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Yellowing lower leaves young plants

arcticchili

arcticchili

Got some weird issues going on every plant in the tents. They are a 5 weeks old and had a good growth and still continue growing good. However, almost all of the lower leafs are yellowing and falling clean off. Light penetration is good and the soil is moist, not wet. Never encountered this before unless a couple of overwatering cases. However I can rule that out as an issue. Any ideas ? 
 
Have you feed them any nutrients yet? Typically when the old bottom leaves to turn yellow, they are ready for some food, but dont start off with to much at once or you will burn them.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the quick reply. They have light mix of guano and worm casting in the soil and when they are watered they also get a well diluted dose of seaweed. I often have the symptoms of lack of nutritions as yellowing leaves at the top of the plant. I might bump the mixture up. I´ve used this mix with great success all years. This is the first time I encounter the issue 
 
I would try to think of any variable that could have changed if this feeding regimen has worked for you in the past. Are the plants watered more often? Less light? Temps lower than usual? Has the brand of seaweed or guano changed? Is the soil different? Pots too small? Are you growing different varieties of peppers this year that may have different needs? etc etc
 
It does sound like over-water, low ferts, or both. If you are able to post a photo it may help. 
 
Also, is a different variety thats giving you them the promblems, if its a new variety they can be a litlte bit more of heavy feeder. I know when i start my fatalli's i treat them and feed them young, but i did the same thing to some bubblegums 7's, and they shrivled up and died. LOL, but oh well.
 
Its the same fertilizers and same brand. The temperature is steady at 26 celsius, going to 21-22 during the night. The pots are 12x12x13 and they are not root bound. Same sort of peppers. It seems like every variety has the issue! 
 
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Doesn't seem that bad yet.
I noticed like half my plants ended up killing their first leaves as well, i'm guessing they do that to focus on growing up. I clipped them off and they ended up growing new stuff out of the same node.
 
Not too bad yet, but some have lost 3 - 4 leafs! And if it continue to develop I would rather act now than too late. My first issue with this so I´m really on new ground here. I guess I´ll start bumping up the nutes in the next watering. This is 10% of all the plants I have and they all have the same issue... So kinda scary
 
I have the same issue with mine.  I'm still just in peat and am going to re-pot in soil tonight, then give them a little more ferts.
 
FGpepperguy; keep me posted on how that works out for you. I flushed one row with carbonated water now and sprayed one row with a pretty strong solution with epsom. And a third row with some anabolicSTRENGTH ferts and will see tomorrow how they respond through the night. I have 234 plants going now and still I'm setting new seeds as I repot and get space. Ill let you know tomorrow how it went for me. PS! The soil is 20% good soil (organic), 30% perlite, 45% peat and 5% bonemal, bat guano, worm castings and some bark. 
 
Will do. I got some good as I can find potting mix at the store and some perlite. Going to repot tonight and post photos. We may have started a similar topic at the same time :)
 
Hm, that did not make any difference at all. The plants who got flushed out have inward curling leaves on the top side. The others remain the same!!! Now I really don't understand anything!
 
arcticchili said:
Hm, that did not make any difference at all. The plants who got flushed out have inward curling leaves on the top side. The others remain the same!!! Now I really don't understand anything!
Click to expand...
 
Your soil sounds very nutrient rich to begin with. If you are adding fertilizer on top of this too often you could actually have fertilizer burn and increasing the nutes could make the problem worse. If the epsom salt spray was mixed up too strong under those bright lights it could cause leaf curling, but since you say it's happening on the ones that were flushed, I would say it is most likely leaf curling in reaction to over watering, or fertilizer burn from what's in the soil, since every time you water a nutrient rich soil it is like giving a feeding. 
 
Your problem of the yellowing leaves and curling could be a simple case of overwatering and nothing else, but it is hard to tell. Do you let them dry out between waterings? Good luck and I hope it works out. 
 
Well, I took out a couple of the pots and the soil was dry as a desert! It just fell apart and crumbled with some clinching on to the roots. So it CANT be overwatering. I have never ever overwatered chills, only tomatoes and other stuff. I´m just too careful with the water and the chilies. I´m attacking it again. This time I took one row with epsom, seaweed and humus ferts. Watered properly and let it drain off. One row I moved outside of the tent to a cooler shelf with T5 lightning fixture. And one row is in the other part of the house with the tomatoes where its more humid. I also raised the light in the tents and mounted more fans. I just can't budge for overwatering when its Sahara in the pots! 
 
Oh, almost forgot! The flushed plants seem to be adjusting it colors again and go darker. So that might be one cure, that it was too much ferts. Strange though, since I always use this mix..... However, I´ll keep you updated the next days and see whats happening. Where the leaves fell off there is new growth so I aint too worried...... yet
 
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