Bell, cayenne, pablano, and marconi branches dropping (PICS)

[JLudin]

Not enough space in the subject line to add habanero in there too lol.

Ok...I'm at wits end. I have put so much time and effort into my garden this year for this to happen. Every plant in my garden has been started from seed, and literally every day since mid-February I've been upkeeping everything to ensure optimal results. Everything was going unbelievably great (for my first time doing so, that is) until about a week and a half ago. I posted in another post with no response, so I figured I'd add pics with this one.

One thought is possibly over watering. It has been raining pretty much every other day here, and I'm wondering if the plants are getting a little too much moisture.

Another thought was possibly a nutrient or nitrogen deficiency. In thoughts of lack of nitrogen, I threw down some blood meal but didn't see a bit of difference.

Any thoughts/opinions would be greatly appreciated.


Pablano

[img]https://i52.tinypic.com/jg1jkp.jpg[/img]

Grand bell pepper. This one is just flat out wilting and dying. Bottom branches have already broken off this one. This plant never grew an inch since being planted in mid-May also. ???

[img]https://i53.tinypic.com/2eoy3up.jpg[/img]

Another pablano.

[img]https://i52.tinypic.com/2uoi9mt.jpg[/img]

Cayenne with obvious branches broken off. This is as frustrating as it gets.

[img]https://i51.tinypic.com/1onos6.jpg[/img]

Dying habanero.

[img]https://i54.tinypic.com/110lvvc.jpg[/img]

[Fig3825]

I had a similar issue with my garden when we had 10 days of straight rain shortly after I transplanted my 8" or so peppers. I also discovered a nitrogen deficiency and, to top that off, I sprayed with a soap solution that was too strong. Based on what I've learned in my week here on these forums, it could be one or all of the above...

How often are you watering? Have you tested your soil? Have you sprayed them with anything to protect from bugs?

[JLudin]

Like I said in the first post, it has been raining pretty heavily here over the last 2-3 weeks. There has been no need for watering. I'm thinking that could possibly BE the problem. The last couple days though have been nice and sunny, so IF over watering is the problem, hopefully they'll start to recover.

[stella1751]

I'm guessing over-watering. We had a very wet May, and the last two weeks were pretty wet. My Habaneros look kind of like yours, not the black spotting, but the same leaf drooping appearance. We're now three days without rain, and I am hoping they will recover. I don't plan to water them now for at least another 3 or 4 days, maybe longer. In my experience, Habaneros are the least tolerant of "wet feet" of all the hot peppers.

[bcallaha]

I also vote for excessive water. I had the same problem with my tomato plants after we had over 4" of rain weekend before last. About 2/3rds of my tomato plants wilted and looked like they were going to die. I searched the web and found the following:

https://msucares.com/newsletters/pests/infobytes/19990629.htm

My tomato plants look better now, but have not fully recovered. We're still getting more rain than normal, but not excessive amounts. A buddy of mine lost his pepper plants from the water.

Brad

[Fig3825]

I ended up replanting everything due to the deluge we had. Nearly everything in our garden dropped leaves and yellowed. Everything looked sickly. Sucks to start from scratch again, but I learned some stuff along the way and I think the garden will be better because of it.

[JLudin]

Thanks for all the info. So excessive watering seems to be the verdict here. That's what my original thoughts were as well. Hopefully the pepper plants can recover because I REALLY don't want to start all over. They've been with me since late February lol.

The past 2 days have been high and dry and looks to stay that way deep into the weekend, so hopefully they will bounce back as much as they can. Temps look to reach mid to upper 90's as well on Friday, so hopefully it'll dry out.

[hornedtoad1]

interesting discussion, I'm glad to read it.
I live in the southwest, it seldom rains here during the summer. I have noticed that my peppers do better with less water, they seem to like it hot and dry. they didn't do much until the weather turned hot; we had a very cool, late spring and some of them died.
now, the leaves even wilt a bit after they've been watered, even if it's been several days and the ground's bone dry. so, less really is more.

[Fig3825]

Another thing I've learned about peppers is that patience is required. They seem to take twice as long, if not longer, than most other veggies to even sprout from seed.

[gixxerific]

I agree could be excess water. Mine are doing the same thing. We are in the monsoon season, yes I live smack dab in the middle of the U.S. but still it is monsoon season.

Peppers normally don't like wet feet in fact they almost like to be abused, they can tolerate some high heat and dryness. Some people claim they get hotter if not kept dry as they can be, at least for hot peppers that is.

[JLudin]

Another thing I've learned about peppers is that patience is required. They seem to take twice as long, if not longer, than most other veggies to even sprout from seed.

Oh yeah, I know that! When I was doing research on starting from seed this winter (which, by the way, I've done with EVERY plant in my garden!) I saw that peppers take the longest to germinate. With that in mind, I had an entirely separate seed tray devoted to peppers. I pampered those things more than I did with anything else. They did unbelievably well indoors, and even a month after I hardened/transplanted them, but now are starting to meet their demise. Just sucks to see all that hard work go for nothing because of an overly wet spring.

Sigh.................................the downside to gardening.