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newbie plant issues with pictures
- Thread starter Avon Barksdale
- Start date
The first 2 pictures are bhut jolokias from cross country nurseries. I got them in the mail 2 months ago, and they have done practically nothing since. They started out in Sta-Green potting mix, but quickly realized how terrible it is and took them all out and mixed about 1/3 of the Sta-Green with 2/3 pro-mix and some mircale grow (regular), plus some extra vermiculite and perlite and bone meal and some foliar epsom salt. They didn't spend much time in the Sta-Green, only a week or two. After I repotted them they started to take off for about 5 days and started growing again. Then, they just went dormant again for the past month. My other CCN plants (red savina and scotch bonnet) were similar, except once they took off they kept growing and still look pretty good.
Overwatering was an issue with them early on due to all the rain, but they haven't been overwatered for a solid month. They have been given 3 or 4 very light fertilizations of fish emulsion, bone meal, and MG, along with a lot of foliar spray of epsom salts. I haven't been able to spot any insects anywhere on the plants with the naked eye.
The last picture is a trinidad scorpion. I'm not overly concerned with it, since it is growing pretty well. I transplanted it only about 2 weeks ago and it was pretty small. The color concerns me a little since it's a pale green and not the dark green of most people's plants. I added bone meal and epsom salts (foliar) but it just won't green up. I only got it ~3 weeks ago and it won't green up. I have numerous other chile plants, tomatillos, and tomatoes in the same soil and conditions that are thriving, so I'm not sure what is up with these plants. The bigger jolokia appears to my untrained eye to have a fungus or virus or something but I don't know. The smaller one I don't know, it just won't grow.
Overwatering was an issue with them early on due to all the rain, but they haven't been overwatered for a solid month. They have been given 3 or 4 very light fertilizations of fish emulsion, bone meal, and MG, along with a lot of foliar spray of epsom salts. I haven't been able to spot any insects anywhere on the plants with the naked eye.
The last picture is a trinidad scorpion. I'm not overly concerned with it, since it is growing pretty well. I transplanted it only about 2 weeks ago and it was pretty small. The color concerns me a little since it's a pale green and not the dark green of most people's plants. I added bone meal and epsom salts (foliar) but it just won't green up. I only got it ~3 weeks ago and it won't green up. I have numerous other chile plants, tomatillos, and tomatoes in the same soil and conditions that are thriving, so I'm not sure what is up with these plants. The bigger jolokia appears to my untrained eye to have a fungus or virus or something but I don't know. The smaller one I don't know, it just won't grow.
Also, I haven't tested the pH so maybe that is an issue, I plan on getting a pH tester soon though. I've watered with about half rain water and half tap water left overnight for the chlorine to evaporate. Rain water is supposedly pretty acidic (~5.0) here in Indiana, and tap water too. Could it be that the soil is too acidic? My plants seem to like the rainwater though, they usually do well after storms.
they've been in 5 gallon buckets for over a month and a half though...
Sounds to me like you are over feeding a lot. Back off of the Mg because you should have seen results by now. lazienfat may be correct regarding the roots. You might want to take 1 plant out and actually look at the roots; if they're not healthy then you have to go from there. But the first thing I'd do is just stop feeding and watering until you see wilt from lack of water. Then just water. Go slow and don't care them to death.
Good luck.
Good luck.
They get sun almost the entire day and they were fully hardened off. When I repotted them the roots took up an area about the size of a basketball, pretty decent size compared to the size of the plant.
I don't really think they're overfertilized. They haven't been given anything other than epsom salt sprays for a few weeks and they were flushed out with heavy rain a couple times since then. All 3 fertilizer applications were very dilute and spread out over 2 months.
I've been sticking my finger in the soil and only watering when it's very dry, but before they wilted. I'll let them wilt a little before the next watering and see if that helps. I'm about to order a pH tester so I'll give that a try too. May try the aspirin water too...
+1 on the too much ferts. There was already enough in the soil you were using and even Pro-Mix has starter nutes. Don't give them anything but water until they get much bigger. Keep them in the shade until they look better. The combination of heat, sun and mega nutes can bring any plant to it's knees.
AB,
I would stop the Epsom salt (MgSO4) applications for sure. From what you have indicated, I tend to agree with bigt in that you may be over fertilizing and that your roots may be bound up, even though your symptoms look very much like an N deficiency. The best way to deal with it is to repot the plants in new soil and make sure that the roots are not bound. This eliminates both issues in that if you have over fertilized and built up salts you get fresh soil and if your roots are bound you free them up....no worries. If problems persist after doing all this give them some N.
I would stop the Epsom salt (MgSO4) applications for sure. From what you have indicated, I tend to agree with bigt in that you may be over fertilizing and that your roots may be bound up, even though your symptoms look very much like an N deficiency. The best way to deal with it is to repot the plants in new soil and make sure that the roots are not bound. This eliminates both issues in that if you have over fertilized and built up salts you get fresh soil and if your roots are bound you free them up....no worries. If problems persist after doing all this give them some N.
Thanks for the replies guys. I will take your advice and repot tomorrow with some fresh soil, lay off the ferts and see if that helps. I don't believe the roots are bound up though, they didn't appear that way when I repotted to the 5 gallon buckets. I moved the plants to some shade earlier today as they showed some signs of wilting this morning. They were watered last night (plain tap water left out overnight).
I'm also heading out in a bit to buy a pH meter to test the soil.
I'm also heading out in a bit to buy a pH meter to test the soil.
Another question guys...I've read that over-fertilization usually causes leaves to curl under, yet the majority of my plants have leaves curling upwards to some extent. On most plants they're only curling a little, but on some plants they are curling upward a lot, particularly one of my tomato plants. Only one my ~25 plants has leaves that are curling under. What would you suspect is causing the upward leaf curl?
I don't think it's overwatering as it has been ~100 degrees for about a week and the soil gets pretty dry before I water.
I don't think it's overwatering as it has been ~100 degrees for about a week and the soil gets pretty dry before I water.
It appears you guys were on to something with the over-fertilization. I flushed my badly curling tomato plant out late last night with about 3x the soil volume in water and the leaf curl was almost completely gone this morning. The plant looks so much better in only ~8-10 hours since the flushing. I think I'm just going to flush the others and see if that does the trick, if not I'll re-pot. I only have enough soil left for one plant and don't care to buy any more this season.
I'm pretty confident at this point that over-fertilizing has lowered my pH too low and is locking out nutrients, and/or there is a calcium build-up from epsom salts and bone meal that is locking out nutrients. Thanks for the advice guys, I'll post an update in a few days.
I'm pretty confident at this point that over-fertilizing has lowered my pH too low and is locking out nutrients, and/or there is a calcium build-up from epsom salts and bone meal that is locking out nutrients. Thanks for the advice guys, I'll post an update in a few days.