Looks like you planted out to early and didn't harden off..

I see sunscald (white leaves) and the brown leaves are from being too cold.

Looks like enviornmental damage to me--sun and/or cold. What have the temps been like? Did you get them used to exposure to the sun before you put them out? Here in Maine last frost date is end of May and that was when I used to put out tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants. Though we didn't have frosts we still had cool days (50's) and nights (40's) many of my plants seemed to suffer and some remained stunted. Last year ( and this)I started everything later and put the plants outside mid June. They seemed to do better and were healthier. I had found previously that peppers and tomatoes that had been started late (because the seeds arrived late for example)when put outside soon caught up with those that had been started ealier and put out earlier. Just my experience.

John

Thanks for the responses. Our temps have been in mid 50s in the day last week, mid 40s at night. This week its up to high 60s - mid 70s....going up to high 70s this weekend.

Erratic weather though. We had 7-8 days of heavy rain straight. I thought our last frost date was 5/15, but I'm starting to wonder. I live in the Detroit, MI area.

By hardening off, I may have done that incorrectly too. Last year, I didn't seem to have these issues. Maybe beginners luck? lol.

I put them in a mini greenhouse this year around April 15th. Had a heater to not let it fall below 45 deg. Last season, I just put them from inside to outside (hardened off a few days by incrasing exposure).

I am starting to think my mini Flowerhouse greenhouse is a waste of effort because the plants absorb sun damage even with the shade cover on. I brought out perfect looking plants into the greenhouse, left for vacation, and we had a brutally cold night and no one turned the heater on...high 20s, low 30s. I came back to see some leaves lost color and looked sickly.

It seemed to spread in the greenhouse with time too, but no where near the extent my plants have now.

So my question is: What is the absolute proper way to "harden off" 100 plants? Next season, I am going to put out 3 weeks later and start them in 32 cell plug trays. I don't want to deal with extremely large plants and the space they take up. It's not worth it to me. If I had more time, I'm sure it would be. :)

I have 50 more plants in my greenhouse so I can try to do this right and still have a nice season hopefully.

Do you think it's possible these plants can recover from this damage? Even if most leaves have been severely damaged, but the plant has a nice root system?

Chris

I tend to agree w/ John regarding the "catch up" theory.

Pre-mature planting can lead to stunting, blossom drop and fungal issues which soon leads to growth and fruiting problems.

Pepper plants only benefit and flourish from soil temps. that meet their satisfaction.

Paul B.

Yeap, thats a climate effect. Although the one cuke I planted out early in a pot had that same damage effect, has grown new leaves since and had produced 2 cukes so far. So it will rebound as long as temps stay up and it gets water.

I'd hold off on any fertilizers. Let it grow "naturally" It will heal. I would definetly plant new ones to replace those in case they didn't regrow again.

Good luck.

Chris

I harden mine off the traditional way--take them outside for a couple of hours the first day-preferably an overcast day- and then for a little longer each day and back inside at night. Then leave them out overnight on milder nights until, bringing them in on too cool nights. This takes about 3 weeks.

Plants last year on Jue 10th

Maybe jt will comment. He is in a milder climate but moves his out, with protection, early so they grow at cooler temps and don't need hardening.

John

One method is to toss some floating row cover over your greenhouse,

Another you could make some lime paint, paint the glass. Let the rain wash it off.

I transplanted too early..... :( 23 plants died from the 2 forsts in a row..... damn I shoulda waited

I hear you Web of Hair. I am extremely disappointed the way things are turning out. Most of my plants look terribly damaged. I put out 3-4 month old transplants that were very nice and now most leaves fell off.

I am very doubtful they will recover. I am pretty sure it was due to proper lack of hardening off, but I'm not ruling out other possibilities (soil issues, fertilizer, etc.). Unfortanately, there are too many variables.

From now on, I am drastically simplifying the process by starting all plants first to second week of March in 32 cell plug trays. I think I can keep them in these indoors under fluorescents until late May (C. Chinese). I will then harden off over 7-10 days. It is much more manageable to take 32 count trays outside for a little bit of time and take back in than 100 4" pots.

I learned when it is too much of a chore and you stop having fun, you've tackled too much! Second year rookie mistake. lol.

I'm cutting down on container growing too. Definitely not all, but the watering requirements of many, many planters are difficult.

Just some thoughts for next season. :)

Chris

well what is really horrible is that these plants were possible Hybrids that died on me....

some have some life left. Now I wonder is it OK to cut the damaged leaves off or let the whole plant go and hope for the best....

Web of Hair,

Do NOT prune your plants, trust me. There is still photosynthetic activity going on in your leaves, which will help the new growth. I made the mistake last year of pruning a sunscalded chocolate scotch bonnet plant in april and didn't get ripe fruit until september. I am sure that if I hadn't done that I would have had an earlier and healthier harvest. Just let your plants take over from here, don't fertilize or anything for a while. Remember the quote from the movie 'Jurassic Park', "Life finds a way"? It's true.

CMPMan, relax bro. Your plants will live. If they haven't died yet you will be fine provided there is no more frost. The new leaves will be naturally hardened off. Don't prune anything. Pinch off the first few buds. The plants are in the stage of growing roots, so regardless of what they look like up top they probably look much different underneath. A month from now you will be fine. If there are any more frost threats find a way to put a canopy over the garden or get a wall o' water or something.

