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What's causing this??

Hi all,
I need some help identifying what is wrong with my plants.
As you can see, the new growth is shrivelling, and some of the *juvenile* leaves are shrivelling from the tips.
These photos were taken about 5 days ago, and now some of the shrivelled leaves are developing yellow spots like the one on the leaf in the second pic which is above my pinkie finger.

The plants are in partial sun, growing in coco and fed Canna Vega A+B.

Thanks,

RS

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This is exactly what is happening to my plants, dunno about the yellow spots though.
I posted a thread below, and have so far settled on some sort of nutrient deficiency.

http://www.thehotpepper.com/showthread.php?t=5748

I'm currently waiting to make sure it's not due to over watering, after that I'm going to try various nutrient supplements. Mine are growing in coco fibre too, with perlite.

The shrivelled leaves just eventually drop off right?
Leaving your plant right where it was before, looking fine, but with no new growth whatsoever?
 
i had a prob fairly similar only with the Annuums coulpe of seasons ago, but as well i had lil yellow dots on the leaves,,turned out to be two spotted mite sucking the crap out of the new growth, but can see them moving round on underside of infected leaves with a magnifying glass (or good eyes)
 
Hey Hippy,
how did you treat for the mites? Will neem take care of em? I will try on a couple of plants. Who am i kidding! All of em!

RS
 
Looks like you may be watering to much or to much fert. Let your pods dry out completely and see whsat happens and then on others do the opposite See which ones respond the best
 
Had the same problem and found aphids under the leaves sucking them dry. Neem or ladybugs will work but not both. (neem will kill the ladybugs)
 
Agree with Rob...check really good for Aphids...I am getting a phd education on Aphids this year....spfffft.............
 
Thanks all, I will try a combination of reducing fertiliser, and checking moisture, PLUS neem the lot of them.

I dont think it is too little watering, as the leaves are not curling or drooping in a manner consistent with that. also, the coco feels damp below the surface, and they are getting approx. 1/2 litre (1/8 of a US gallon) per watering, which occurs about every third to fifth day (it is about 20C during the day, and not much light on em).

Having swapped nutrients, from a cheap crappy liquid soluble one to a "proper" one, it may be over fertilising. Thanks for the heads up Okie Joe!

RS
 
Update: Things look worse

I have been treating with Neem, and have fed once since I last posted in this thread. I don't get frosts here, but it has been getting down to about 8C (42F i think) over night. The plants have been getting only about 2-3 hrs of direct sunlight per day, with plenty of ambient light for the other 6 hrs of the day.

I havent seen any aphids, ants or mites, but I dont have a magnifying glass.

We had a lot of rain about 10 days ago, and I put em out for a drink.

Any ideas, help, solutions would be most appreciated.

Now, one of the plant's leaves are curling UP, feel real soft, but leathery and are falling off.
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Anther plant, which I believe to be a scotch bonnet, has developed discolouration on the fruit. Is this normal??
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This one has curling leaves, but they still feel "healthy".
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Thanks,

RS
 
Could be a host of things:

Bugs
Blight
Bacterial Wilt
Root Rot
Herbicide Burn

Or any multitude of other things. Eliminate one at a time to find out for sure. I would honestly guess that it isn't bugs since the fruit and leaves and everything appear sick, but bugs can be hosts of disease.
 
The first thing that comes to mind is root rot. good drainage I trust? what type of soil / mix did you use? fertilizer?
8c is 46.4f so its on the edge of what's acceptable but well out of frost range. one or 2 nights at that temp probably wouldn't be too bad since the plants are mature but a string of 10 nights of cold rain could do them in.

*edit*

I'm currently waiting to make sure it's not due to over watering, after that I'm going to try various nutrient supplements. Mine are growing in coco fibre too, with perlite.

Just re-read and spotted this. Is this a hydro setup? If not you really need to use soil with the coco. I use a 60s/40 c mix and it works out well. (with some vermiculite too) There is not enough natural nutrients in coco alone and just adding fertilizer wont cut it. I tried it, and it failed. I'm actually surprised your plants got that big. Mine pretty much fizzled at the seedling stage.
Coco in a hydro setup should work fine though assuming proper nutrient / ph levels.
 
Hi paul,

Thanks for the reply.

I feed the plants on Canna Vega A+B. They should have good drainage, 4 Gallon pots, with big holes.

