What's happening to the new leaves?

[mtj]

Hi. Would you guys know what's going on with my plant? It grew great, lots of pods on it...however in last few weeks I noticed that new leaves are sort of weird and really small compared to older ones.
 
Also, could you tell from pods which chilli is this? The seeds were sold as Carolina Reaper, but my reapers look quite differently than those.

 

[NIbbles]

I have no clue. that happened to one of my peppers and it never grew and just died. So I am very interested in the answer.

 

[Mr. West]

Pest damage. Probably broad mite.

 

[mtj]

Pest damage. Probably broad mite.

 
What's the cure for it? I don't want to put too much chemicals into my peppers.

 

[Mr. West]

I would try garden safe neem oil extract. Big box stores usually have it in the garden center. It claims to work as a miticide.

 

[Mr. West]

Typical recommendations are:
isolate effected plants (looks like at least one of yours is in a container). You can take that upside-down and dunk the top half in insecticidal soap water (or just hot water).

This happened to some of my plants recently. I didn't treat them. To be clear, I'm not really recommending this. I just removed the damaged leaves. This was easy, because my plants were just beginning to flower. So, there were only a few new growth tips. I pinched and disposed of them properly. Mites inject toxic plant growth regulators while eating. The ill effects extend beyond their feeding. Lose those leaves. They wont recover. My plants have resumed normal growth. Mites have a 30 day lifecycle and can live on/around plants. I'm being optimistic that mine just slid through with a wave of whiteflies.

 

[solid7]

That's almost certainly broad mite.

Broad mites don't attack leaves, so much as they do the intersection between the leaf and stem - especially on new bud formation.
 
They are a world class motherf**ker to get rid of.  By the time you know you have them, the damage is done.  Sometimes, they're not even there anymore.
 
Even though it's expensive, mix Neem or AzaMax at the highest recommended concentration, to start off.  You will do this a couple of times.  Also, trim back any tall plants or weeds near the infected plant.  And highly recommend you plant companion plants that deter whitefly.  Like marigolds and peppermint.

 

[austin87]

Neem and Azamax are both OMRI listed for organic gardening and can be applied up to and including the day of harvest. Neem comes from a tree and Azamax is derived from neem.