health what wrong with this plant ?

srin2 · Oct 29, 2009

what's wrong with this mini thai bird eye plant ?
what you are seeing is the 3rd and 4th generation of the mother plant. same thing happen to the other generations.
they start producing many pod for a few months then the leaves all drop. and left with the pods only. after the pods are removed and i usually let some pod left on the plant until its dries. the seed from there i will produce new generations.

the plant was like that for about 2 months already. still alive.

what can i do to revive the plant with leaves and start producing pods again ?

i did notice a few months ago the plant was filled with red/black ants ,they seems like eating the plant so i sprayed them with water to get rid of the ants.

buggedcom · Oct 30, 2009

No. Kill it. Burn it with fire, move it away from all other plants before they are all infected. I had this happen to me. See the links in my sig.

Nova · Oct 30, 2009

I see a bed of moss on top of your soil, how moist are you keeping your soil? I am not sure if this is the problem but it could be a factor.

srin2 · Oct 30, 2009

Novacastrian said:
I see a bed of moss on top of your soil, how moist are you keeping your soil? I am not sure if this is the problem but it could be a factor.

i planted the moss there are that plant was a mini thai bird eye pepper plant. i thought of bonzai look .. in terms of moisture. it does dry up by the time i get home in the evening.

srin2 · Oct 30, 2009

buggedcom said:
No. Kill it. Burn it with fire, move it away from all other plants before they are all infected. I had this happen to me. See the links in my sig.

so far this has not spread anywhere yet. the two plant that i have are the only ones like that and also for its 1st and second generation also like that.

since last year i have been have this problem. so it had lots of time to spread to other plants but it didn't..

thanks for your information. i did go to your links. sorry to see that happen to you

. are you having anymore pepper plants now ?

buggedcom · Oct 30, 2009

Yes, I'm growing again but not full force yet I'm waiting to see if it will crop up again before I plant lots more.

millworkman · Oct 30, 2009

I get this problem when the roots get too wet for too long. Just an idea. Pull the plant up and cut the roots down, replant in new soil and look for new growth.

srin2 · Oct 30, 2009

millworkman said:
I get this problem when the roots get too wet for too long. Just an idea. Pull the plant up and cut the roots down, replant in new soil and look for new growth.

thanks for your idea. will try with one of the plants. how much of root to cut ?

millworkman · Oct 30, 2009

I would take the smaller one and cut the roots down to smaller than a baseball. And prune the dead looking stuff off the branches as well.

srin2 · Oct 30, 2009

millworkman said:
I would take the smaller one and cut the roots down to smaller than a baseball. And prune the dead looking stuff off the branches as well.

ok thanks. do i need to feed them after replanting ?

FadeToBlack · Oct 30, 2009

Whats the temperature like where you keep the plants?

SanSoo · Oct 30, 2009

millworkman said:
I get this problem when the roots get too wet for too long.

I was thinking the same. You said it dried every day, but it may still be wet down deeper.

One of the best investments I made was an $8 water meter with a 10 inch or so stick. My plants would be desert dry for the first few inches but very wet deeper. This also helped me change my pot size and mix strategies for acheiving a more even moisture control.

srin2 · Nov 1, 2009

FadeToBlack said:
Whats the temperature like where you keep the plants?

the temparature here can get up to 32 C - 37 C during the hot season but currently its wet season now ,almost everyday it rains.

SanSoo said:
I was thinking the same. You said it dried every day, but it may still be wet down deeper.

One of the best investments I made was an $8 water meter with a 10 inch or so stick. My plants would be desert dry for the first few inches but very wet deeper. This also helped me change my pot size and mix strategies for acheiving a more even moisture control.

i got a 4 in 1 soil tester meter. it has a moisture meter in it. ok i will check it. it has 4 levels and how much should it be for a pepper plant ?