Something must be wrong with the soil in the garden. If you have grown nightshades like toms, peppers, potatoes, eggplant etc in the same soil for many years then you probably need to let the soil rest. Florida also has nematode problems. they destroy the roots.

This soil is fresh. I bought Scott's Premium Potting Soil without anything else having been planted in it before. It's the same brand they had from before the transplant and the plants themselves have never been grown outside of a container. Do you still think it's a nematode problem? If so, how can I detect them and eliminate them?

Looks like it could be fertilizer burn. What, if anything, are you feeding it? Does the new soil have fertilizer already in it?

Another much wilder guess would be air pockets around the roots. When you transplanted, did you pack the soil in good around the root ball?

Just a couple WAGs.

Rick

The new soil does come with fertilizer (Scotts Premium Potting if you want to look it up for contents). Aside from that, I'm not feeding it anything since the soil bag says the plant will have food for 4 months. When I packed the soil around the plant after transplanting, I tried not to do it too hard to not stress the roots so they were moderately packed. I also only pressed down around a 4-5 inch radius around the plant when I packed. On a side note the wind has been blowing quite violently lately (about 5 mph maybe) though I doubt that would affect the plants this much.

Perhaps I should be a little more descriptive about the conditions of my plants. I transplanted them about a month ago because all three were pretty much growing from the same spot (about 1 cm apart above ground). I knew the root balls would be very tangled up but I transplanted them anyway for the better. Roots were carefully pulled apart to minimize damage. As expected, the plants severely wilted but after just a few hours, they perked up as if they had never been transplanted. That following week the plants were fine, as energetic as ever. The trouble started the week after, when the only flowering jolokia lost its flowers and another one lost many leaves. I figured it was due to transplant shock. In this week I did not expose the plants to direct sunlight, only to morning and evening sun. Eventually, new leaves grew out but they are curled like shown in the picture. Last week there was a cold front and temperatures dipped to 60 degrees F at the coldest with some winds ruffling up the plants. On the coldest day I checked my plants and some of the leaves seemed to have been strangely burned or dried up as shown in the pics. The plants don't seem as "vigorous" as they used to be and the burned. One of the plants sprouted new branches but the infant leaves grow out burned and fall off when they're still tiny.

Sorry for the triple posting but i cannot edit posts. I completely left out of one my pictures and posted the same one twice.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/DSC00651.jpg

I think this picture can give a clearer hint as to what is going on with my plants

nesszors,

This is a real shot in the dark but earlier this year I had a somewhat similar situation. Leafs started drying on the edges and generally rot away from there. A couple of your shots reminded me of how my Bih Jolokia looked back then.

A couple of members suggested trace nutrient deficiencies. The issue is called marginal necrosis.

Like I said, it's a shot in the dark. If you think it's worth perusing, there's a link to my original post below. You can decide if you want to investigate further after reading it.

I addressed my issue the least invasive and lazy way. I bought some good quality compost and layered it on. Whatever it was missing it must have got it. The Bih recovered and put out nice pods for me.

Bill

Here is a link that might be useful: marginal necrosis

wow thanks a lot ottawapepper, I think your plants did have the same exact condition as mine. I don't think mine are lacking any nutrients though, however, I think they might be overdosed on chlorine. Since they were saplings, I have only ever given them tap water, which I forgot contains chlorine.

I'm going to start them on a regimen of distilled water and will also buy the beneficial fungus mycorhizzae that the pro mix you used contained as well as some manure compost.

Thanks,

Nice to know you found my experience helpful.

Keep us informed on your progress.

Bill

Alright I'm gonna post this in a series of two posts showing two different time frames of the plants. I'm still not 100% sure what was wrong or IS wrong with the plants but here's the summary. I took ottawa's advice and did some research and my plant symptoms seemed to fit those of nitrate toxicity (I forgot what the exact name was called). Molybdenum deficiency is associated with this because molybdenum is used by the plants to break down the nitrate. I also realized that for the entire life span of my plants, I had been giving them tap water (which contains chlorine) so I thought that would be a factor in their illness. Method/Results:

1) I began treating them with distilled water and rain water.

2) Two days later I found the plant food with molybdenum and added it to the soil. Upon mixing it into the soil I noticed a new growth at the base of the plant sprouting from the soil.

3) Continued distilled water regimen. New plant growth was growing abnormally fast (1-2 inches a day at first. I know because I had to cut leaves from the original stalk to make way for the new growth in the early morning. By evening the growth had already far surpassed the former base of the leaf).

After one week, it was already half the size of the original plant (which took 3 months to get to that size). Two more growths sprouted Another plants also began to have a new growth near the end of this week. The final plant exhibited no reaction to the water + nutrient treatment.

One Week:

Plant with first growth. Growth looks like a completely new plant. It's to the right of the large stalk (main plant).

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00659.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00660.jpg

The second largest growth

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00654.jpg

Growth on the other plant:

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00658.jpg

Here's the continuation. After 3 weeks, the growths are already larger than the original plant. On the other plant it's still relatively small, growing at normal pace. The final plant is finally exhibiting a new growth. There was a cold front a couple of days ago. I am noticing again the same symptoms as before (this is an earlier stage). New leaves are beginning to curl or come out brown.

Curl in Plant with moderate growth:

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00662.jpg

Plant with newest growth:

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00663.jpg

(Old Damaged Leaves from older stalk same plant. They're still "hanging" in there. Massive leaf curl implies the curled leaves continued to grow even though they are abnormal)

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00664.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00665.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00666.jpg

Plant with the 3 growths. Old stalk can no longer be seen (except in pic 67) due to so many leaves. Any damaged (spotted) leaves shown are from the old stalk. I have never seen such a massive growth in such a short time.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00668.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00669.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00671.jpg
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00667.jpg

Now this is what is worrying my again. Zooming into the largest growth I noticed brownish new leaves and they were coming out slightly curled like the first pic in this post, just tiny. This happened before, when the plants originally got sick. It started from the newest leaves.:

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00670.jpg

And a single "pinched" leaf.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u179/Psychic_Ness/Plants/ESC00672.jpg

Any advice/help? Thanks in advance.

Well the newest leaves are developing and again, they are coming out curled. One of the healthiest looking leaves is beginning to undergo marginal necrosis, just like the leaves on the parent stem had.

Help?

I'm not expert on plant diagnoses. This forum may not be too active for you to get adequate help. You can try posting on thehotpepper dot com

Go to the Growing Hot Peppers section. Lot more pepper growers and experts there to help.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.thehotpepper.com