I'm new to The Hot Pepper but hope to find a little guidance and a whole lot of education. I have a grow chamber that I built years ago to grow tomatoes in an apartment environment. Now living in Ohio I wanted to use it to try hot peppers over the winter. The GC is approximately 2'x2'x3 1/2'. It uses 8 2' fluorescent grow lights and a 65w/6500k fluorescent overhead light. It was originally designed and used as a hydroponic system. I'm using a 16 on/ 8 off lighting schedule. I randomly chose to grow the Caribbean Red Habanero this winter. Because I germinated it directly in an 8 inch pot using MiracleGro's organic potting soil and that my pump fried, I am not using the hydroponic setup this time. It sprouted after seven days and has been fun to watch since. I have a million questions but need to jump to the problem. The third set of primary leaves are puckering much more than the previous sets and the following sets look like someone took a big bite out of them, especially as they get larger. I've checked for insects but can't find any evidence. We don't have a bug problem in the house so I'm pretty sure thats not it. It's now about 5" tall, has the sixth set of primaries emerging, and secondaries coming out at every node. It looks fantastic and if I can figure it out, I'll get a picture of it on the net. Anyways, if this makes sense to anyone please jump in!
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Puckering and deformity
- Thread starter BuckeyeRed
- Start date
pics are great, but fertilizer (too much usually, especially in miracle grow) and bugs are the usual culprits.
I might go so far as to re-pot in benign soil.
I might go so far as to re-pot in benign soil.
By puckering do you mean this?
Get a magnifying glass and look closely at the undersides of the leaves, could be spider mites. They do a lot of damage to little leaves which ends up looking like big damage when the leaves grow. Spider mites are the most common culprit indoors when you have insect damage but can't find insects, they're smaller than the period on this sentence.
I forgot. Welcome to THP!
Thanks
Thanks cheezydemon. I hadn't thought about fertilizer already in the potting soil. The trunk is only 5" tall but the leaves are as big around as baseballs. Is this normal? The canopy completely hides the pot already and it looks different than anything else I've grown.
Thanks cheezydemon. I hadn't thought about fertilizer already in the potting soil. The trunk is only 5" tall but the leaves are as big around as baseballs. Is this normal? The canopy completely hides the pot already and it looks different than anything else I've grown.
Puckering
Thanks to you too txclosetgrower. Yes, thats what I meant. The first sets of leaves smoothed out when they reached "full" size. The thirds didn't. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't killing a great looking plant!
Thanks to you too txclosetgrower. Yes, thats what I meant. The first sets of leaves smoothed out when they reached "full" size. The thirds didn't. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't killing a great looking plant!
BuckeyeRed said:
See I had the EXACT same problem when I was starting plants both years. First year they kept doing this and I thought they were diseased and tossed them out. Mistake. This year I just left them alone, sprayed neem oil, and eventually they grew out of it. As long as the mites aren't completely killing baby leaves before they unfurl your plants should make it through just fine.
I suggest 2 things for growing indoors: yellow sticky traps & powerful magnifying glass for checking undersides of leaves. Oh, and neem oil. Neem oil can be used as a preventative measure against mites and gives leaves a nice sheen. Dillute the oil in water & add a few drops of dishwashing soap to act as a emulsifier/wetting agent(keeps it from beading up on the leaves). Spray tops and bottoms of leaves every few days.
Also if you need help posting pics just ask. Good luck
Absolutely, big leaves are great, but if they look at all deformed, it is probably too much nitrogen.
The upper leaves look just like tx's first pic as far as the puckering. I was afraid maybe they were diseased or drying out. The deformed area looks more like what I would think a genetic defect would look like. The edges don't look torn or chewed, more like they grew that way. I don't mind the "wait and see" approach, I just want to be proactive if there is something wrong with it.
