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Night Wilting: What the ....

mega

mega

So I've noticed that some of my Chinenses "power down" after sunset, with the normally jovial, upturned leaves turning down for the night - sometimes more than 90 degrees! Like turning from the 12:00 position on a clock to 9 or even 8 o'clock. Then I get up the next morning and, presto, they are up, healthy and ready to go for the day! Weird....just wondering if anyone knows what this is about - why is it happening? Here's a few pics

Pic 1: an orange hab, next to a paper lantern - notice the healthy upturned leaves!

orangehabday.jpg


Pic 2: now look at these two plants after powering down for the night - man, how listless, it's hard to even see in the pic how out of fuel these plants look after around 9 pm

orangehabnight1.jpg


Pic 3: here's a closer look at that paper lantern, also looking bedraggled after 9 pm. notice the branches hanging at a 90 or near-90 degree angle

paplant1.jpg


Anyone know what's going on here? What's intriguing me is I often get up around sunrise and they are already up for the day, ready to go. They are obviously regrouping while it is still dark. How do they know when to do that???
 
psst...they are actually aliens awaiting instructions and resupplies (ie- energy) from the Mothership. JustKidding!

Sunflowers also track the sun, wonders of nature for sure. I'll be watching mine now after reading your post to see how they do.
 
Might have something to do with watering schedules and/or sun times. What time are you watering? Are they getting hot late afternoon sun? Try misting them just before or on dusk, especially if they are getting late afternoon sun, you could even move them to a spot that is shaded in the arvo. But if they are perking back up I wouldn't be too concerned about them.
 
it's normal. I have a habanero that does the same thing. In the morning, it's back to normal. I freaked out the first time I saw and wondered if I didn't something to provoke the drooping.
 
Looks like temperature/sun/wind related wilt. As long as you dont have inward leaf curl, which would be indicative of Verticillium Wilt. The plants would die within a few days. This is mostly a soil problem.

But plants photosynthesing during a sunny, hot, dry or windy day will lose more water through the leaves' stomata (transpiration and evaporation) than they bring up through the roots. Water pressure drops. Thus the wilt. When night falls, no photosynthesis occurs, the stomata close and roots supply plenty of water and water pressure in the plants and leaves comes back up. Thus the perk up.

Jolokia_Jas is correct. Maybe a location with a little less intense late afternoon sun or a less windy location.


BTW- I'm no plant expert. The above info comes from my brother who is a research biologist with the US Dept of Agriculture.
 
I have two plants that do this... a C. pubescens (Rocoto Red) and a C. baccatum (Aji Hot Lemon). My only two plants of those species.

All of my other plants--various C. annuums and C. chinenses as well as my C. frutescens (Tabasco) do just the opposite, as would be expected, and perk up at night. In fact, they haven't even been wilting through the day since they get mostly morning sun (and it hasn't got ridiculously hot out... yet).

On the Hot Lemon the top leaves are the ones that seem most effected, while all of the Rocoto Red's leaves do it about equally. They don't seem to be wilting and look and feel normal... they're just drooping a bit. Pretty weird. They've been doing this pretty much since I got them.

Edit: Actually, one of my two potted orange habaneros does seem to do it to an extent as well. It's just not near as noticeable.
 
I appreciate all the suggestions and ideas here. I decided to do some more research (aka "me touching the plants") and I concluded that they are not actually wilting. They do not have the thin, filmy feeling like plants have when wilting in a mid afternoon sun. No, they are firm, stiff and dry, exactly as you'd want them to be, except that in the evening they are pointing downward; they are rotating on the axis of the nodes near the top of the plant. I believe this is just the habit of those particular cultivars and should just be ignored (although it looks quite weird). What's kinda interesting is that I have 24 cultivars; around 8 are chinenses, and of those, 4 chinenses were ordered from Hippie Seed Company, and it is those four that have this unusual behavior. They are also, coincidentally, my bushiest, strongest plants. Food for thought here...

anyway, appreciate all the input, and GLTA pepper growers here
 
My Naga Morich, my Neyde and my Tabasco plants all decided to behave like this, on the other hand all other chillis are acting normal.
Funny thing is that I dont remember any of my chillis doing this last year.
But its good to know that they're fine :)

Bleash
 
Actually, I just noticed, my plants are doing the same thing. Nothing to worry IMO, my plants perk up in the morning.
 
Well technically it's not really wilting since wilting comes from getting too much sun or heat. Maybe we can call it resting? Sleeping? I dunno hehe
 
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