I'm a first time grower of chili peppers. Most of my plants seem to be doing fine, but I have issues with malformed new leaves on a couple of them.
Summary:
* I am in the Tokyo area of Japan
* I have 15 plants in total, all bought as seedlings from various garden / home centers.
* All plants are outside in my garden in fairly small pots
* I bought some plants in the beginning of April, they are all doing very well, with no signs of problems
* I bought several in the end of April. A couple of these have problems with malformed new leaves.
Here is the one that is worst affected (Tabasco):
Here is a picture of the same plant April 27th right after buying it:
A couple of the other plants have a ligher version of the problem, on just a few of the leaves.
Some obeservations:
* Only recent new leaf growth is affected
* I don't see any pests on the plants
* All the potting soil is new "standard grade" vegetable potting soil from the home center
* I use a 6-6-7 liquid fertilizer that I started feedling a couple of weeks ago... it isn't listed as specifically containing calcium, but lists "minerals". (https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B076BS1RNR)
I searched a bit, and this post seems to be the most similar problem:
thehotpepper.com
The suggestions are either a pest of some sort, overall calcium deficiency or an issue with calcium distribution that it is caused by some cold nights that coincide with a pepper growth spurt. So the overall suggestion is to just wait it out...
Nighttime lows have been fairly high recently though: https://weather.com/weather/monthly...0d7cad28ab10c262b12e35d09b84093db2dfa8f010d5e
And I doubt there is a calcium deficiency in the soil, as it is all new and comes with fertilizer, and I have recently started feeding a liquid fertilizer that also includes Calcium.
So my leading theory is that either I started fertilizing too quickly, or the fertilizer is not a good match.
So I plan to go for several weeks with just watering and no fertilizer, and see if that helps. I may then try
to find another fertilizer.
How does my theory sound?
Any other ideas / suggestions?
Should I trim off the malformed leaves, or just leave them?
Summary:
* I am in the Tokyo area of Japan
* I have 15 plants in total, all bought as seedlings from various garden / home centers.
* All plants are outside in my garden in fairly small pots
* I bought some plants in the beginning of April, they are all doing very well, with no signs of problems
* I bought several in the end of April. A couple of these have problems with malformed new leaves.
Here is the one that is worst affected (Tabasco):
Here is a picture of the same plant April 27th right after buying it:
A couple of the other plants have a ligher version of the problem, on just a few of the leaves.
Some obeservations:
* Only recent new leaf growth is affected
* I don't see any pests on the plants
* All the potting soil is new "standard grade" vegetable potting soil from the home center
* I use a 6-6-7 liquid fertilizer that I started feedling a couple of weeks ago... it isn't listed as specifically containing calcium, but lists "minerals". (https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B076BS1RNR)
I searched a bit, and this post seems to be the most similar problem:
Malformed leaves
Hi everyone, This is my second year to be growing hot peppers and they were doing really well. However, they are getting some gnarly leaves now. I have my peppers in Fox Farm Ocean Forest soil, and I only try to water when the soil starts to get dry, however it has been raining some. I did...
thehotpepper.com
The suggestions are either a pest of some sort, overall calcium deficiency or an issue with calcium distribution that it is caused by some cold nights that coincide with a pepper growth spurt. So the overall suggestion is to just wait it out...
Nighttime lows have been fairly high recently though: https://weather.com/weather/monthly...0d7cad28ab10c262b12e35d09b84093db2dfa8f010d5e
And I doubt there is a calcium deficiency in the soil, as it is all new and comes with fertilizer, and I have recently started feeding a liquid fertilizer that also includes Calcium.
So my leading theory is that either I started fertilizing too quickly, or the fertilizer is not a good match.
So I plan to go for several weeks with just watering and no fertilizer, and see if that helps. I may then try
to find another fertilizer.
How does my theory sound?
Any other ideas / suggestions?
Should I trim off the malformed leaves, or just leave them?
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