Mark

I think the plants have a good shot at re-growing.

I got a nasty fungus two years ago. Several plants dropped all of their leaves. I figured they were dead and stopped paying attention to them... just to find later that they did grow new leaves. This was much later in the season, and they did not have enough time to set fruit, but they lived.

Let them go and see how the recover. Learn from this, either way take the konwledge and apply it to future growing.

Good luck!

LF

so these have a chance?

they look better in the pic

{{gwi:1174391}}

Those plants will be perfectly fine in a few weeks. They look better than the plants I first set out in my raised bed garden here in NJ last May 27th, and by late August the plants were almost 3 feet tall and covered with green pods. Don't sweat it my friend, just leave them be and they'll be fine. So what is it you've got there? Looks like chinenses to me...

cmpman

definitely as long as there is a living grow tip, the plant will recover. now the new grow tips grew in full sun and wind so they are fine. it is the old leaves that grew indoors that suffer and die.

leave everything alone. the plant will do what is best and you will be fine. I have had the same kind of sun damage in previous years and it was no big deal.

here are some of the problems for a plant outdoors.

ultraviolet light sun burns
cold wind kills the leaves. drys them up. terrible. this has to be much worse than simple low temperatures. and cold wind will damage even at 50 F or higher. and it will kill a plant.
your plants are protected from both UV and wind inside the greenhouse so they need full hardening off just like if brought outdoors from inside the house. but usually the hardening off can go much faster.

lets say you had all those peppers in 5 or 6 inch pots right now. then in the day time the roots will warm up fast and nice. and the plant will grow much better than with cold roots in the ground. then later when the soil gets warmed up good. say june 15, the peppers will be fine outdoors.

If it was me, I would leave all those plants alone. the roots have grown. the tiny side branches and grow tips are now all hardened off. the plants are ready to go. I would just sit back and watch.

when the fall comes and you are picking peppers you will have forgotten that you messed them up a bit in the spring.

if the grow tips are definitely dead then the plant is basically dead and needs to be replaced. look for real tiny leaves beginning to form in the joints and tips. or wait a week or two and you will see them much better.

groovy they are potential hybrids. Tabasco & Habanero.

They were Tabasco seeds.

thanks. here is praying they live

Well I looked really close today and I saw some new leaves starting! I am so happy now!

If these do so happen to be Hybrids of Tabasco n Habanero I wonder what I should call them......

hmmmmm Tabascanero :)

Tabascanero has a very nice ring to it. Share the seed man!

Posted by: groovy1 New Jersey (My Page) on Fri, May 26, 06 at 14:59

Tabascanero has a very nice ring to it. Share the seed man!

I'll share..... maybe ;)

I also have 2 Jalapeno/Habanero possible hybrid and aboot 3 surviving Cayanne/Habanero and what appears to be no surviving Habanero/Jalapeno possibles :(

It was very distraughting to me me as well. First year planting (started germination march 10) and all the plants are soo cared for and babied. Then they get so big that they are too tall/big (not too spindly really!) to fit in my rack. I started bringing them in and out and they just got the life beat out of them here in the South Dakota winds. Some of the leaves just went dark and shriveled up like crepes paper and withered away. That sucked! Luckily all the plants have recovered the hardening off and are no longer looking like they just want to curl up and die! i got one Habanero (the weakest one in a batch of 7) that pretty much had all it's leaves just fry off in the wind. It's still alive and are developing new leaves, but it was hard to watch. I was thinking that March 10 was to early and that I'll start them March 20 next year so they can go outside a little later than this. Maybe that would help. Then again, if they're not strong enough yet, the sun/wind will probably affect them even worse. I am unsure.
But, the good news is that I have gotten several peppers and cut one off today and munched it up. Tasted absolutely great (still don't know with certainty what it is!)!! :)
First time I've eaten a vegetable I've grown ever!!
So hang in there! It's going to be alright!

I made a mistake... and some more are alive! A bunch of the Cayyanne/Habaneros survived, one more Jalapeno/Habanero and a bunch of Habanero/Cayanne...

I gave my neighbor my left over seeds, and there was one day they got dumped out (kids) and I thought all the ones he started from my seeds were gone!

only 4 Tabasco/Habanero survived and 1 of them doesn't look so hot (no pun intneded)

amazing what can happen in 4 days.....

2nd plant not as good, One other is doing really well

{{gwi:1174392}}

8 new sets of leaves coming in!

I transplanted a habanero plant back on May 24th. As of today the surrounding peppers I have planted including jale's, bell's, chili's and tomatoes seem to be doing well.

My habanero though doesn't seem to be growing up well at all. It has grown up some but as of today the leaves are mostly wilted downward. Most have a couple sporatic holes in them an seem to have a little yellow ring around the outside edge of the leaves. But, there seem to be a lot of small little leaves growing all over it that appear OK right now. As a whole though, all of the larger leaves are wilted downward.

Any suggestions?

EBFish32, your habanero will be fine. That happens a lot with chinenses, they grow their roots first then the plants shoot up. I usually don't see any growth for the first two weeks, slow growth for the next few weeks, then the plants shoot up and before you know it are covered with peppers.