Yellow leaves normal for autumn?

future_man

future_man

I noticed my peppers got a lot more yellow than before. Some smaller leaves on my habanero are completely yellow, most of them are falling off. Other habanero plant seems ok though.
 
Question is is this normal for this time of the year or is the plant lacking nutrients? Maybe overwatering or root aphids? Or is this something normal for colder weather. Nights are getting quite cold, maybe it is time to put them inside.
 
From what I've looked it it seems your weather is fairly close to ours right now - night time lows in the 40F's, daytime highs in 60's or 70's. Yes, this is the time to start bringing them indoors, unless you have a really warm, sunny daytime. I've had mine inside for a week, but brought them out yesterday as both yesterday and today are warm and sunny. I'll bring them in tonight as we're supposed to get more rain starting tomorrow. 
 
Yellowing as a normal part of the cold weather depends on the variety and how wet it's been. 
 
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Well I need to know if I should fertilize my peppers, they havent been fed for a time now but I figured they don't need any more nutrients for this year.
 
Geonerd said:
Are the young leaves yellow?  If so, go ahead and give them some food.
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Yea smaller leaves are the most yellow ones, this happened on one of my larger plants so I think it must have depleted nutriens faster than others
 
They should be fed, then brought inside for the winter. Peppers don't lose leaves in the fall like the trees do. Or at least they shouldn't.
 
future_man said:
 
Yea smaller leaves are the most yellow ones, this happened on one of my larger plants so I think it must have depleted nutriens faster than others
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A lot of people on THP seem to think that peppers don't need ferts.  IMO, so long as you keep the concentration low, peppers benefit from regular fertilization with very little risk of damage.  Since the plants look hungry, I'll assume your soil is either depleted or wasn't very nutritious in the first place.  No problem!  A dash of chemical ferts will fix them up within a week or two.  What ferts do you have access to?
 
cruzzfish said:
Peppers don't lose leaves like the trees do.
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Yeah they do, if you leave them outside when a sharp cold snap hits overnight. Ha! 
 
Geonerd I am confused by your statement "A lot of people on THP seem to think that peppers don't need ferts." This has not been my observation at all. In fact, there are tons of threads where people talk about giving ferts, amending soil, etc. What hole have you been hiding in???? 
 
But yes future man, go ahead and give ferts, especially since it's been a while. The thing about ferts is learning how much and how often. If you mix according to package directions, you should only give them no more than every other week. However, if you use a weaker solution, you can give them more often. I use the weaker solution more often approach and my plants seem to love it. 
 
geeme said:
 
Yeah they do, if you leave them outside when a sharp cold snap hits overnight. Ha! 
 
 
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I could have sworn I wrote "In the fall" there also, but I guess not.
Editing my post.
Geonerd said:
 
A lot of people on THP seem to think that peppers don't need ferts. 
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A lot of people are wrong then.
 
I've seen more than a few posters making dire warnings about the use of chemical ferts.  (I think some of these folks have burned their plants in the past and are now a bit gun-shy on the issue.)  As a noob earlier this year, I was overly influenced by these people, and my plants suffered for it. 
 
( Like an ex-smoker I've done a 180, and am now all Gung-Ho on lowly Miracle Gro!   :rofl:  )
 
I just wanted to throw a Pro-Fert opinion into the mix, and to assure FM that feeding a light dose of whatever he's got on hand is probably not a bad thing to try.
 
Geonerd said:
 
A lot of people on THP seem to think that peppers don't need ferts.  IMO, so long as you keep the concentration low, peppers benefit from regular fertilization with very little risk of damage.  Since the plants look hungry, I'll assume your soil is either depleted or wasn't very nutritious in the first place.  No problem!  A dash of chemical ferts will fix them up within a week or two.  What ferts do you have access to?
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I am using organic algae concentrate from Ascophyllum nodosum algae http://www.mcaalgasyderivados.es/sites/default/files/Technical.Sheet_.Bio-algeen.S92_0.pdf
 
Maybe I should switch to some fertilizer more suited for pods and flowers, because this one is for green and root growth and my plants are heavy on pod production right now. I even noticed some new pods turning yellow and falling off! Maybe my plant can't support so much pods, maybe I didn't fertilize for too long or maybe this fertilizer isn't suited for flowers. Or all of the previous... Or maybe the container is too small, I read that rootbound plants may drop leaves and pods. Oh and low night temps may also contribute.
 
Yellow is not normal.  A healthy plant left outside as it gets colder and colder will eventually start drooping its leaves, then they will start to fall out, then eventually be practically bare but the leaves will stay green when they fall off.
 
However, there is nothing you can do about yellow leaves now if the season is about over, except as you mentioned, to put them inside.  You already had another topic about your plants looking sick, did you figure out what happened there as it seems related to the yellowing, while cold weather doesn't.
 
New pods turning yellow and falling off can be caused by cold weather or is often a sign of soil (or fertilizer added) with too high a nitrogen to (other) ratio.  However, if as you say new pods are falling off, it may not matter much as the plant is thinking it is time to start hibernating, that it can't finish them so they should be aborted.  Bringing the plant inside will help with that.
 
Small container will stunt growth including # of pods but if you have the right amount and right fertilizer ratio to compensate for an undersized pot, it usually won't cause abortion of established pods or leaves.   Beyond stunting growth and fertilizer, the other thing to watch out for with undersized pots is careful monitoring of soil moisture so they dry out enough between watering.  
 
future_man said:
 
I am using organic algae concentrate from Ascophyllum nodosum algae http://www.mcaalgasyderivados.es/sites/default/files/Technical.Sheet_.Bio-algeen.S92_0.pdf
 
Maybe I should switch to some fertilizer more suited for pods and flowers, because this one is for green and root growth and my plants are heavy on pod production right now. I even noticed some new pods turning yellow and falling off! Maybe my plant can't support so much pods, maybe I didn't fertilize for too long or maybe this fertilizer isn't suited for flowers. Or all of the previous... Or maybe the container is too small, I read that rootbound plants may drop leaves and pods. Oh and low night temps may also contribute.
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That fert looks great for minerals and other micro-nutrients, but I don't see any mention of an N-P-K rating.   See if you can find something that is water soluble and comes with a respectable N number. It's the nitrogen that the plant seems to need. The specific ratio doesn't matter all that much; 10-10-10, 24-8-16, whatever... so long as the first number is 8~10 or higher.  Apply a weak dose of this for several watering cycles.
 
Geonerd said:
 
That fert looks great for minerals and other micro-nutrients, but I don't see any mention of an N-P-K rating.   See if you can find something that is water soluble and comes with a respectable N number. It's the nitrogen that the plant seems to need. The specific ratio doesn't matter all that much; 10-10-10, 24-8-16, whatever... so long as the first number is 8~10 or higher.  Apply a weak dose of this for several watering cycles.
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http://www.agrimer.com/en/algues/2-brown/7-ascophyllum-nodosum.html
 
average in % on D.M.:
  • Nitrogen : 2
  • Potassium : 2
  • Phosphorus : 0,2
 
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