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Pepper plant tips shrinking away

G

gvittman

I have something strange happening with several annuum and one douglah. The growing tips simply dry and shrink away and there is almost nothing left of the tip. Growth is ofcourse stunted till new buds appear and the plant starts picking up again. But that takes several weeks.
Yesterday I noticed the same thing with a little douglah with 5 leaves. The top was dead, while the bottom leaves are well alive. Will try to post some pictures tomorrow.
Has anyone already seen this phenomenon? Is definitely not verticillium wilt. I have seen it before on a rocopica that I was trying to overwinter, and happened a few years ago to all of my scotch bonnets which I successfully overwintered. After trimming the branches on the rocopica, the plant is now looking great, but those scotch bonnets, I lost them all.
 
its only on the youngest leaves? theres no yellowing on the lower leaves? if the older leaves show nothing, its probably one of the immobile elements.

im no expert but id look at calcium. i would water with some calcium nitrate; if it is calcium you should see results in a week or so id imagine.
i think severe boron deficiency will kill the youngest leaves also, but ive gotten the impression that's fairly rare.

edit: bad grammar
 
george, you obviously have a consistent issue, what area are you in, in france, i would like to check your environment for things like temperature, humidity etc.

also, have you considered your water? if city treated could chlorine be an issue or lack/abundance of a certain mineral? just a guess. perhaps boiling your water first before using or letting it sit a day before using. or if you are on well water could sulphur or iron be an issue?

are you plants sitting open or do you have some sort of cover over them. i have an overwintered fatalii that started to look really sickly, dropping leaves, stunted growth etc. i moved it into a new pot and have a plastic dome over the plant and it is now full of new growth and looks very healthy and alive. it gets the occasional shot of bunnypoo tea, aquarium water and a special epsom salt/kelp stray.
 
Thanks guys. Is indeed only the very youngest leaves. The rest are healthy. I have thought about the environment too.
Water: is clean mountain spring water (am in the Alps), no chemicals, and I always have it sitting half a week to get to temperature. The water is pretty hard, as the montains here consist mainly of calcium carbonate.
Temp.: I keep it in between 72 and 76 degrees in the growth room
Humidity in this room 42-46%
 
check if there too much water in your pots? not the surface but inside.. wet feet can do this. aphids kill the young shoots and another problem is mites..

do you have a photo ??

sri
 
Here the pictures which I promised.

The 1st two, good examples of how it looks like:

IMG_1983.jpg


IMG_1982.jpg


And, one forming new buds and one getting fresh leaves.

IMG_1979.jpg


IMG_1984.jpg


This this give any more information?

Is definitely not at matter of too much water.
 
Dear sri, I only water when the plants get sad, let their head hand down. Aphids, have a few flying aphids, but very limited. A yellow bowl with soap water takes good care of them.
 
i am with zander on this

it looks to be aftermath of some type of noseeum
carrying a bad virus or bacteria

like Phytopthora blight

or some such treat for fungus and bugs

maybe neem oil? :eek:

edit for this:

second picture looks like there are "scale" bugs maybe
 
upon seeing those pictures, i retract my calcium guess... that new growth looks just fine to me.
ive no experience with bugs, so i cant comment on that possibility.
 
look at the older leaves shows aphids and calcium puffiness use neem, oil 1 tea and 1 tb le of Ivory Dish soap in a quart of warn water. Ivory will not hirt plants will make neem stick to the plants, works for me also fry up some crushed egg shells good and black put into a jar with white vinegar, let sit for 7-10 days egg shell should be soft. pour off the liquid save, to spray on plants a 1-2 tablespoon to 1 Gal of water be careful its very strong about 99% calcium all pepper plants extra calcium at time of blossoming happy growing

(Vinegar acid desolves egg shells any makes it water soluble)
 
i had similar problems after a mite and aphids attack.(2 years ago.)
p1010261s.jpg

after that the new shoots were all small only. the plant did not pick up at all...

it end up like this(lasted quite long in that condition) and then died. :((
p1010260s.jpg


this happen last nov2010
p1030665s.jpg

i remove all dried up shoots and repotted it back . the dry continued till half of the main stem was gone..!!!! it took me 3 months to recover the plant and pic taken in feb 2011 on the same plant.
p1040357s.jpg

now the plant is bushier and full of flowers.. :))( the reminder of what happen is still at the plant where the dried stem is still there..
 
Thanks guys. I appreciate all the advice.
Aphids, I am surprised. Like I said, I do have a very limited number of flying aphids, so not the type that sticks to the bottom the leaves. I did notice quite a while back that some annuum have misformed top leaves, and I do know that this is a reaction from the toxic saliva of the aphids. But this is only on a few plants.
Any recommendations of how to execute these critters? I do have my yellow container with soap water, which catches a few every day, and I tolerate the spiders populating the growth room, my office by the way, and every day they have a nice desert.
It is too early in the year to find ladybugs. A pyrethrin?
 
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