Symptoms:
- a few leaves with upward leaf curl, and brown patches within the leaf.

***** sounds like too much chemical fertilizer built up. the plants are dieing from too much ferts.

- a few leaves with very strange whitish bumps on underside of leaf. Not pests, the bumps are in the leaf itself. Top side of same leaves look fine. I haven't seen this before.

****** not sure. can be different things.

- a few leaves that are growing "sideways" - seen it before, hope you know what I mean. The leaf takes a sharp turn to the side.

****** too much ferts killing the plants. same as above.

- some leaves have turned pale in the last week (habs especially)

***** Too much ferts killing the plants. same as above.

I did not read any farther than this. why bother. stop fertilizing your plants to death. wash out the soil. run all the rain water you can through the soil. slightly warm up the water. it dissolves the salt better. chem ferts are salt. chemical ferts kill plants. very dangerous to use chemical ferts especially indoors. outdoors are safer since the volume of soil is so large. but be careful there also.

I grow all my tomatoes and peppers for 15 years without putting one drop of chemical ferts ever. never. not indoors or outdoors. it kills plants. I use organic manures and compost in the spring and then no more ferts all year. dont water either after they are set outside. I do weed however. well I might water the first few days until the roots grow into the surrounding soil. sometimes the root ball will dry out if newly planted. but I only water if the plants wilt.

- have been doing low dosing of miracle grow for ~3 weeks.
- when I transplanted, I threw in 1 tsp of "root blast" in each 4" pot.

Low dose = what 1 TBSP per gal?? same as you would give a full size plant. The last mix on the box is 1/8th tsp per gal, Does anyone use this amount??

The only time I used MG I had monster plants with small hard fruits..

organic_nut

I tried chem ferts for 20 years, been doing organic for about 35 years

A shovelful of bunny poo at plant out is about the top end
of my ferts, Odds are they will get it this year because of all the rain (16")

Thanks for picking up the tourch.

My MG dosing *is* in fact around 1/8 tsp per gallon. And even that not at every watering. I figured they needed at least a *little bit* since they've been trying to survive in a sterile non-soil starter mix. So I'm somewhat skeptical about this anti-fert hype. I'm aware that I shouldn't overdo it, and I don't think I have. I'm trying to err on the side of *under* fertilizing, mostly due to past advice on this forum.

Organic Nut, I appreciate your reply... and it sounds like you have a wealth of experience. It sounds though like you might have a predisposition against fertilizer at any level.
I'm trying to distinguish between over/under fertilizing as a cause vs. other environmental factors. Do you really feel that over-fert is the cause of these symptoms???

Greg

Chuckrox,
I also think it is to much ferts and to soon. I plant in soilless mix a.k.a. pro-mix. I dont give any fert untill they are around 6+ inches tall, over 5-6 wks old and several sets of leaves. Maybe(?) half way through the 4' pot I would give a 1/4 dose of nutes. But for sure not going into the 4inch and I would never think of fert my 72 cell tray. I will advise you flush water through your pots to leech out exess ferts.

The white bumps seem to be popping up in many forums this year. From my understanding it is related to environment and overwatering. Seems to be cosmetic and clears up when outside. I have 2 of @40 that have it. I am not worried.

good luck
Michael

chuckrox,
I would stop fertilizing the seedlings completely at least until you put them outside. Seedlings tend to respond badly when fertilized and growing indoors. If you must, fertilize when they are outside, but only if you must. The #1 mistake of gardeners is probably over fertilizing, it results in large bushy plants, but unless you are growing them for the foliage, that is pretty useless.

Your leaf curl and your turning leaf can be caused by many factors, but by and large I notice the most leaf curl on plants that I over water. My anecdotal evidence doesn't mean much, but I would be leary of trying to flush fertilizers out by watering a lot as organicnut recommended. The best solution is to probably let the plants bounce back on there own. Leaf curl can also be a normal condition even if the plant is in perfect health, so once again, unless ou notice a problem where the pepper plant seems to be affected badly, you'd do well just ot leav it alone. Maybe cut down on you watering. The top of the soild should dry out a bit before you water again.

