Pics?

Kevin

Not a pretty sight.

I have more pics, but gardenweb is not allowing me to upload more right now. This is a good example of what's going on.

Sad :(

We're they sitting in a hot window by any chance? Could very well be the combination of both -- your friend saw them wilting in the heat of the day and overwatered. They seem well past the damping off stage but there might be some root rot.

I wouldn't plant out any stressed plant. You may try repotting into some drier soil to suck some of the moisture out. Stick back under lights until they get some fresh legs.

Let's see what others might say.

Good luck.

Kevin

The plant in the pic looks like it can be saved. Do as Kevin stated - repot and keep indoors for a while. Any leafs that don't perk up, clip them off . I've been growing plants for 30+ years and you'd be surprised at times what can be saved!

Sandy

I have about 15 or so plants like this. Are you saying to put in new solo cups?

I had plants 5 years ago almost decimated by aphids. They almost all came back.

Peps: If possible, a tad bigger than the soil cups. You want the sogginess to wick OUT and into something drier. Or... carefully try to knock off as much of the soggy soil from the roots. Throw the soggy stuff aside, repot solos with MOIST new mix and bare root plant. Kind of like you would do if you were separating seedlings.

Kevin

Here's the sorry lot. Probably took 2 hours to get them out of the original cups, tease as much dirt off as possible leaving the roots. Some of them were so damp I had to put a paper towel to the dirt to get some of the water out. I cut off leaves that were rotting (most of them).

I guess wait and see. Extremely discouraged.

If you can, you might want to get them oustide during the day when the temps are in the 70's and the humidity is low. That will help dry them out. However, I wouldn't put them where they will get direct sun or any real wind but a gentle breeze. I agree that they should be repotted with new soil to start with. They will likely suffer a setback but I think you can save most of them if they are not much worse than the one in the photo. Good luck and keep us up to date on their recovery progress.
Bruce

Thanks for all your responses. The above picture shows them repotted in new soil and cups. I will post back here with an update in a week.

Not enough light, too much water/humidity, no air flow are possible causes. So out side fresh air, breeze, indirect like should help.

With the above suggestions I think more than a few of those will pull through.. I've seen plants come back from looking far worse than what I see there. I know their bad, but give em a shot - at this point, really, it's worth a try.

Jay

If you haven't already, get a fan on them (on low) to help strenthen their stems before going outdoors.

Looks like most will come back, I had a jalapeno seedling drop all its leaves and hunch over cause I sacrificed it to see if I could put them out earlier this year since weather was hot early in the season. And it has since sprung back and has a bunch of new growth. And trust me yours look 5 times better than mine. They are tough buggers from what I can tell so far. Being new to peppers I made many mistakes this year and over 95% of the plants I screwed up on in one way or another has came back from the brink. Good luck and just follow the veteran growers advice here. Great bunch of folks and very insightful here.
Rey...

Those plants will definitely come back. They don't look too bad at all. Just monitor them over the next week and they should pull through just fine. After they bounce back, you may want to do what sandysgardens said and put a fan on them (low) before hardening them off. The one on the left looks a little leggy.

Stoney

When do you think it will be safe to water them again? I cleaned the roots off as best I could from the old damp soil. The new soil from the bag was only a tad moist.

PS: started to use fan (low setting) this AM.

This post was edited by peps22 on Tue, May 20, 14 at 19:52

Hard to say. Do the wooden skewer test. Stick skewer in, pull out...soil on skewer, don't water. No soil... water. I'd normally recommend water thoroughly if no soil, but you may want to just bottom water for just 2-3 mins. the next time around.

Kevin

Better skewer test for someone with too many skewers is to break in half (or about 6"), stick down in the pot and leave it. Then when you pull it out you will see that part of the skewer is dark where the water is, and part is light where it is dry. When you first do this you'll be surprised at how much moisture is actually in that pot that looks so dry at the surface.

That said, you might want to hit the plants with a *little* water now since the new soil was so dry. Since the plants were already wilted you can't use them to read the moisture level and you don't want them too dry too long.

Good luck
Dennis

THis is by far the best looking plant of all of them, a bolivian rainbow. Since I re-potted on monday in new soil, I have watered once, and kept in an unhumid room around 65-70 with a fan. It seems the top growth is still showing signs of rot. Do you think maybe this needs to get outside? The picture may not show it, but there's little white specs all over the bigger leaves.

Has it perked back up? Then yes, get outside.

The little white specks sounds like edema. A condition usually associated with overwatering, but not always. It is, however, associated with water uptake.

Good news-- in most cases, the plants outgrow the condition once conditions improve.

Google "edema pepper leaves pics" and check to see if what you have looks similar.

Kevin

Here is a link that might be useful: edema

Update. All but two of them died. This Bolivian rainbow looked the best out of all of them. I potted it outside but it hasn't done much. It's looked like this over a week now. See the growth on the top... Any idea what this is doing? Any chance this plant will bear fruit or is it stunted for good? Note that there are still brown tips even on the new growth.

Give it time, that new growth looks very healthy. I had to repot two plants: one picked right back up, but the other took 4-6 weeks or more to do anything. Finally the second one just took off and its doing great. I would be optimistic about that one there...

I think it will pull through. I've seen plants in worse condition bounce back. You'll probably have a delayed harvest, but you'll get one nonetheless.