seeds Newbie...What's going on with my seedlings?

Wow! Thanks for the great response! I'll see if I can find some lime sulfur locally. One of the plants might not be salvageable, and I don't see anything that appears to be new growth on it.
 
On the upside, it was a monumental day here in the nursery. I picked my very first pepper grown indoors (Reaper).
 
Dx5DcGIl.jpg
 
 
Yea, it's going to be a poor year if this is any representation of things to come. The pepper is from one of the adult plants.
 
In a few weeks I will be transplanting the cup and hydro plants to pots. I've been taking note of what soils people are using for growing, but haven't been able to find any of them locally (Ocean Forest and the like). Honestly, I'm not that enthralled with mixing my own concoction. We have mostly big-box stores around here such as Lowes, Home Depot, Bachman's, etc. So, I'm not exactly sure which direction to go.
 
Thanks again for taking the time to chime in. I appreciate it!
 
Zoey said:
Wow! Thanks for the great response! I'll see if I can find some lime sulfur locally. One of the plants might not be salvageable, and I don't see anything that appears to be new growth on it.
 
On the upside, it was a monumental day here in the nursery. I picked my very first pepper grown indoors (Reaper).
 
Dx5DcGIl.jpg

 
Yea, it's going to be a poor year if this is any representation of things to come. The pepper is from one of the adult plants.
 
In a few weeks I will be transplanting the cup and hydro plants to pots. I've been taking note of what soils people are using for growing, but haven't been able to find any of them locally (Ocean Forest and the like). Honestly, I'm not that enthralled with mixing my own concoction. We have mostly big-box stores around here such as Lowes, Home Depot, Bachman's, etc. So, I'm not exactly sure which direction to go.
 
Thanks again for taking the time to chime in. I appreciate it!
Click to expand...
Dont give up on mite-affected plants. I had a 7 pot douglah which was literally looking like a bunch of twigs, but I didn't need the extra space so I left it. After 2 weeks it had tons of new leaves, its now fruiting (albeit late in the season), and is a reasonable size plant. So yeah if you can, lime sulpur is the way to go.
 
And also the reapers - first fruits of the season are often very undersized, i had a few reapers that looked exactly like that earlier, and then later that same plant was producing full size pods.
 
WIth the soil - I found most useful is compost/pumice sand or perlite mised with some chicken / sheep/ horse manure. Ratio of about 50% compost, 40% perlite / pumice sand / and 10% (or less) manure. And then you can help them out with a bit of extra fertiliser during watering but tbh with good compost and manure you won't have any problems, I found that to be the case anyway.
 
Here's a little better look at the critters I have on the bottom of my leaves. Even when looking through a loop, I can't tell that they have legs. They almost look like eggs? I've also noticed that there are cobwebs on the affected plants. I can smash them, and they leave behind a tanish/clay color. I sprayed the crap out of them with permethrin.
 
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Here's the plant that the pepper came from:
 
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And here's the plant that I think is is/about toast:
 
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All is not lost on the aphid front though! Look who I found snooping around tonight! It's the Calvary!!
 
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Unfortunately, I think his time is limited due to my carpet bombing with permethrin. Nice huh? In rolls the Calvary and I annihilate the troops.
 
Yeah if you get lime sulphur in the next few days you might be able to save that plant, it very much looks like a very late stage of a broad mites damage. but yeah no idea on those black dots.
 
If you look closely, there are webs around the bottom of the plant. Those are mites. The dark spots are too big for mites and especially their feces, those has to be something else. Are they dead black aphids? Are they seemingly attached to the leaf, but if you scratch them off, they go off fairly easy.Insecticide should take them out so you should be sure. Be sure you take out those webs, because they protect the mites quite effectively..
 
I"m positive that they are not dead aphids. They are attached to the leaves, but can be rubbed off easily. However, they really don't rub off intact. Rather, they get smashed, like an egg pouch or something. As I said, when they are smashed, they leave a rust colored residue on your fingers.
 
I didn't think about the webs protecting the bugs from the spray. Good tip!
 
I'll have to consult Dr. Google about mite feces. Man, some of the things I look for information on......bat guano, mite feces, etc. Without a doubt, I've got to be on someone's "Watch this guy...he's kind of messed up in the head" list.
 
Well, you can ask dr. Google about scales. I think those dark spots might be scales. Another pest, that can be exterminated with some help from an insecticide or ladybug army.
 
I did a web search, and it really looks like these are spider mites. Good call everyone! It also looks like rubbing alcohol or neem oil will kill them. It's also suggested in multiple places to use water to spray down the leaves. I also looked up scale, but the photos I saw look more Chiton's in shape (if you happen to know your ocean critters). In other words, they have a flat bottom with rounded body. The stuff on my leaves are a bit oblong with rounded edges.
 
I'm thinking that I should remove the infected plants from the nursery.
 
I took the kids out to play for the first time this year. After I got everyone outside, I set them up in a row, just at the edge of the sunlight. I broke the rules by letting them stay outside all day. It wasn't much hotter than what it is inside the nursery, so I figured it would be okay. After bringing them in at the end of the day, I realized that the wind had really dried out the soil quickly. Some of them needed a touch of water earlier than planned.
 
Unfortunately, I did have one casualty. One of the Reapers broke off right at the soil line. The stalk was a bit spindly, so I'm not terribly heartbroken. Just for giggles, I cut the stalk even shorter, and threw it into hydro to see what would happen.
 
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As a first time parent, I'm discovering that moving plants about on a daily basis is a total PITA. Speaking of things that are a PITA, my three adult plants. Yes, I'm on again about them. I'm getting to the point where I don't have any more f*cks to give. I've spent a fair amount of both time and money on their rehab, but they really don't seem to be responding in a positive manner. So, it's time to sink or swim.
 
While everyone was outside, I gave the kids a thorough both in Neem Oil. I looked for lime sulfur, but came up empty handed today. I'll keep looking, but not terribly hard mind you. Remember....I'm about out of f*cks.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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