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OMG I think I have made a horrible mistake...

top4874

top4874

I came home today to find about 1/3 of the leaves of most of my plants have fallen off. They appeared to have just wilted and dropped overnight. There are other leaves that appear on their way to the same fate. Some leaves have dried on the tips and others have a dark purple/blackish tint to the underside of the leaves as well.

Last night I sprayed my plants with what I thought was Ivory SOAP, chili powder, garlic powder, and a small amount of vegetable oil (per a PBS garden show). My wife put the soap in for me while I was outside killing moth eggs on my plants. I went in to look at the soap she used and discovered that it wasn't Ivory SOAP, but Ivory Ultra Dishwashing liquid. She also informed me that she had added a dash of LOUISIANA HOT SAUCE!!! She explained that she thought it would help repel the bugs.

The plants appear that they will survive but I'm wondering if I should expect any further damage. If there is something I can do in the meantime? :pray:
 
and make sure to flush it out of the soil also. If you don't want it on the plants, you probably don't want it in the soil. Bummer for you, hope they pull through~

SL
 
I just got back from tending to the plants and it seems to effected some plants different than others. The Habs and Jalapenos seem to be effected the most. Prob a 40-50% loss of leaves on each of the plants. The Banana Peppers seem unaffected. Serrano and Tiburon have a little droop to the leaves. Tabasco seems ok as well.

When I flush the soil how much water should I use? Think it would be OK to use the garden hose as opposed to using up all of my rain water? What should I be the most concerned with, the hot sauce or the Ivory Ultra?
 
Use copious amount of water, did you notice the bluish tint only after you soaped the plants. I ask because the bluish tint in leaves can be an indication of phosphorus deficiency. This is probably not your issue, just trying to eliminate the possibilities.
 
Here are some pics

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I feel sick now.
 
Yeah the dishwashing soap is the one doing the damage, they will come good though i think.

Your tap water will be fine to flush you soil out with and the soap actually has a hidden benefit in this case, it act as a wetting agent so your soil will be able to hold more moisture. I wouldn't worry about it too much ;)
 
I have a feeling that once you wash them off and flush the soil, and give them a week or so to regroup, all will be OK. You may lose some more leaves, but the plants will stabilize at some point and then growth will probably resume. Your problem leaves above don't look that problematic to me - it looks like localized leaf damage, not a systemic failure. Local leaf damage eventually drops off or dies and new leaves grow.

I recommend using Safer Insecticidal Soap if you want to do the soap thing in the future, as it will not harm your plants and is designed for this kind of agricultural usage.
 
Dang... I feel bad for you. I just went through that with detergent soap myself. As stated previously...give them a good flushing of water and cross your fingers. I ended up waiting a bit to long and lost some plants. The rest pulled through after dropping all their leaves and only the green stalk remained. The ones that made it all have very lush smaller leaves and they are much more bushy looking now. Good luck to you.
 
Another thing in addition to the other suggestions, I would removed the leaves that are damaged because they wont "undamage" themselves and they are just using nutrition that can be used for the healthy parts. By damaged I mean the ones that have holes in them or discoloration, if you remove the leaf from the stem of the leaf (where it meets the larger branch) it signals the plant to produce a new leaf in its place. This doesnt happen if you just cut part of the leaf- its gotta be from the whole leaf and that particular leafs stem


It will all be okay!

xox
Nicole
 
Thank you all for the help in this time of crisis. I have flushed all of the plants out and removed all the damaged leaves that had not already fallen off on their own. I also took a spray bottle and washed each individual leaf of any remaining residue. It is heart breaking to see the plants in the condition that they are in when it is something of my own doing. :(

I have a habit that I picked up from my grandmother of talking to my plants while I am caring for them. :crazy: I know it is strange, but I apologized to them and told them that I would only use store bought organic sprays on them from now on. Hopefully they will accept it and reward me with good health and a nice crop of peppers come the fall.

Again, thank you all for your help and for reassuring me that there is hope.
 
ha I am glad it all worked out! I did something similar once.. I bought insect spray that was for surfaces not plants by accident- it was the same brand and was right next to the one i always get so I didnt realize- when I sprayed it (or after 10 minutes of spraying plants) it smelled very "chemical" so I read the bottle.. killed a bunch of seedlings.. so upsetting!
 
Well, I think the leaves that are going to fall off have dropped. Here are a few pics of the hardest hit plants.

Tabasco, lost about 50% of its leaves.
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Jalapenos that lost all their leaves.
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Habs that lost roughly 40% of their leaves.
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Everything appears to be doing fine since I flushed the soil and cleaned the leaves of all of the remaining soapy residue. Thanks again for all the help.
 
They have green leaves, so I think they should survive and be fine. I dunno how much more growing season you have however, might have to bring them in and buy some COmpact Flo's to finish them off.

If the stems are mushy, you have a problem.

But if leaves/stems are firm, the roots are fine (in theory) and it is performing its proper operations to "breathe" and grow so it will survive. It is GENETICALLY invented by god that way.....

JC
 
We generally get our first frost around Halloween each year. I hope that gives me enough time to get some peppers to hold me through the winter. I plan on overwintering the 3 Orange Habs, Tabasco, Serrano, and the 3 healthiest Jalapenos. That is if the wife will let me have that many in the house all winter.

Other than the lack of leaves, everything else about the plants is fine. Stalks are still firm and the only thing that I can find wrong with them is that some of the leaves on the Jalapenos have what appears to be blackish/brownish spots on them.
 
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