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issue Problem with malformed leaves on some plants

A

ahochan

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):
tabasco_current.png


Here is a picture of the same plant April 27th right after buying it:
tabasco_new.png


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 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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ahochan said:
I stopped fertilizing for a bit, and did a couple of heavy waterings to flush the soil, but otherwise I left it alone (I did not trim any of the malformed leaves)... now one month later it seems to have bounced back nicely.
Click to expand...
Not a big fan of synthetic fertilizers. I get fantastic results with this.
 
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I see Neptune's Harvest mentioned in many YouTube videos, so it seems popular.
It's pretty expensive for me to pick up here in Japan though (5200 JPY works out to about 33 USD because the Yen is super weak at the moment), so I wanted to try the local brands first.

This is the one am using now https://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B00PVAQ2P6
I thought it was organic, but on closer inspection the label actually says "includes organic matter" (有機質入り), so I'm not sure if it is properly organic or not.
 
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ahochan said:
It's pretty expensive for me to pick up here in Japan
Click to expand...
You may be able to find it somewhere besides Amazon, they are not always the best price.
Chemical ferts are salt & never bring the health & vitality that full Organic nutrition can bring.
You only use 1 Tablespoon per gallon of water weekly or Biweekly for a longer grow response without salt buildup.

We are backyard growers & spend over $100.00 per gallon on Bio fungicides then $90.00 on a gallon of Spinosad it's not cheap
to grow your own.

Are you planning on repotting your plant?
 
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@ahochan yes it sure did bounce back nicely! After looking at the first photo, my suggestion was going to be to put a pinch of epsom salts in the watering can, I was wondering if this was magnesium deficiency. I guess the roots were underdeveloped for a bit and maybe nutrient uptake was suffering. It looks good now, but I do still see a little yellowing around the veins. Why don't you try the light epsom salt application and see what the outcome is?
 
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Thanks for the tip about the epsom salt! Is any "plain" type ok? When I search, I mostly get hits for bath salts.

Are you planning on repotting your plant?
Click to expand...
I might... I have limited space, and my goal this season is to try growing several different variants to see which types I end up liking the most. So far I have been reserving my larger pots for the variants I am already familiar with using.
 
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ahochan said:
Thanks for the tip about the epsom salt! Is any "plain" type ok? When I search, I mostly get hits for bath salts.
Click to expand...

There are two schools of thought on that, some people say to only use epsom salt from a garden center, others say it's fine to use epsom salts from a drug store provided it is only magnesium sulfate and no other additives. Some brands add sodium chloride, which will kill your plants. I'd go the most conservative route and get it from a garden center if you can. Also keep in mind that it only takes a pinch to do the trick!
 
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