OK second attempt to get the images to show up.
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A look at the whole plant.
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Brown edges on the leaves. Sorry, for the bad picture. My Fuji can't seem to focus on close ups. :(

My guess is that it aint getting enuff nutrients, and it looks like it might need a bigger pot. That plant is quite large for that lil bucket. Do you add fertilizer when you water?

Jim

I have the same question as Jim - how are you fertilizing?

Also, I assume there are drainage holes in the bottom of the bucket?

Is that a current picture? What have the temperatures been like in LA?

Josh

Hmmmmm. My reply to Jim, last night seems to have disappeared.:O :)
Anyway, regarding the fertilizer. You guys are right, I have not added any fertilizer to the plant, yet. Just some cut up Konbu (Kelp) pieces as I finish using it in my cooking. :) The plant is sitting in an Organic Planting Mix, if I wanted to stay Organic what is my best option for a fertilizer?
Josh, the bucket does have excellent drainage, as we've been getting lots of rain here in CA and there's never any water pooling up at the surface.
In case this might be useful, I'll add that so far this year I've harvested about 20 pods from my guy. :) As I mentioned all coming from just two of the several branches that are on the plant.

Thanks.

Forgot to answer Josh's last two questions. (I guess we can't edit our own posts huh?)
The picture is very current. I snapped it yesterday just before posting.
Temperatures have been swinging rather wildly recently. Last week we had lows in upper 50s and high almost into 80s. This week it between 40s and 60s.
Regarding the watering routine. I water my little guy daily, but noticed that he absolutely loves rain. So is it safe to assume that peppers like aggressive watering/irrigation?

Thanks.

Hey! The plant needs nutrients, and I'm sure Jim will agree ;-)
With all this rain we've had, the nutrients that were in the soil have most likely
been long washed away.

Organic fertilizers deliver an unreliable source of nutrients because they
largely require soil micro-biota to break the nutrients down into useable forms.
One day, when moisture and temperature is good, you might have a heavy release of
nutrients - but then the next day, when temps rise, those micro-biota may all die,
leading to a period of time when organics sit in the soil, decomposing, and not providing
nutrients in a useable form to the plant. This is known as the "Boom and Bust cycle."
By the time the nutrients are broken down, they're back into a chemical form anyhow.

I'm sure others can name some Organic Fertilizers for you. In good faith, however,
I just can't recommend them for container usage.

Josh

Interesting plant.

My guess is the leaves are yellowing/browning from over-watering. It depends on drainage for your particular pot, etc., but watering daily can be excessive and even kill the plant. You should let the plant dry out a bit, at least an inch or two down into the soil. Some folks even wait until the plant wilts a little before watering again.

Now, for my questions *lol*.

How old is this plant? Got any pics of the fruit? The reason I ask is the way the plant is growing and its' overall "look". The Tabasco I've grown in the past was a much thicker, bushier plant. Was this guy overwintered?

You asked about trimming. It's only February - the beginning of the growing season for most. I would prune this plant to encourage branching. Branching increases nodes and more nodes equal more fruit *smile*.

Not discounting what Josh said at all regarding organic ferts, I use and recommend the Espoma line of products. In particular, I use Tomato-tone for both my tomatoes and peppers. It has worked very well for me.

Rick

Here is a link that might be useful: Espoma Tomato-tone

How about digging a whole and planting that guy right there in the ground? Let the guy stretch out his confined roots and seek some nutrients in the ground?

If you ever wanted to re-pot at a later time, just dig it back up and prune it down a bit and maybe even prune the roots down too, depending on the pot size.

Jim

Thank you Josh again for the Fertilizer feedback.

Wow Rick. Over-watering huh? Now I'm a noob. so bear with me. I could have sworn way in the beginning, when I would skip a day of watering I'd see more leaves with brown edges. So that made me think that since the container is so small, maybe it doesn't retain a whole lot of moisture. But in the end, I really dunno what's going on. :) So if you say water less I'll try it. Right now I give it 12-16oz of water.

How old is the plant? Between 1 and 2 years old. This is my only plant that I have not grown from seed. I received it as a gift a few months ago from an amazing person. In the very container it is in right now. BTW the drainage on the container is superb.

I don't have any pictures of the fruit readily available, I'll try to snap some this Sunday. In size they have been no larger than my finger nail.

This guys has never been overwintered, as I live in Los Angeles, CA. Zone 10. It doesn't really get that cold.

Just to confirm are you saying that I should go ahead and prune it now? If yes, what would be the best strategy? Also as I mentioned only two shoots off of the same stalk ever produce any fruit.

Thanks for the link to the Fertilizer. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to contain any Bat Guano, so I should be able to use it. Speaking of fertilizer, along with the plant I got a plastic container almost filled with light blue powder. Anyone know what that might be? My guess is it is one of those Job's fertilizer mixtures that you dissolve in water. But I figured I might as well ask.

Jim you have no idea how I would love to do what you are proposing, and give my little guy some room to grow. Sadly, I live in an apartment. On top of that last year a 4 storey building went up directly to the south of my 2 storey one blocking pretty much 95% of my sunlight. So I moved my guys to the back of the building, and am hoping that no one complains. :(

Thanks again to everyone, as you can see I do need lots of help. :)

My pleasure, Kosher ;-)

Let me add something else, too:
when soils remain wet, many plants have difficulty getting nutrients like nitrogen and calcium.
Thus, even if your soil has nutrients, sometimes the plant can't properly use them.

