Hi everyone, I'm hoping to get some input on my pepper plants. Last year all my vegetable plants were explosive in growth and produce. This year they've been a bit stressed by the early heat we've had (southern Ontario) but otherwise doing well. Everything from cucumbers, tomatoes, corn, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, garlic, and onions are doing well.
My pepper plants, on the other hand, look terrible.
Initially I thought they were just extremely stressed from the heat, but I noticed a few of them (not pictured) are doing fine. What clicked in my head today is that the ones that are doing ok I grew from seed, and the rest are from garden centres (a semi-private one and a commercial one).
From my zero-level knowledge and subsequent Googling the answer is:
Too much heat
Too much water
Too little water
Exposure to herbicide
It's the last one that really raised my eyebrows, and seems to fit based on photos.
Anyone have any insight on this? Thanks in advance.
So...this is going to be lengthy, but it could be a few things from my experience with a large number of pepper plants this year, and dealing with higher than average heat.
Don't water them at night, only in the morning BEFORE the heat kicks up.
If they're getting constant sun from sun up to down, try shielding a few them from the afternoon sun to get a bit of rest
try diluting a few tablespoons of Epsom Salt in a few gallons of water, and water around a few plants. This will help rule out magnesium deficiency, and not harm the plants much at this concentration.
did you amend the soil before you planted these? This could just be an all around nutrient deficiency if last years were doing well, and this years aren't
for the ones that's are doing well, are they more shaded? In looser soil? Any other obvious differences you can tell?
So we have been watering the entire garden at night when we do so. And they are getting most of the sun throughout the day. We have some really tall trees on the east side of the garden that block the sun until about 10am-ish. But the rest of the day is full sun.
did you amend the soil before you planted these?
We tilled before planting anything and then my wife put stuff into the soil as we did the transplant. I don't know what exactly, but she's pretty knowledgeable in the mineral/fertilizer side of things.
for the ones that's are doing well, are they more shaded? In looser soil? Any other obvious differences you can tell?
Nope, they're even right next to each other. Aside from how they were started (my own seeds vs seedlings from a garden centre) everything about the environment is identical.
Try switching to watering in the morning, but for some of these plants it may be a bit late for some of the plants. Watering at night usually leaves plants open to root rot, which this could possibly be. I'd also try the Epsom Salt, but limit it to just a few plants.
Yup, they were fine after being transplanted. It's just as they started to grow they got more and more gnarly. They also haven't grown anywhere close to how my peppers did last year. They are exceedingly small especially compared to the few that are doing well (the ones we started from seeds ourselves).
Honestly I think the roots never took right. Sounds like they still aren't getting enough moisture from not enough root structure and over exerting themselves trying to grow.
That and maybe a vitamin deficiency. Sounds like you put a lot of mulch down and I have read it can pull nitrogen back out.
The mushrooms should help but I think over watering with under developed roots. Give them some liquid fertilizer and back off the water a little. Definitely stop watering them at night when they can't use the water.
My wife said she put slow release fertilizer in when we transplanted them into the garden. Could that have anything to do with it?
We don't use any kind of herbicides or pesticides anywhere on our property.
The only thing we added to the garden this year was mulch and the thought occurred to me that something was in it, but every single other plant seems to be fine. The tomatoes were a tad stressed early in the season, but we had 30+ degree Celsius weather incredibly early in the season for almost two weeks that seemed to stress them, but otherwise they've grown well since and are producing a ton of tomatoes.
Every other vegetable plant is doing well. Onions, rhubarb, corn, carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, and a couple others I can't remember. So that makes me think there's nothing in the mulch itself.
Now my parents got a bunch of their peppers from one of the same places I got a few of my peppers from and they have the same issue. Is it possible the soil the garden centre used when starting the seeds was contaminated?
Lots of peppers do well in the heat as long as they have plenty of water. This looks like it could be leaf curl, though. I’m not qualified to diagnose anything, though. Start by giving them some more water, and maybe a little bit of tomato fertilizer.
That's the thing. We've been getting way more than seasonal averages for rain, and when there's more than two days of no rain, we put on the sprinkler for 20-30 min.
We also have about 4-6 inches of mulch on top to get the soil from drying out.