Uh Oh..it was fine a few hours ago!

nzchili

nzchili

[SIZE=10.5pt]So y[/SIZE]esterday while I was at work I asked my brother to put my 2 x larger jonah plants outside to get some sun / breeze.
[SIZE=10.5pt]I got home from work about 4 or 5 hours later to see this..(sorry for the poor images).[/SIZE]
 
droopyjonah_zps35da96eb.jpg

[SIZE=10.5pt]All the leaves were badly wilted, and felt very thin and fragile, and like they had no substance to the touch.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The larger plant looks much worse than the smaller one, and I think its look worse in real life then it does in the pictures.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]I immediately gave the plant a good drink of water and moved it into my room and turned on the heater..[/SIZE]
this pic is after a few hours back inside..
droopyjonah2_zps306f8366.jpg

 
[SIZE=10.5pt]What do you guys think may cause this? Do you think it was too cold for it? Not enough water? [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]I think it happened far too quickly to be lack of water, it was fine in the morning. And the weather was cold, albeit sunny and clear.[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=10.5pt]It’s quite cold here at the moment, it would have been about 8deg C outside yesterday, but the sun was nice and warm. I figured the direct sun would make up for the cold air.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]The plants have always had natural sunlight so I don’t think it’s from over exposure to the sun... im thinking it’s the cold..what do you guys think?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10.5pt]cheers  [/SIZE]
 
I honestly think it's from being outside to long when it's used to indoors, you have to start your plants hardening process for a short amount of time and continually raise the time it's outside everyday until completely hardened off
First day outside shouldn't be longer then an hour (atleast that's how I do it) sometimes 45 mins. I usually raise it 15-30 mins every day
 
Frankie Ruiz said:
I honestly think it's from being outside to long when it's used to indoors, you have to start your plants hardening process for a short amount of time and continually raise the time it's outside everyday until completely hardened off
First day outside shouldn't be longer then an hour (atleast that's how I do it) sometimes 45 mins. I usually raise it 15-30 mins every day
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Possible, though It wasn't their first day outside, and they have only ever had real sun. (usually through a window, but it is direct) I have never used artificial lights on them.
 
They have been outside (in the sun) on numerous occasions, that's why the big one has a steak in there and a bunch of cable ties on it so it can brave the winds :)
Yesterday was just slightly colder than previous days but not by much..
Just seems so sudden, and the big one looked MUCH worse then the smaller one. 
 
Just how wet was the soil when you left it all by it's little self? Too much water can have the same effect as too little..
 
Nova said:
Just how wet was the soil when you left it all by it's little self? Too much water can have the same effect as too little..
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My gut feeling is its not a watering issue - I had not watered it in a couple of days, and there were no signs of it wilting in the morning when I left for work, so I think it would be a bit extreme for it to go downhill that quickly from under watering and I dont think it can be over watering because as mentioned I hadent watered it, I watered it when i found it all wilted.
cheers :)
 
nzchili said:
 
Possible, though It wasn't their first day outside, and they have only ever had real sun. (usually through a window, but it is direct)...
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Ordinary glass blocks some of the ultraviolet radiation coming through. A single sheet would block at least 25% I believe. It's entirely possible that the sun damaged them.
 
Der Metzgermeister said:
Ordinary glass blocks some of the ultraviolet radiation coming through. A single sheet would block at least 25% I believe. It's entirely possible that the sun damaged them.
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[SIZE=10.5pt]Didn’t know that! Could certainly be a factor then. Im interested to see how its looking when I get home.[/SIZE]
 
Does anyone have any suggestions as to if I should give it any ferts or anything? Im also thinking of buying a PH testing kit from the garden shop..I have no experience with them..is it a good idea?
cheers 
 
edit; can i somehow use a digital multimeter to test it?
 
Short answer is no you cannot test the ph with just a multi meter. pH probes use a glass cell that has a reference solution on the inside. The H+ in the water and the ions in the probe create a tiny potential difference. The pH meter then amplifies this signal so the correlation can be made between voltage and pH. If you hook up a pH probe to a multimeter it does not have an impedance high enough to amplify the voltage. Measuring resistance with the regular multimeter probes won't tell you much about the specific [H+]
 
Knowing your ph is always a good idea, you can find out what ph your tap water is by asking the guys that supply your water. Or a google search with your area may provide results.
If you want a cheap ph meter i suggest ebay, they have them cheap there. Here is one i just found for a dollar. http://tinyurl.com/m6r5cke
 
I'd wait and see how they react to a good nights sleep with some heat.  If the soil is moist and the room stays warm, they may recover without issues/concerns.  Also, if the temperatures weren't close too or below freezing and the leaves didn't get frosted, you may have gotten luck.
 
From all the first hand accounts gathered from this community, most pepper plants are pretty resilient. 
 
dlsolo said:
I'd wait and see how they react to a good nights sleep with some heat.  If the soil is moist and the room stays warm, they may recover without issues/concerns.  Also, if the temperatures weren't close too or below freezing and the leaves didn't get frosted, you may have gotten luck.
 
From all the first hand accounts gathered from this community, most pepper plants are pretty resilient. 
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I sure hope so, I do have other pepper plants that are outside but they have been outside all winter so wont get the shock that these ones may have got. In saying that, the plants that are outside that are doing the worst are the 7pots (but they sleep out at night to)
 
I just picked up a soil PH meter, ill test the PH when I get home tonight and snap a picture of how its doing.
 
 
cheers 
this is the same plant, outside, about a week ago...
jonahoutdoors_zps24172bf4.jpg
 
ok so i tested a whole bunch of plants and things to try to get an idea of the PH level of plants that were doing well and ones that wernt doing so well..
 
here are my rough results..
 
tap water was about 7.5
beer was about 7.6
apple cider was about a 6.5
potting mix i used is about a 7.9 while sitting in the bag
plants that were doing well were between 6.9 and 7.5. the best seemed to be around 7.1 or 7.2ph
 
The interesting thing is, I tested about 10 plants and the one and only plant that was way out of the range was the Jonah we are talking about - whose PH is about 6. No other plant that I tested had anywhere near that low of a PH.
Is there something to that? im not sure..im not sure what nute helps with cold resistance but maybe its locked out? 
 
here is how its looking now, its lost a few leaves during the day but is much better in general. Its going to loose a few more but will be fine im sure
sickjonah2_zps09c565b2.jpg

sickjonah1_zps08dade13.jpg

 
 
I will add some dolomite lime later tonight to try get the ph up a bit but i have no idea how much to add..any ideas on that one?
 
cheers 
 
nzchili said:
 
beer was about 7.6
apple cider was about a 6.5
 
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Your meter is not reading correctly then. Beer should be way below that (between 3.5-4.5), with cider being below beer.
 
edit: Sorry, didn't see that this was an old post. I was looking at some search topics and this was near the top making me think it was somewhat new. Information is still valid though.
 
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