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health Noob grower, yellowing leaves and brown spots

Other noob grower here, watering the leaves is bad then? Last season all of my plants died, I think due to a combination of the setup I had not draining well, and overwatering.
 
I mixed a rougher potting mix together with last year's dirt and added some sand. I also started my plants indoors two months earlier and am growing them in larger pots (14").
I have a Bellafina that I think I may be overwatering a bit, but I also want to rule out some other possibilities. That particular plant has a whole lot of leaves on it, and about a half dozen really nice fruit. I saw some very fast growth over the last couple weeks, so I have been keeping it pretty damp.
 
So now what I'm seeing is that some of the smaller leaves at the very bottom have been drying up and falling off. Overall, it doesn't seem to be recovering from it's "daily droop" quite as well as it had been. I considered a possibility that those bottom leaves aren't getting sun due to the fruit adding weight, so what I did today is I put a tomato cage around it with some strings anchored to various parts of the stalk in order to support the plant more. After watering tonight it does look like the plant is standing a bit taller, but that could be due to the support. Blight doesn't seem to be a culprit to me because overall the plant is pretty green, and I don't see any white stuff growing at the stalk. Guess for now I'll have to wait and see how things go, unless any of this seems of immediate concern to any of you?
 
 
grahamsprodigy said:
Other noob grower here, watering the leaves is bad then? Last season all of my plants died, I think due to a combination of the setup I had not draining well, and overwatering.
 
No, actually foliar feeding has many advantages. It is when you do it that may carry unwanted results. During or prior to a full day of sun is a no no. And foliar applications are best done at dusk or just prior to it.
 
I mixed a rougher potting mix together with last year's dirt and added some sand. I also started my plants indoors two months earlier and am growing them in larger pots (14").
I have a Bellafina that I think I may be overwatering a bit, but I also want to rule out some other possibilities. That particular plant has a whole lot of leaves on it, and about a half dozen really nice fruit. I saw some very fast growth over the last couple weeks, so I have been keeping it pretty damp.
 
What is a Bellafina?
 
So now what I'm seeing is that some of the smaller leaves at the very bottom have been drying up and falling off. Overall, it doesn't seem to be recovering from it's "daily droop" quite as well as it had been. I considered a possibility that those bottom leaves aren't getting sun due to the fruit adding weight, so what I did today is I put a tomato cage around it with some strings anchored to various parts of the stalk in order to support the plant more. After watering tonight it does look like the plant is standing a bit taller, but that could be due to the support. Blight doesn't seem to be a culprit to me because overall the plant is pretty green, and I don't see any white stuff growing at the stalk. Guess for now I'll have to wait and see how things go, unless any of this seems of immediate concern to any of you?
 
Pictures will help immensely in any diagnosis of your plants issues.
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Welcome to THP.
 
 
CAPCOM said:
What is a Bellafina?
 
It's a new(ish) variety of sweet mini bell pepper. They are non-GMO peppers that were developed by Monsanto, it's a really interesting story because they were able to selectively breed them with knowledge obtained while developing GM versions of other plants, but these are totally organic. They have no heat but are outstanding in cooking and my kids are nuts about them. I have a bunch of other things out there including some Numex Heritage "Big Jim", but the Bellafina was the first thing I planted this year, and is also the first to run into anything I thought might be a concern. To say that I am watching this year's plants closely is a severe understatement.  I'll try to get some photos for you in the morning.
 
Welcome to THP.
 
It's my pleasure, and thanks for the knowledge. Hoping to make some awesome food with you.
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CAPCOM said:
Generally the biggest problem with growing hot peppers is the one we create ourselves.
It is called watching them grow too much and trying to help them do it faster.
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I tend to believe this, as true natural selection occurs at the point of seed saving, not sewing. I'm in Arizona and I really think that I did a few things last year that basically led to my plants boiling alive in their planters. This year I'm going into it armed with much better tools. Practice makes perfect.
 
grahamsprodigy said:
 
I tend to believe this, as true natural selection occurs at the point of seed saving, not sewing. I'm in Arizona and I really think that I did a few things last year that basically led to my plants boiling alive in their planters. This year I'm going into it armed with much better tools. Practice makes perfect.
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If you focus on feeding the soil and giving the soil what it needs instead of the plant then things will go a lot better
 
Nobody would look at their soil and think that it needs lime or sulphate of potash or example
I found non-organic gardening far too confusing and it appears to be set up in a way that lines the pockets of Monsanto and grow store owners. 
 
