Continuing Pepper Plant Problems

13 years ago

Last year was a struggle for my pepper plants, and this spring is no different. I prepared the holes for (4) bell pepper and (3) hot cherry pepper plants with stone in the bottom, then insect screening to keep from clogging up the drainage stones, and then backfilled with potting mix, a little 10-10-10, 2 tbsp. of Epsom salt. The above peppers were transplanted May 13, 2013, at which time I also transplanted my tomatoes.

The photos show the dismal conditions of both kinds of pepper plants. Note the leaves have purple/black areas for both the hot cherries and the bells.

This is a Hot Cherry pepper plant. It grew about 3" in 4 weeks. Don't mistake the curled leaf on top for a small pepper (I wish):

Here is a bell pepper plant. It grew about 2" in 4 weeks:

Here is a pic of a tomato plant put in at the same time. (5 times bigger than when transplanted)

About a week ago, I evidenced insect troubles with leaves being eaten. I sprayed all surfaces with a mixture of water, dish detergent, and canola oil, and reapplied the mixture 4 days afterward. I used this mixture last year, because I thought I had an aphid problem, and later in the summer with small brown grasshoppers. Last year, I applied ground up egg shells around the peppers. I repeated this egg shell application 1 week ago, but I'm sure the calcium hasn't reached the root structures yet.

If this would be solely an insect problem, I would have seen more evidence by now.
Any assistance will be appreciated.
Thanks

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Comments (2)

sjetski
13 years ago
Probably what every other garden in north america has been suffering from this year, cool night time + soil temps a couple of weeks ago, and lots of rain. The insects are just icing on the cake at this point. I didn't get my plants in the ground until a week ago to avoid that whole mess.

Eggshells take a long time to breakdown into a usable form, they may not help your plants this year. One proven good product for peppers and tomatoes is Espoma Tomato-tone, Lowes + Home Depot carry it. Just be careful about fertilizing when the plants are stressed. I would only apply a 1/2 dose for now, and another half dose in a week or two.

Try to monitor the weather reports before watering with a hose, that ground needs a chance to dry for short intervals. And try not to wet the leaves with hose water, keep the leaves as dry as you can because that's one way diseases get started (unless you are hosing off a ton of mudsplash). Pepper plants prefer less ground moisture than tomato plants do.

Also be careful about what soap you use for bug spraying, most types will either stress or harm your plants. I wonder if this is a part of your problem.

I totally forsee your plants bouncing back, they don't look that bad to me. With some minimal care they'll be 100% again.

Sorry for the wordy post, just trying to cover all of the bases.

Here is a link that might be useful: More info on Insecticidal soaps

This post was edited by sjetski on Mon, Jun 10, 13 at 22:03
don555
13 years ago
I second the caution about the soap. Looks to me like the leaves on those plants are damaged from residual soap. If you spray with soap, do it on a cloudy day or in the evening and then rinse with water about an hour later... residual soap mixed with sun can do terrible leaf damage.
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