Whats going on here- Think I found the problem

[Nickbone]

Hello all.

I have three cayenne plants that were doing well until about a week or so ago. Growth slowed and new growth is underdeveloped and curled up.


I use a moisture meter and wait until they are almost completely dry before watering.

Using a 400w metal halide that was about 20 inches away. Ive moved it up to 3ft. I also had a wall mounted oscillating fan that was blowing pretty hard even on the lowest setting so I put a speed control on it to slow it even more. I made those changes about 3 days ago and am not seeing any improvement.

I see no pests with my regular 'ol magnifying glass.

Can anyone shed some light on this.

Please ignore the red stripes. My camera doesn't like the light.

Thanks!

 

[megahot]

I dont know to be honest, it could be edema? My plant has severe leaf curl due to edema. Are there any small white bumps on the bottom of your leaves? It could also have a nute deficiency as well come cal mag might help with that! What are you feeding it and how often? If its edema, it can spread to all the new growth on the plant like it has to one of my plants, which I'm thinking about just cutting the whole plant back to a nub

 

[Nickbone]

Thanks megahot. No white bumps, I looked for them. They were given a 1/4 dose of General Hydroponics fert about 3 weeks ago. I did give them a dose of calmag about 4 weeks ago.

 

[megahot]

Thanks megahot. No white bumps, I looked for them. They were given a 1/4 dose of General Hydroponics fert about 3 weeks ago. I did give them a dose of calmag about 4 weeks ago.

I bet its still edema! as the white bumps have disappeared on my plant but I still have the curly leaves. Does your potting mix absorb water and retain it really well? If so then I'm almost positive it's edema. If not well then I'm stumped. I'd check the bottom of the leaves with a magnifying glass to see if you have mites just to rule foul play out.

Btw, it looks like its about time to feed it, when it needs a drink give it some nutes and see how the plant responds to it! I also recommed giving it a foliar spray of liquid seaweed! or epsom salt

 

[Mild Fire]

If you're not seeing anything on the plants and have ruled out nutrient and water issues, it could be a leaf curl virus. It's spread by white flies from infected plants. This article has useful information (I've come across a few others on other types of leaf curl virus, or maybe more than one name for the same thing, but other than saying how bad it is, the others said nothing about preventing spread). http://westernfarmpress.com/controlling-tomato-yellow-leaf-curl-virus

The bottom line is the infected plant is likely a goner, so the important thing is to prevent spread to healthy plants. Clean up all debris from the sick one, wrap it in plastic, and aggressively treat for white flies so they can't cross infect if more show up. It won't spread by contact alone, so that's the good news. If you can isolate healthy plant from infected ones and keep flies away, the uninfected ones can be rescued.

Edit: this is an academic article about the pepper leaf curl virus with a good photo of the infection in a pepper plant. http://www.academicjournals.org/ajb/pdf/pdf2011/25Apr/Sinha%20et%20al.pdf

 

[megahot]

Thanks for the link! That must be what my plant has?, only the new growth on it looks pretty good for the most part! But I threw it away, I needed the extra space anyways lol. ya it could be a white fly infection, it's funny nobody else had mentioned that! I had people tell me it looked like it was fert burn which is way off lol!

 

[patrick]

I've never seen edema cause that kind of leaf curl. Inspect the plant good for any signs of critters. Have you fertilized it with anything? The color isn't very good either so I'm wondering if your pH is off and you have nutrient lockup.

Definitely separate it from the others in case it is some type of virus.

Wish I could offer some better info to help. When you do get it figured out, and you will, please let us know. Good luck.

That is a great link but I don't see the severe yellowing on this plant that is evident on the plant on the linked site.

 

[megahot]

ya, it's probably some bad seeds that had the virus. My douglah plants both have the leaf curl symptoms only the plant in the Fox Farms dosnt have it that bad and the new growth looks good and is producing buds as well. But it's kind of tough to pinpoint this! Nich do you have any other plants that are the same variety that are doing this???

 

[Nickbone]

Thanks everybody.

I have a yellow sticky trap in there and see no signs of bugs.
I failed to mention that I have 3 plants and they all look like this with the exception of the other two being lighter in color.

The seeds were supposed to be for 2011 ( so a year old ) and they are a free long slim cayenne I got from a online vendor.

I was hoping it was wind / light burn from having the light so close and the fan blowing a considerable amount of air.

Guess I will just hang back , watch the watering and see what happens.

Okay, I think I found something guys. I took a picture with my camera phone. If you zoom in on the picture you can see whats going on on the underside of this leaf. What the heck is it?

Okay guys I think I found something. Got out the magnifying glass again. Sorry about the picture but I only have a camera phone. If you can zoom in on the picture you will see what I found.

 

[megahot]

Thanks everybody.

I have a yellow sticky trap in there and see no signs of bugs.
I failed to mention that I have 3 plants and they all look like this with the exception of the other two being lighter in color.

The seeds were supposed to be for 2011 ( so a year old ) and they are a free long slim cayenne I got from a online vendor.

I was hoping it was wind / light burn from having the light so close and the fan blowing a considerable amount of air.

Guess I will just hang back , watch the watering and see what happens.

Okay, I think I found something guys. I took a picture with my camera phone. If you zoom in on the picture you can see whats going on on the underside of this leaf. What the heck is it?

Okay guys I think I found something. Got out the magnifying glass again. Sorry about the picture but I only have a camera phone. If you can zoom in on the picture you will see what I found.




Looks like edema to me! if you cant move those little white bumps then thats what it is

 

[Nickbone]

Nope, Cant rub em off. Some spots have turned orange brown.

I must have a crappy moisture meter! lol


My ph is a bit high. Right at 7 on my crappy meter. I water with 6-6.5 but the medium I'm growing in seems to buffer it right back to 7.0.

 

[patrick]

Looks like edema but it's a very light case of it. I just can't see that being the cause of the severe curling. 7 on the pH scale is fine, shouldn't have problems with nutes being available to the plant. Maybe try a dose of calcium? Calmag and Chile Focus will work fine.

 

[Dulac]

Hmmm, it might be too close to the light. My cayenne is real sensitive to light. I had it too close to the light and it curled up like crazy. It looks like it got dried up a bit from not enough water and some of that curl looks a bit like what happened to my cayenne. How close to the light do you have it? You may want to trim some of the dying leaves. The ones that are curled can recover. mine is still recovering.


Edit: The color is also very light. Try giving it a small amount of fertilizer (gotta be real careful with this!). It could be a combo of things going wrong here. It might be a nut deficiency, being too close to the light, and not getting enough water. Your plant looks like mine did except a bit worse. Did you also have leaves drop on you?

Here is what my cayenne looked like a few days ago. It had its leaves folded up real bad and looks much better in this photo.

 

[Nickbone]

Patrick. Thank you. I will give a light dose of calmag next watering.

Dulac Thank you. I haven't spoken with anyone else who grows cayenne and your observations on light are helpful.