Most conditions in seedlings will clear up when they are transplanted outside. People tend to over compensate for the smallest symptom and end up killing off the plant. Peppers are amazingly hardy (most plants are) and can do really well with almost no intervention at all.

byron, I use rabbit manure on my plants also. Not only is it a great fertilizer because it won't burn the plants (so it can be placed directly in the hole with them), but it comes in perfect easy-to-distribute pellets. I don't try to be organic (as in eschewing MG and the like for organic methods), but I find that the organic methods are always simpler (at least for the small gardener) and cost less (once again, at least for the small gardener). I have a box of MG in the garage somewhere that hasn't been used in years.

There is a condition that at the right temperature and the right humidity the plant will have an effect similar to condensation, It's noticed most often in PNW, I had a couple
occasions of it last year under a tent,
Sorry, SRM I can't remember what they call it???

opqdan made a good point about overwatering. I think you overfertalized and maybe overwatered. If your dirt is still wet I would leave it be and use only water untill you notice a improvement. flush with water only if plant is dry now.

I am also wondering if your fan has anything to do with your leaf turning or even the curl? They are pretty young still.

professinal growers of plants fertalize there plants.I don't know why you say don't fertalize. The plants need nitrogen to make protiens,potassium to mature and flower. too much fertalizer is bad.In hortculter school I was taught to fertalize at each feeding 1/4 strength .

Oburn,
I think everyone on this thread so far does fertilize in some way or another. Most ppl that commented said either they dont like CHEMICAL fertilizers and/or said not to fertilize so early. Peppers grow in the wild and grow like weeds sometimes and they dont seem to need much added fertilizer.

Michael

btw i dont think any professonal garders one thing most of us use and it shows, Love.

I'm a greenhouse student (graduating this June), I did both several crops of tomatoes and peppers this year. We start fertilizing all our seedlings at the 1st true leaf stage with a 200 ppm 20-10-20 at every watering...this goes for ALL plants, stock plants, etc. not just seedlings. I did the same with all my crops (flower crops seedlings too) and have never had issues with over-fertilizing. With the tom's and peppers every other 2 waterings I hit them with a Cal-Mg.
Now the problem comes from this in potted plants...if I was to use the same 200 ppm at every watering, but failed to water until water RAN from the bottom drain holes then I'm taking a chance of salt buildup/over fertilization problems.

Vera

BTW....regarding the bumps on the leaves.....this can happen when plants are getting more water than they can use. It is called oedema... the cells become saturated and swell up...they can burst if the environment is not corrected. Usually this will happen in too humid enviroments where plants are not transpiring enough water from the leaves.

Vera

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Clinic-Cornell University

Thanks all for the input. My take-home here is too much fert and too much water. I will let them dry out first, then flush them at next watering with warm water (no fert). I guess I've been a little too eager to get them going...

opqdan, I especially appreciated the line "People tend to over compensate for the smallest symptom and end up killing off the plant". I recognize that, and am trying to lay off :-)

thanks again!
Greg

professinal growers of plants fertalize there plants.I don't know why you say don't fertalize. The plants need nitrogen to make protiens,potassium to mature and flower. too much fertalizer is bad.In hortculter school I was taught to fertalize at each feeding 1/4 strength .

The discussion is not over whether fertilizer works (it does), but over whether it is neccessary or even good for the plants. Depending on the soil makeup, fertilizer might be required for a plant to grow correctly. In a soil made of 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 good compost, chances are you will NOT need any additional fertilizer and adding any could be detrimental to the plants. If the soil already has enough nitrogen, adding more won't do the plant any good. This is especially true in the seedling stage (this is where chuckrox's are).

Another difference between the average home setup and that of commercial growers in the envoronment. If I am growing seedlings indoors under floursecent lighting, they are going to react very differently to fertilizer than seedlings in a greenhouse in natural sunlight.

Most buyers think that a big plant is a healthy plant, so commercial growers push the fertilzer.

Some time, if you can, get some tomatoes or peppers from your commercial grower, start some of the same variety, observe
the difference in yeild in your garden