat controlled the situation and before I know it, 5 weeks since I posted my problem, 4 out of 5 plants survived with a couple of pods already set. Not a lot of pods but I'm very happy with my decision. Big thanks to Mama N for the push.
 
I'll be growing some ornamental plants (prolly marigold, morning glory, etc) to attract other insects as I think they keep the balance from where I live. Depriving my plants from socializing didn't do too well.