It's easy to just find leaves on the floor or pick some dandelion and add it into the pot. Malted barley/rye/wheat/corn is also great for the soil. If you imagine that an old growth forest would have thousands of seeds that sprout but never make it in it's soil, it's an important part of the soils life
 
Since I stopped using nutrients in a bottle all the nutrient based problems have gone away
Not saying that it's the best or only way to grow but it's definitely the simplest and cheapest and helps restore the earth
 
The peppers I love to buy the most are from Hatch, New Mexico. They're not grown on a forest floor. You're probably still right about the dirt though. I sure would like to know what's in theirs.
 
grahamsprodigy said:
The peppers I love to buy the most are from Hatch, New Mexico. They're not grown on a forest floor. You're probably still right about the dirt though. I sure would like to know what's in theirs.
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Growing all starts with the dirt. Good soil, good plant, good fruit.

Visit Hatch, NM. Visit NMSU in Las Cruces. Talk to the people growing the chiles. NMSU is an amazing place with a wealth of info.
 
Uh-oh. 
18192996_10154250848761595_5128691968433258390_o.jpg

 
I pulled at least one of these off of my "Lunchbox Orange" plant this morning. It might have been both, I'm not 100% certain now. Do those look like bacterial spots to you?
 
I also have something going on here with a "Garden Salsa":
 
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This is the Bellafina I was previously describing. I propped it up last night. Other than it looking like it was struggling to lift the fruit, it seems pretty healthy to me:
 
 
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I have been watering twice a day, usually I try to get out there in the early morning, and then again in the afternoon. I'm reading that bacterial spot can be reduced by keeping the leaves dry, so I'm going to reduce to once a day watering and then also make an effort to keep as much of that water off the leaves as possible. Maybe I can figure out a way to get some kind of tubing under the mulch so that I can water from underneath it, or make a matrix of string to keep the leaves above it, something like that. 
 
I water my plants once a week, once every 4 days in the middle of the Australian heat
 
Unless you live in the tropics once a day is far too much. A member here lek lives in the tropics and he waters once every 4 days I think he mentioned
 
grahamsprodigy said:
I have been watering twice a day, usually I try to get out there in the early morning, and then again in the afternoon. I'm reading that bacterial spot can be reduced by keeping the leaves dry, so I'm going to reduce to once a day watering and then also make an effort to keep as much of that water off the leaves as possible. Maybe I can figure out a way to get some kind of tubing under the mulch so that I can water from underneath it, or make a matrix of string to keep the leaves above it, something like that. 
Click to expand...
 

Once a day may be too much as well. That may change when summer comes to Phoenix. But for now I would cut back on watering til the leaves just start to show limpness.
 
I have a 12 foot sunshade that I ordered, once I've got that set up I should be able to reduce the watering frequency. I'm growing in pots, and temperatures will be above 100 degrees this week.  I've got fruit on all of my plants now too. Last year after skipping a day watering my babies looked pretty bad. I ended up losing all of those, but I did get these ones started in the dirt a month sooner so I'm thinking they will be hardier.
 
Only about six leaves between the 10 pots I've got out there were damaged to the point of spots. I am pruning any that look iffy, and keeping them off the ground. Overall I think we're looking pretty healthy. I have started using the Epsom salts per the FAQ here. Up until now I had just been doing the Miracle-Gro once a month. I also mixed some bone meal into this potting soil before I put them out. I have a couple of compost bins and had been putting eggshells and other various things in there since last summer. It's not as degraded as I would care to have, but the plants seem happy enough with it.
 
BTW, I don't want to sound like I am a fan or not of Miracle-Gro, I know there are a bunch of you that don't like the idea of chemical fertilizers. I just happened to have moved into this rental house and the last tenant left behind a huge container of the stuff. I don't see any reason to just let it go to waste.
 
Miracle gro is fine as a product however it is owned by Monsanto who are an actual evil corporation with no respect for the environment
 
Powelly said:
Miracle gro is fine as a product however it is owned by Monsanto who are an actual evil corporation with no respect for the environment
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Ridiculous. First, Scott's is not owned by Monsanto, but they do have a license to distribute the home version of RoundUp. 
 
Outside of that, Monsanto is still one of the most brilliant collection of people in the world, and you should stop reading the websites that are telling you these awful things about them. Those sites are funded by organic business groups and co-ops with the express intention to make the public afraid of what are actually perfectly safe things. 
 
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