• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

pics Yellow-green plants....many of them....ugh....(with pics). advice, please

Hi all,
I am really struggling with the yellow-green problem this year. At least half of my plants are a somewhat unhealthy looking yellow-green, and the foliage is not lush at all. Oddly, the exception are the Chinenses, which are a beautiful dark green with lush, full foliage. I think it is too late to remedy the situation for this year, as these plants will be put in the ground in a week. But for my learning experience and future years, I am really trying to get my head around WHY so many of my plants (except the Chinenses) are a sickly yellow color.

Here is a picture of my 70-ish seedlings. They are 8 weeks old, in 4" pots (yeah, getting a bit crowded in there now). They have been conservatively watered around every 5-6 days, and fertilized lightly once a week or so (1/2 strength fish/seaweed). They've gotten 17 hrs of light per day from a bank of 8 4' T5 lamps. They are in Promix BX. They got one Epsom salt treatment, and one bone meal supplement, at around the 6 week mark. Seriously, what else could I do for them - that is the textbook method for getting pepper seeds going indoors, right? They do not look healthy and vibrant like a garden store pepper. I really want to understand why. Here is the picture:

yellowexample1.jpg


Just to draw some contrast between my success with the Chinenses and my lack of success with non-Chinenses, here's a pic of an orange hab and a fatali, on the one hand, and in the middle two sickly looking yellow-ish other peppers, an italian roaster and a Biker Billy.

yellowexample2.jpg


I have tried everything. Less fertilizer, more fertilizer, less water, no water, more light, no matter what I do they seem to remain sickly yellow. The only thing that's made any difference is that in the last two weeks, I put a couple trays out in the sun instead of under the T5 banks, and those do look greener now. In the first picture, the plants that have been in the sun most of the day are on the left; the ones in the middle and on the right are the ones that live under the T5s all day. There's a pretty obvious difference. Is it possible that the yellow is a function of growing under T5s and should just be ignored?

Help, if possible. I really need it. Thanks,

Larry
 
I believe its magnesium deficiency due to the yellowing starting low down. Try adding epsom to the foliage - teaspoon per quart/ tablespoon per US gallon.
 
You know... I saw epson salt at Wal-Mart last year in the lawn and garden area, didn't know what it was. LOL. (Yeah... I'm new to gardening.) I noticed my plants I bought from a local greenhouse kind of have a yellow tinge to their leaves--actually, it looks nearly identical to mega's plants. I already tried fertilizing (as well as foliar feeding) with a fertilizer higher in nitrogen. Didn't really do anything. Now, I think I'll try that solution myself to see how it works... looks like I'll be going to the store later today.

By the way, mega, I know it's due to the lighting, but in the first pic (at least on my monitor) many of the plants seem to take on a bright, pretty light green hue. Nice pic. Of course, the close-ups tell a different story.
 
Sometimes you just cant get things right no matter how hard you try. I grew 20 seedlings perfect first round this year, and now my second batch of them have all yellowed like yours. I figured it was too much water. But its not to late to correct things. If they're going out in the ground relatively soon, I would mix in some epsom salt and bone meal in your garden soil mix. I did it when I repotted and had amazing results. Yellow is just so difficult to nail in the head, and its often something very simple. I grow under t5's as well, and have had no problems with them over the years, which makes me doubt it has to do with lighting.
 
Back
Top