• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

What would cause this?

I was just wandering if this was anything to be concerned about. This leaf was one of the bottom ones, in a group of 12 other plants. The plants get all the same light, wind, nutrient, and water. A few other leaves are barley showing signs of this but not as severe. They are grown in promix, and I use GH 3 part nutrients, along with GH vegan plant booster.

http://i1266.photobucket.com/albums/jj524/nd2020/18FC2270-A3D9-4C2E-A665-E8EF21E51ABB-8121-000006FAAE95F970_zpsfe4fe317.jpg
 
If this helps I water each plant with 1 quart a week with Gh nutrients and the next week with Gh plant booster. The temp has be up and down the past few weeks anywhere form a low of 58 to a high of 84. The humidity ranges from 40% to 60%.
 
It isn't a nutrient deficiency, it's some type of virus. Looks a bit like Tobacco mosaic virus. Do you or anyone who's in contact with the plants smoke?

Separate any infected plants from healthy ones and if you have any interaction with the infected plants wash your hands prior to caring for the non infected ones. If the infected ones do have the virus they need to be destroyed by burying.
 
It isn't a nutrient deficiency, it's some type of virus. Looks a bit like Tobacco mosaic virus. Do you or anyone who's in contact with the plants smoke?

Separate any infected plants from healthy ones and if you have any interaction with the infected plants wash your hands prior to caring for the non infected ones. If the infected ones do have the virus they need to be destroyed by burying.

+1 could also be a deficiency of sorts (potassium/nitrogen) but it sounds like you are getting it nutrients. Same plant can reject nutrients so just because you do the same amount across the board does not mean that all plants accept the same amount.

EDIT: as long as leaves are not falling off plants I wouldn't worry a whole lot about it though


 
+1 could also be a deficiency of sorts (potassium/nitrogen) but it sounds like you are getting it nutrients. Same plant can reject nutrients so just because you do the same amount across the board does not mean that all plants accept the same amount.

EDIT: as long as leaves are not falling off plants I wouldn't worry a whole lot about it though



Good point on the nute absorption. A too high/low pH balance can prevent a plant from getting the available nutes out of the soil. Peppers prefer a neutral to slightly low pH, 6.0 - 7.0. The yellowing suggest either low nitrogen or over watering. It's the little black specks that trouble me.

It could also be Hebe-Septoria Leaf Spot which is a fungus caused mainly by spraying or misting the leaves too much. You doing that? The lower leaves will fall of if this is the issue.
 
No, I just top water them like normal. I do smoke cigs, how would this cause the virus. Yes the leaves do fall off after a period of time. The leaves that are infected are ones I would regularly lift up to water under. Thank ya'll for your advice.
 
Well that pretty much answers that. Tobacco mosaic virus comes from infected tobacco leaves and is so stable it can last for years. Even in the tobacco of a cigar or cigarette. You smoke you get it on your hands. You touch your plants you get it on them. You have to wash your hands thoroughly before touching your plants. There is no known cure. Remove any infected plants. You can watch them and see if they recover which would mean it isn't TMV but if they continue to get worse bury them.

If the first leaves to get infected are the ones you're touching to lift when watering kind of suggests TMV too.

Sorry about your luck, hope I'm wrong.

Great info here: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&sqi=2&ved=0CD4QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.extension.umn.edu%2Fdistribution%2Fhorticulture%2Fdg1168.html&ei=K8r2UMDMGIWu9ATl6YGYCg&usg=AFQjCNEH6CYtlc-CeB-UK0rPB_StvIEPJg&sig2=Ap2hG2Xb82q-zC-cDt3AbA&bvm=bv.41018144,d.b2U&cad=rja
 
I don't think it's TMV. It would be variegated with regular green and light green. You will also see leaf distortion if it's TMV. However, it's hard to tell with just one leaf. If it's TMV, you need to throw away the plant and soil. A lot of problems look like TMV and it's hard to tell. It looks more like blight than TMV to me.

Edit: It could be mold, fungas, or bugs even (perhaps somewhere where you cannot see it). It's extremely difficult to tell, because a lot of problems look like that leaf and TMV itself. Do you have leaves that are oddly shaped? I had a bug and mold problem on one of my indoor plants that caused somewhat similar problems. Unfortunately the infection was right in the middle of the main stem and rotted all the way through (trying to get the top to root it now since it's a hybrid of mine that has flowers).

Edit again: If you can, I would try to isolate it from the rest of your plants to be on the safe side. TMV spreads like mad and is impossible to get rid of. Other problems causing plants to be sick can also spread.
 
I'm with Dulac on this. It could be TMV. But I don't think so. A safe isolation and time will tell. Think it maybe caused by soil splash from watering. An the leaf directly contacting the soil. I get this on all my plants with the lower leaves especially the ones that touch the soil. I usually just pick them off to prevent this. An you said it was ones you lifted to water under. An I know PepperGuru and Dave2000 replied to a post like this last year. Just can't seem to find it in the search. Dave even gave a link to a site about soil splash bacteria. Sorry can't find it tho.
 
Good points Dulac and Boost. I hope you guys are right. What was made me lean even more towards TMV is smoking.
 
Thanks for all your great advice. I was thinking last night and may have narrowed it down several rookie mistakes. 1 under watering, one quart a week in a three gallon pot. 2 I never gave them plain water or even enough water to run out the bottom. 3 one mil of ph down per gallon every watering without checking ph. I was giving them 2 tsp Gh grow, 2 tsp micro, 1 tsp bloom, maybe a little strong for a 12 inch plant. Thats all I can remember right now.
 
Here's a good read on why pepper plant leaves yellow.

http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/13371/1/Reasons-Why-Pepper-Plants-Can-Turn-Yellow.html
 
Good points Dulac and Boost. I hope you guys are right. What was made me lean even more towards TMV is smoking.

"Flue-cured tobacco, used in making cigarettes, is heated repeatedly during its processing, thereby inactivating most if not all TMV."

http://extension.psu...-in-greenhouses


We had a TMV scare from a professor I grow my plants with at the university. I was freaked out at first, but then I remembered I never had this problem with 15 years of smoking and gardening in many of those years. Even if I didn't smoke, students' cigarette butts sometimes end up in the garden (wind / laziness). I'm glad it's not a common occurrence. Cigarettes are everywhere in our environment unfortunately (I always dispose of mine). If it was common (or even uncommon since it's such a strong virus),then it could be in your yard by being transmitted by tobacco from being transported (an animal, wind, etc.).
 
Thanks for that info Dulac. These types of things always leave an exception don't they? Just like me. Ha! What I'm referring to is the word "most" in that quote.
 
Back
Top