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Normal?

M

michaellustfield

I'm not sure if this is normal or not. I'm about as beginner as you can get. I have a yellow hungarian plant growing and it seems to be doing great. There are so many leaves that the stem can't actually support them. I braced the stem with a bent paper clip and now I'm seeing some white bumps at the base of the stem and the stem itself seems to be very slightly transparent.

I don't know if... I over watered, under watered, should leave it alone, should trim back some leaves, should add something to the soil, etc. Any advice would be super swell. I'm also concerned because it seems that the other peppers I started (red slim, bhut jolokia, butch t) are heading that same direction. They're about 3wk behind this one.

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i could be wrong but it looks like those are the starting of roots! but i will agree you have been WAY over watering! add soil to the pot till those spots are covered and do not water till the leaves wilt and sag. then water nice and slow to allow all the soil to absorb the water. document the day you water it and wait till it wilts again and then you will know how many days you can go with out watering and plan accordingly!
 
Yep, too much watering.
Say, how much is it getting? I would also recommend gradually exposing it to wind, as it seems really fragile.
 
Back off on the water and add more growing medium to the pots, the plants are trying to send out roots, possibly your potting mix has settled a bit, adding additional will also help stabilize the plant.

Greg
 
If it were me, I'd set the plant much deeper than it is now to where the medium is just under that first set of leaves. Let the stem below that root out and provide better stability to hold itself up. Introducing some wind will help too.

-J
 
yep I concur, too much water just water after the saucer(use a real saucer) has dried out, then water till the saucer fills up, after that you can just add water to the saucer.
 
The soil settling would make sense. I think I packed it a bit (way) too loose. I'll get a saucer for this and only water from that when the plants look like they're craving it. I have some dry soil added up to about 1/2" above where it's sending out roots. I feel much more smarterer now. Thanks!

I can't wait until my butch t's take off and I get to pop one in my mouth. :mouthonfire:
 
Lots of opinions here and most of them are on the ball. The white bumps are the beginning of roots. Add more of your growing medium, enough to cover all of the bumps, and pack it down easily. Then follow Omri's great advice and get some air moving on them. A circulating fan is the best. Put it on low and let it sweep across your plants. That will strengthen the stems. As for signs of over watering the leaves are slightly yellowed so you could back off a little.
 
michaellustfield said:
The soil settling would make sense. I think I packed it a bit (way) too loose. I'll get a saucer for this and only water from that when the plants look like they're craving it. I have some dry soil added up to about 1/2" above where it's sending out roots. I feel much more smarterer now. Thanks!

I can't wait until my butch t's take off and I get to pop one in my mouth. :mouthonfire:
Click to expand...

Good idea, looks like you can add an inch of soil, rather than setting it deeper and having less room for its "feet" to grow.
In relation to watering, you may want to wait until the top inch of soil starts to dry, and when you do hydrate let it run out the drain holes, that provides a complete soak, follow that cycle and you shouldn't have problems with mold or rot...

Greg
 
I'd also add a handful or two or so of that white perlite stuff to your soil mix as well... it helps with drainage considerably

Oh, and I find Clay pots help if you occasionally tend to over-water... they dry out quicker. I've also heard clay is supposed to breathe so it is supposedly better for the roots... but you may want to take that with a grain of salt... I do know I prefer clay pots as my plants always grow better in them than plastic and I can even see where the water line is on my pots (perhaps not as easy when the pots are older or dirty) but there is a faint distinction between where the water is more concentrated.... a day after watering I see the line moved from the top to about half way down...


PIC 1 said:
Good idea, looks like you can add an inch of soil, rather than setting it deeper and having less room for its "feet" to grow.
In relation to watering, you may want to wait until the top inch of soil starts to dry, and when you do hydrate let it run out the drain holes, that provides a complete soak, follow that cycle and you shouldn't have problems with mold or rot...

Greg
Click to expand...
 
Well guys, I'm happy.

Perlite is apparently hard as hell to find around here. I think I had thi soil packed down too tight too. I wound buying 300lb of rock and sand. I put a few inches of pea rock on the bottom of each. I mixed a bunch of sand in with the existing soil after ripping my poor plants out of their own personal hell. I think I may have mixed too much sand in, but I don't really know. I tend to overdo things. So anyway. I wound up calling into work sick the day after I hauled in 300lb worth of these frozen bags. I did actually feel terrible and needed some (much) sleep. I got up and started going at it. I made darn sure to get everything packed nice and loose figuring the water will pack it down if it's too loose.

Well... after getting the plants back in, they looked like shit. They _hated_ me. I watered them worrying about being too light. Next day the top looked moist so I left it. Next day they looked worse so I gave them more water. They perked right on up (most of them anyway). Some still don't look like they came back.

I guess what happened is that by doing this, I managed to dry out teh soil and the soil is wanting to retain the water intead of giving it to the plant and it's probably running further down. I'm in hopes that this means the roots will grow deeper. I'm trying not to over-water, but I think the sand and rocks and everything else are making me under-water them. That's kinda great because no plants died yet, most look better, and I have a baseline for what's normal. I'm learning!!!

SO!!!!

PICTURES!!!

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I also started running a rotating fan on them. Should this run all day and night, or just a few days a week, or something else?..

Thanks everyone for all the advice. :D

OH! I did in fact *just* water it before taking this pic. The first inch of soil was completely dry. It was damp below that.
 
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