Ive noticed if you have mites or flys..Early in the plants growing cycle and they start taking the nutriants in the leaves away it can cause deformitys for forthcoming sets of leaves..Pluck the deformed ones out and see if the new sets are correct or not and keep an eye
on not over-fertilizing the soil
on not over-fertilizing the soil
AlabamaJack
eXtreme
there was a thread started back at the first of this growing season that talked about leaf curl...I had a lot of chinense that had the curl to them...every one of them finally grew out of it...I also had an aphid infestation I fought for about a month or 6 weeks...
as far as leaf size goes...most of my chinense had huge leaves while they were inside under lights...once I moved them outside, the large leaves dropped and were replaced by smaller leaves...seems I read that the larger leaves are grown by the plant to maximize the light they can take in but when they are moved outside in natural light, the leaves don't need to be as big to get the same amount of light so they are smaller...
as far as leaf size goes...most of my chinense had huge leaves while they were inside under lights...once I moved them outside, the large leaves dropped and were replaced by smaller leaves...seems I read that the larger leaves are grown by the plant to maximize the light they can take in but when they are moved outside in natural light, the leaves don't need to be as big to get the same amount of light so they are smaller...
My Carribean Reds did the same thing, very large leaves and smaller as they grow.
Older, shaded leaves will yellow and drop, this is normal, DONT OVER FEED!
Only feed when NEW leaves are yellowing
I also grow inside under lights, and you will NOT get any fruit with one color of light, use a 50/50 mix of 2700K and 6500K. Peppers need both
Epsom Salt did WONDERS for my plants, I sprinkle a little in the soil every 2 to 3 weeks and at the same time a 1tbs/per-gallon water spray on the top and bottom of the leaves.
I also had great results with my Carib. Red habs when I used Miracle-Gro bloom booster (15-30-15) which also has all the micro nutes.
Although, I did have a rotation of suspending my pots outside a window on the west side which gave them about 7 hours of direct sunlight. Which they loved me for, loading up with 70 - 100 pods a plant!
If you can, get your plants as much direct sunlight as you can, but if you plan on more than 7 hours of sun a day you need to harden them off first.
Older, shaded leaves will yellow and drop, this is normal, DONT OVER FEED!
Only feed when NEW leaves are yellowing
I also grow inside under lights, and you will NOT get any fruit with one color of light, use a 50/50 mix of 2700K and 6500K. Peppers need both
Epsom Salt did WONDERS for my plants, I sprinkle a little in the soil every 2 to 3 weeks and at the same time a 1tbs/per-gallon water spray on the top and bottom of the leaves.
I also had great results with my Carib. Red habs when I used Miracle-Gro bloom booster (15-30-15) which also has all the micro nutes.
Although, I did have a rotation of suspending my pots outside a window on the west side which gave them about 7 hours of direct sunlight. Which they loved me for, loading up with 70 - 100 pods a plant!
If you can, get your plants as much direct sunlight as you can, but if you plan on more than 7 hours of sun a day you need to harden them off first.
Thanks for all the info RichardK and Alabama Jack. The plant has become a monster! It only had one set of deformed leaves - one never developed at all and the other is huge like the others. It is now 8-10 inches tall and the trunk has tripled in thickness.
Do I only switch the lighting schedule when I want to induce flowering or is there another sign to look for? The stems of the leaves are beginning to have brown veins and again amaze me at their size. I'm still getting new sets daily and to be honest I can't see how my current lighting setup will sustain the plant if it continues to "bush out" the way it is now. Everything I've grown in the past - both legal and illegal - never filled in quite the way this Carib red is.
Do I only switch the lighting schedule when I want to induce flowering or is there another sign to look for? The stems of the leaves are beginning to have brown veins and again amaze me at their size. I'm still getting new sets daily and to be honest I can't see how my current lighting setup will sustain the plant if it continues to "bush out" the way it is now. Everything I've grown in the past - both legal and illegal - never filled in quite the way this Carib red is.
AlabamaJack
eXtreme
BuckeyeRed said:
From what I have read and what others on this site have said, the capsicum genus is not photoperiod sensitive. Changing your photoperiod will not change your growth state from vegetative to flowering/fruiting.
Thanks AJ and Tx. When I got home today there were what look like 5 pods(?) coming out of the top of the plant. Again, hot pepper growing is all new to me so I'm not quite sure what I'm working with. I'll keep watching.