Speaking of Calcium, I've been using Dolomitic Garden Lime (1 tablespoon per gallon of soil) to
provide calcium for my plants. A bit of Garden Lime and a bit of Fish Emulsion might bring the
color and vitality back to your plant. I don't usually recommend Fish Emulsion for containers,
but if you're going the organic route you might as well try Fish Emulsion (which is fairly mild).

Just for the sake of reference, here's a link to one of my pepper albums. These are containers-grown
peppers, so I thought it would be more applicable to your situation than my garden-grown plants.
First 6 pics are Tabasco:

Peppers in Containers

Josh

Blue stuff could be several kinds of ferts.
Plant looks to me as if it's overwatered or over fetilized.
BUT if it's a really fast draining soil mix it might be starved for nutes instead of overwatered and or too much fertilizing...

Is the soil old?
Might just need re potting.You said the plant was several years old but not if it's been in the same pot all those years.
Could be there is not much soil in that bucket-mostly roots.
If thats the case,and you don't want to repot or pot up.Treat it like a hydroponic plant.Use light-1/8th to 1/10th amount of nutes(water soluble) each time you water.
I use fish emultion and seaweed extract in light mixes each time I water my plants rather than a regular - recomended dose every couple months.
I add calcium and magnesium by soaking Diatomatious lime in white vinegar and adding a shot to the ferts.
Really helps with bud set and especially C.Chinense like extra calcium.

I agree with Smoke...light doses of a water soluble fertilizer when you water is great.
If you want to fertilize a little less often, there is a saying, "Weakly Weekly" ;-)

Josh

Thank you all for more feedback. The more the better. :)
Josh great pictures very inspirational. Is that a Bulgarian carot I see in a couple of pictures? I traded with a local garden noob like me here in LA for some seeds a Bulgarin Carot was one of the seeds I got along with Purple Tiger. Interestinglu enough the Purple Tiger has already sprouted whereas the Bulgarian Carrot has not. Anyway just a note. I'll post a separate thread for the Purple Tiger.

Smoke, thank you for your feedback. It looks like you are confirming that my guy is being overwatered. I'll definitely cut down on the watering schedule. Thanks guys.
I have no idea where to get Diatomacious lime, would regular old Garden Lime like this work?

What about vermiculite or perlite? Would a sprinkling of either or both of those on the top do any good?

Lastly, I'm still wondering whether Rick was telling me to go ahead and trim the guy ot not. I'd love to know the strategy for trimming. Do I cut off the tips? Do I go at unproductive beanches closer to the root? How much to cut? And any other info I might be missing.

Hey!
That is Dolomitic Garden Lime - that is what you want.
I buy the powdered form in a 25 pound bag for $6 - but a 5 pound bag would be easier to handle....
especially since you don't need much - a teaspoon scratched into the surface of the soil.

No vermiculite - it turns to mush and holds a lot of moisture.

Perlite is good stuff for a soil mix - it is expanded volcanic glass that has a high number
of pores on its outer surface, so it dries quickly and also displaces excess moisture in the
potting media.

Peppers can be pruned down quite aggressively. I'd trim it down so that all the branches are
only about 1 foot long.

Josh

Forgot to mention the types of peppers in that album.
I didn't grow any Bulgarian Carrot peppers.

The small orange peppers were Tabasco, and the smooth Habaneros were Caribbean Red,
whereas the wrinkled Habaneros were Chocolate Habaneros (Congo Black). The little guy was a Black Pearl.

In this album - my 2010 In-ground album - you can see big Poblano peppers, Hungarian Wax peppers,
Chile de Arbol, Thai Chiles, Pepperoncinis, Chocolate Habaneros, and Caribbean Red Habaneros.

2010 In-ground Pepper Album

Josh

Thanks Josh again.

Wow your Tabascos look completely different from mine. Mine are much much smaller and turn red when mature. Before then they are green.

What kind of Pepperoncinis do you have? Reading the archives and some articles it seems as though people feel that the Stavros are the tastiest. Would love to get my hands on those, as I could share those with mom. :) This will bring back the memories of pickled Pepperoncinis that grandma used to make. :) If they are Stavros, I'd love to hear where you purchased the seeds.

One more question, I've been wanting to ask. I make my own cheese, among other food stuffs, which means I always have some whey in the fridge. Do pepper plants in general like this kind of stuff. I'm sure it would need to be diluted in water. I'm curious if anyone uses whey on a regular basis and what kind of suggestions they have for its use.

Thanks everyone.
You guys are really awesome.
Rudy

Howdy, Rudy!

I bought my Tabasco seeds packaged by a company called Lake Valley Seed.
If its any consolation, the picture on the package doesn't look like Tabasco, either! ;-)

I'm not sure what kind of Pepperoncinis I have....two year's ago, I purchased
a plant and put it in the garden. Then I overwintered it in my garage, and miraculously
it survived. So I planted it in the garden again last year, and it produced much better.
I kept some ripe pods for seeds, and then I discarded the plant at harvest.

I have no idea about using whey....but I wouldn't, personally use it.
I try to keep the organics, other than bark, out of my containers. In the ground,
I prefer to use organic ingredients and fertilizers.

Josh

Hi Rudy,

Sorry for the tardy response.

I agree with Josh, you can cut rather aggressively. Using your first pic as a guide, I would cut this plant uniformly back down to the first (lowest) blue string tied to the rail. That should leave you around 16-18 inches I would think. If that's too scary for ya, just cut it back to a point YOU are comfortable with. It won't hurt the plant.*smile*

Good Luck!

Rick