Various plant-hypochondriac question

[Wulf]

Assuming the soil is decent, do peppers need fertilizer before they grow more than 1 set of leaves? I have two sprouts that have leaves that appear to be curling. I don't think it's the soil, as other sprouts beside them (different container, same original soil) have grown much bigger than these two and show no signs of having used up the available nutrients. I was going to avoid figuring out the fertilizer thing until they got a bit bigger.

Can overwatering cause leaf curling, or just underwatering? Overwatering is just a rot-issue, right? It's possible they've been underwatered, or at least just been dehydrated. They are the closest to the window, but I wouldn't want to overwater them if overwatering is the original problem.

It's also possible that they're 100% fine, and I'm just not used to the natural variations in leaf appearance.

Another (single) of my sprouts has something white on top of the soil, but it doesn't look like mold. It's more a powder, but I can't think of any non-rot-based source. The sprout looks fine at this point. Should I look into and take anti-mold measures, or wait until I can confirm it somehow?

Thanks as always for any help.

 

[Joseph Stalin]

Any type of white stuff on surface is overwatering. Leaf curling? Overwatering.

Put a fan on your sprouts, use no fertilizer whatsoever until the third or fourth set of leaves.

Cut back on watering, no ferts.
Good luck.

 

[Wulf]

Is there a fine line for overwatering to be a problem or am I overdoing it by quite a bit for it to be noticeable? And will the leaf curl correct itself or are they ruined until the next set grows?

I've been giving each sprout 1-5 ml of water every day or two, splashing some out of a small measuring scoop depending on how dry the soil looks. I'm going to assume that the soil is allowed to look dry for longer than a day?

 

[Joseph Stalin]

Yup. Just waituntil the plant wilts, ifyou cant do that go by weight of the soil. Soak one whatever your doing, pots jiffy pellets whatever, and then compare to the current weight of the one suggested to be overwatered.

Or you could go by looks but that doesnt seem to be working out.

Possibly buy or use a scale, it will help. I plan on doing that next season because overwatering claimed multiple lives of my plants.

Leaf curl from overwatering doesn't go away ( in my case ) my brain that got it still has messed up leaves.

 

[fireface]

i find bottom watering the easiest way to avoid overwatering. Just place your container in a dish/sink full of water and let the soil wick up the water. once soil on the top is wet, its watered. once its bone dry and the pot is light, water again.

I dont fertilize until the plant shows a deficiency of some sort, then fertilize with an appropriate fertilizer.

 

[staypuff]

Definitely overwatering them. The white stuff is probably due to high amount of minerals in Winnipeg water. All my plants had that crust with no adverse effects.

 

[Wulf]

So, I've restrained myself from watering them for 2 days now. Except for the biggest one, its leaves looked mildly droopy so I splashed some at it. Anarchy has not reigned, cats and dogs are not laying together, and mass plant genocide has not ensued. So I guess I can learn to take it easy on them.

Final question (in this thread, not 'ever'), at what point do you guys consider seeds dead? I've got 5 depressing cups of dirt that were supposed to have chocolate habs growing out of them by now, planted the same time as all the others. Bad batch of seeds, slow growers, or I just plain killed them? I don't think I overwatered those, as I took it easy on anything that didn't have signs of life yet.

Oh, and just to make myself a liar, one unrelated question not worthy of its own topic:

Where does the plant mass come from? Eg, for every ounce of plant, has it taken an ounce of mass from the soil/water? Or is it carbon from the air? It seems silly to ask, but I guess I'm wondering if X amount of fertilizer has to go in to get Y amount of plant growth, or if it's just to fill in the gaps of what it's getting elsewhere?

 

[Joseph Stalin]

Everyone on here I feel has the *Holy* time of a seeds death at four weeks. I give up around three or so. It has saved me a few weeks of sadness trust me lol.