Garden killer, thank you too for the reply.

I sterilised the pots before use, so i am hoping it's not bacterial wilt or root rot. To treat for these, should I just use something like fongarid? or add sulphur?.

Would exposing them to more direct sunlight be the answer? I am really hoping that all is not lost.

I'll now do some directed reading on what has been mentioned.

Cheers,

RS
 
It looks like a little to cold is getting them. Thats what my plants look like after a chilly night and at 40 its pretty close to get them inside and see if they perk up or drop their leves and start all over again Its just a guess on my part
 
I was thinking that of all the possibilities that I posted it really looks like herbicide burn, someone on another forum posted very similar photos last year that were a result of spray drift hitting his plants.
 
These two photos explain the serious wilting on the one plant. It seems that a branch/leaf came away and it has then allowed rot or something to enter the plant. You can see on the second one where I've pulled the outer part of the stem away. Is this just being too damp? The rest of the plant looked healthy, will it survive?

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I just went outside and felt the coco that they are in, and it does seem a bit damp, so I'll put all of them in the sun today to try and dry them out a bit.

I was thinking that of all the possibilities that I posted it really looks like herbicide burn, someone on another forum posted very similar photos last year that were a result of spray drift hitting his plants.

GK, I dont think it would be spray drift here in suburbia. My neighbours havent treated for anything, and the only thing I've put on em is Neem. Would a too high concentrate of Neem cause this? On the third pic from earlier today, you can juuust see in the top left the tip of a leaf with a lot of white "residue" and then in the bottom left some more of this. I had put it down to either Neem residue (which I thought would be harmless to the plant) or a bit of bird poop.

I shall look for that thread on spray drift.

RS
 
Brother, at the risk of starting another debate (;)) If you could get them in the ground, I bet that would cure it.

Short of that, it does look like a nutrient problem to me, but possibly an OD of some micro-nutrient. I would do a complete detox (including a possible transplant with none of the existing soil) or at the least, a complete stop to any ferts and water.

Mycostop is some kick ass no brainer stuff. It makes healthy plants healthier and makes wilt riddled plants better. For $10, I will use it every year no matter what.

Gotta go! my wort is about done.
*some really DARK roasty stuff this time!God help me it smells too good boiling!*
 
Chiliman64 posted this link in an old thread:

http://cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/circ549.html

Having a look, this seems to be the symptoms of some:

Pepper Mottle Virus. Pepper mottle virus (PMV) is an aphid-transmitted disease found in chile fields in New Mexico every year. Symptoms produced by this virus are reminiscent of 2,4-D herbicide injury. Infected plants exhibit misshapen leaves, which become quite puckered, and light and dark patches on the foliage give the plant a mottled appearance. Additionally, the fruit is small and misshapen. The overall effect of the disease is stunted plants with reduced yield. The disease usually occurs in late summer or early fall and reduces the yield of red chile.

This virus is not transmitted through seed and is killed inside infected plants when the plants freeze at the end of the season. However, the virus is able to persist because aphid vectors carry the virus from infected peppers to native, perennial, solanaceous weeds such as Datura sp. (jimson weed) and Solanum elaeagnifolium (silverleaf nightshade).

The incidence of PMV is depends on the population of aphids and susceptible weed hosts. Typically, severely infected fields are within a few miles of infected weeds. The best control is to avoid weed-infested locations, or control the weeds within several miles of chile fields. Control of the aphid vector is not effective in controlling the disease. No chile cultivars are resistant to pepper mottle virus.
C-549fig17.jpg


Cheezy, thanks for your input, it is much appreciated! I'll try the myco stop first, as I spent a bit of cash on the coco, and really want to keep em in the pots for now.
If I could get some more info from you (or others) on the micro nutrient OverDose factor, that would be great. If anything, I thought that it may have been a deficiency rather than an OD... .
As the media is so wet now, I am reluctant to flush them with fresh water at this time. Also, when I do water/feed, I am using harvested rain water from a tank. Is there a simple (cheap) way to test if the water has any water borne pathogens?

Thanks all,

RS
 
No problem brother. The "OD" was merely a hypothesis, the leaf development looks vaguely like a miniaturized version of nitro OD.

From the last pics, something is really wrong!!

If they were my plants, I would take them out of the wet medium, maybe pack in some benign dry soil, and put them back.

That last pic was scary. Action is needed!
 
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