Tops of plants wilting/deforming

SentencedToBurn · Mar 21, 2015

Hi guys

I've just put a few plants in for my winter grow and in the last few days noticed the tops on a few of them have gone a bit deformed.

Temperature range is 61F at night to a max of 98F daytime (mostly doesnt go above low 90s)
Soil is 80% regular potting mix and 20% perlite
I water them sparingly (have only just done that, noticed the problem was worse so decided to take pics)
Even tomato plants that are sitting in the same are seem to be affected (pics below).

Every watering before this I've used plain water, this time however I decided to add a small dose of 7-4-10 that I used last year just in case it's a deficiency of some sort.

I have other 1 year old pepper plants in the same greenhouse and they seem to be doing just fine.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated.

Bell pepper 1:

Bell pepper 2:

Pink Tiger - although this one is in aquaponics, and nitrogen levels are spot on, so can't be a deficiency from what I can see.

Tomato plant seems to be doing something similar:

geeme · Mar 21, 2015

Looks like a mite problem. Get a miticide.

SentencedToBurn · Mar 21, 2015

Thanks mate will spray them out today

Lovepeppers · Mar 22, 2015

Like geeme stated , it does look like mites. If it is mites, it's going to take due diligence to get rid of them. Hit them hard every three days. You see miticides kill the adults if you spray every one. It doesn't kill the eggs, so in 3 days you can have another population. Another thing to worry about with mites, if you continually and infrequently use a miticide and do not kill them all, the longer this goes on the better chances those mites will become resistant to what you are using. Nobody wants a super mite to deal with. One more thing, the worst mites, we cannot see with the naked eye. So happily kill them, get a pocket scope at least to monitor mite activity.

spicymeatball · Mar 22, 2015

First pic looks like 2,4d no?

suchen · Mar 22, 2015

2,4d and broad mite damage can appear the same initially. I would get a 10x or greater hand lens and really thoroughly inspect especially the shaded sides of young leaves and fruits for the mite buggers. They completely destroyed my peppers by the end of summer 2 years ago. For your plants you could probably get away with soaking them in a bath of ~110-120 degree F water for 15 minutes and repotting in new soil. They are a right pain to deal with.

SentencedToBurn · Mar 22, 2015

Cool thanks guys - 24 hours after I sprayed them out I have a bunch of new growth on my seedlings that werent in the pics - not sure if coincidence or if they were trying to grow and were being destroyed by mites instantly.

I might get rid of the two bell peppers all together - seems a bit safer. And I'll spray the hell out of them again in 3 day's time, and then again. Will do full coverage every time to make sure they don't build up resistance as mentioned earlier.

Will update this in the next few days - hopefully with some good news.

SentencedToBurn · Mar 25, 2015

it's been 4 days now since I raised this problem - have just sprayed everything out the 2nd time.

All plants have a lot of new growth - both new seedlings and season-old plants. The seedlings have definitely taken a big hit, they are pushing out new growth though so hopefully they'll survive. At least I'll know what it is for next time and will snap it up in time.

chocolatescotchbonnet · Mar 28, 2015

SentencedToBurn said:
Hi guys

I've just put a few plants in for my winter grow and in the last few days noticed the tops on a few of them have gone a bit deformed.

Temperature range is 61F at night to a max of 98F daytime (mostly doesnt go above low 90s)

Soil is 80% regular potting mix and 20% perlite

I water them sparingly (have only just done that, noticed the problem was worse so decided to take pics)

Even tomato plants that are sitting in the same are seem to be affected (pics below).

Every watering before this I've used plain water, this time however I decided to add a small dose of 7-4-10 that I used last year just in case it's a deficiency of some sort.

I have other 1 year old pepper plants in the same greenhouse and they seem to be doing just fine.

Any suggestions or ideas are appreciated.

Bell pepper 1:

Bell pepper 2:

Pink Tiger - although this one is in aquaponics, and nitrogen levels are spot on, so can't be a deficiency from what I can see.

Tomato plant seems to be doing something similar:

i believe that hydro one is phosphorus difficiency! pfeffer helped me out on that...edit: the pink tiger! 8).

SentencedToBurn · Mar 29, 2015

Hey thanks mate. It did end up being mites. All those plants are growing like nuts now. Although I had to rip the tomatoes out and replace them, but who cares about tomatoes - they aren't chillies.