• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

Pepper plant looking sooooo sad

obeychase

obeychase

My grandmother, believe it or not, is growing some peppers and they look absolutely sad. She came to me because she knows how much of a chile head I am.

They're labeled "sweet peppers" that's it.

I can't get to the bottom of it. The plants look severely wilted, the pods look totally deformed, and a majority of them have blossom end rot like nobody's business. I can't even give it a proper diagnosis.

My first initial thought was infection or virus, but it looks like pests. HERBICIDE DAMAGE CAN BE RULED OUT. No other plants have this damage.

I'm thinking broad mites.


 
I'm leaning toward broad mites. I'd spray it with a neem oil/pyrethrin combo, and prune the bad leaves over the next couple weeks as new growth kicks in...
 
What is the history of this plot of soil?  If she has had plants growing there year after year then there are several different major and micro nutrient deficiencies possible.  You could have a soil analysis done, and/or ask her if she's been fertilizing and use that info to add some fertilizer, and get some compost going to mix in before next year's grow.  Is that fertilizer I see in a pile under one plant?  Maybe there is too high a nitrogen to everything else ratio.
 
The soil also looks a bit like it may be too compacted, has it rained a bit too much in MD?  Rather than only making several different guesses I am suggesting it may be a combination of factors.  Insect attacks certainly aren't helping but I don't think that's the cause.
 
Dave2000 said:
What is the history of this plot of soil?  If she has had plants growing there year after year then there are several different major and micro nutrient deficiencies possible.  You could have a soil analysis done, and/or ask her if she's been fertilizing and use that info to add some fertilizer, and get some compost going to mix in before next year's grow.  Is that fertilizer I see in a pile under one plant?  Maybe there is too high a nitrogen to everything else ratio.
 
The soil also looks a bit like it may be too compacted, has it rained a bit too much in MD?  Rather than only making several different guesses I am suggesting it may be a combination of factors.  Insect attacks certainly aren't helping but I don't think that's the cause.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. She's not a serious hardcore gardener. Prob a problem with the ferts and nutes.
 
You should be able to find broad mite on the plant with a hand lens - with this amount of damage there should be lots.  Also, herbicide damage still could be the cause - it can affect plants differently - some not at all in the same plot.  I have had beans show damage and nothing else - from drift or volatilization (not sure which). Solanaceous plants can be more sensitive to herbicides under certain conditions. Mites are not plant specific (well - they attack other plants - but not all plants) too so you should have them on other plants too. Another possibility is walnut toxicity - Black Walnut, English walnut, hickory, and butternut can harm peppers - but they usually look wilted not distorted. Nutrient problems are not likely - they don't do this sort of thing, unless she is adding something strange (like lots of boric acid) - but other plants would be affected with this as well.
 
Is that white pedestal looking thing in the pic a bird bath?  If so, I wonder if the soil around it has been subjected to extreme levels of fresh bird guano, particularly on the lower side after rain, although I don't see any in the pictures.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top