Peppers dying! Help!!

[Anelson870]

So I've been growing jalapenos and purple ghosts this year and they are dying on me now. They started out wonderfully, but after fighting slugs, and too much water they're dying on me. Any help or direction to save them would be amazing. The white stuff is food grade D. E. Powder amd the darker stuff is coffee grounds. I have a Tabasco plant that is thriving and producing great! I live in buford, ga.

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[boutros]

I cant be sure, but looks like over attention to me.  Have you grown before?  They look young and green still, how long have you had them?

 

[luvmesump3pp3rz]

you mention "too much water" and many times when plants are growing poorly that is the main problem. i know you get lots of rain in georgia. can they be moved to a sheltered spot during heavy rains? what type of soil are you using? the potting soil needs to drain quickly. pepper plants don`t like wet feet. don`t give up on them, pepper plants can bounce back even if they are in rough shape. 

 

[The_NorthEast_ChileMan]

I cant be sure, but looks like over attention to me.  Have you grown before?  They look young and green still, how long have you had them?

 
Over attention maybe.......Over watering or poor drainage growing media a possibility too!

 

[boutros]

 
Over attention maybe.......Over watering or poor drainage growing media a possibility too!

Over watering is over attention.  Like thee #1 symptom of over attention.  Poor drainage would only exacerbate that, so possible damned good call.

 

[CaneDog]

Sometimes I'll have a plant that for whatever reason hasn't developed enough roots and the media looks compacted or heavy.  What I'll do is take something - a BBQ shish kabob stick works great, but I've used a sharpened pencil before too - and push it straight down into the soil throughout the pot to create "tunnels" from top to bottom where the o2 can get in and moisture can escape. If the roots are getting saturated and starting to rot, this can help.  I figure it also helps create loose areas in the soil so the roots can expand more easily.  I suppose it's a bit like aerating a lawn.
 
The point is that with a sharpened tool like those the roots aren't damaged and the soil isn't just jammed down, but they're carefully moved out of the way.  Once the object is all the way down in the soil, I'll gently wiggle/rotate it some to create a slightly larger hole, but only a little; not so much as to damage anything. 
 
I actually did this a couple weeks ago with my "standard" flexuosum, which had experienced one too many rain events immediately after being potted up, and it's happy and blooming again.  If the soil's draining well I don't think this treatment's needed, but if it's not and the roots are getting unhappy it's another tool in the bag of tricks.

 

[Anelson870]

It could 100% be over attention. There is drainage for the pots, but I may have to drill more. I didn't realize that we never drilled the holes earlier, so I drilled holes the other day once I realized. I usually fertilize and water on the weekends and try not to do anything other than that. My Tabasco plant came back super strong and is putting out tons of peppers so I'm hoping my poor jalapeno plants do the same. Thanks for the pointers. This is the first house my fiance and I have owned. We've grown herbs before and I've done ghost peppers on my back porch, but I'm no expert.

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[Raputin]

If you don't have holes on the bottom of the pot you might want to put clay pellets before putting your soil in the pot. And in this case you need to be very caution while watering to not put too much water that could drown plants roots.
Not enough watering is better than too much watering for peppers.
 

 

[Anelson870]

I am pretty sure I watered too much once i noticed I had no holes. I drilled holes and haven't done anything else. I'll make sure to leave them alone for a while. I did notice a few flowers, but nothing else. Thanks everyone!

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[mlh5953]

If it's as hot there as it is here in NC, then you might want to move them into some partial shade until they recover.

 

[Anelson870]

Ya once I get home I was going to put them under the deck.

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[rnichols1990]

I would put them in the shade for a few days to reduce any excess shock! If all else fails you could take the root ball out, gently rinse it with water until the soil is all off the roots and place it in a pot with new soil (ensuring the new dirt has good drainage and tilth). Of course you would risk the plant by doing this, but it might be worth a shot. I hope everything works out!

 

[bongcloud]

If you don't have holes on the bottom of the pot you might want to put clay pellets before putting your soil in the pot. And in this case you need to be very caution while watering to not put too much water that could drown plants roots.
Not enough watering is better than too much watering for peppers.
 

Planting peppers in pots without drainage holes is just asking for trouble. Adding coarse material at the bottom doesn't actually help with drainage, and could even make the medium soggier by reducing soil volume and raising the saturated perched water table. This has been shown in many studies, but it also makes sense intuitively (think of a medium as a sponge). If you’re worried about medium washing out of drainage holes, you can cover the holes with coffee filters and the like. If you're not trying to add weight to the pot, which adding clay pellets wouldn't do, I can't think of a good reason to add heavy coarse material at the bottom either.