I'm rather new to this forum and pepper growing, but I've been spending the last three months doing lots of research on how to grow these things. So far, I've had great success, but I'm concerned things may be going downhill from here.
I'm growing indoor/outdoor on my porch at my apartment, and I've been growing Chocolate Bhuts and Jamaican Hot Chocolate plants. Some of the Jamaican Hot Chocolate plants, once transplanted to the potting soil grow for quite a bit, but then start to show signs of calcium deficiency with the crinkly, deformed leaves. Because of that, I've been fertilizing using the Miracle Grow Shake 'n Feed Tomatoes, Fruits, and Vegetables plus Calcium fertilizer (9-4-12) conservatively. I've been using gardening materials (fertilizer and soil) from Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart because I haven't found any good gardening stores around here.
Currently they are in Miracle Grow Potting Soil (not the organic type) with perlite to help it drain better and not compact. I had a great germination rate back in mid March, but now some of the plants are loosing their bottom leaves (some have lost a few middle leaves though) and have acquired both fungus gnats and something that looks like bacterial spot on some of the leaves. I've been pretty conservative on watering, and have watered only when the 1st inch below the soil feels dry. I'm in the process of hardening off two of the plants to go outside (the green container plants), but this loosing leaves has been concerning me because it's been occurring for a couple of weeks now with different plants. Could it be stress from the hardening process? The plants in the white pots have good new growth, and the Bhut new growth looks good, but the Jamacian Hot Chocolate plant new leaves still look deformed.
The plants in the green pots were transplanted over 2 weeks ago, and the plants in the white pots over four weeks ago. The plants in the white pots have been outside two weeks now. I believe some of the brown on the leaves in the white pots is because of leaves touching the lights while I was gone.
If you could take a look at these pictures and let me know what might be going on with these plants (or if this is just the way things go), I would really appreciate it! I'll answer questions if I haven't provided enough information. I've included some comments with the pictures:
http://www.flickr.co...s/80671632@N05/
Thanks!
I'm growing indoor/outdoor on my porch at my apartment, and I've been growing Chocolate Bhuts and Jamaican Hot Chocolate plants. Some of the Jamaican Hot Chocolate plants, once transplanted to the potting soil grow for quite a bit, but then start to show signs of calcium deficiency with the crinkly, deformed leaves. Because of that, I've been fertilizing using the Miracle Grow Shake 'n Feed Tomatoes, Fruits, and Vegetables plus Calcium fertilizer (9-4-12) conservatively. I've been using gardening materials (fertilizer and soil) from Home Depot, Lowes, and Walmart because I haven't found any good gardening stores around here.
Currently they are in Miracle Grow Potting Soil (not the organic type) with perlite to help it drain better and not compact. I had a great germination rate back in mid March, but now some of the plants are loosing their bottom leaves (some have lost a few middle leaves though) and have acquired both fungus gnats and something that looks like bacterial spot on some of the leaves. I've been pretty conservative on watering, and have watered only when the 1st inch below the soil feels dry. I'm in the process of hardening off two of the plants to go outside (the green container plants), but this loosing leaves has been concerning me because it's been occurring for a couple of weeks now with different plants. Could it be stress from the hardening process? The plants in the white pots have good new growth, and the Bhut new growth looks good, but the Jamacian Hot Chocolate plant new leaves still look deformed.
The plants in the green pots were transplanted over 2 weeks ago, and the plants in the white pots over four weeks ago. The plants in the white pots have been outside two weeks now. I believe some of the brown on the leaves in the white pots is because of leaves touching the lights while I was gone.
If you could take a look at these pictures and let me know what might be going on with these plants (or if this is just the way things go), I would really appreciate it! I'll answer questions if I haven't provided enough information. I've included some comments with the pictures:
http://www.flickr.co...s/80671632@N05/
Thanks!
from Ohio!