Baby bell's leave curl?

[Towlieee]

So yesterday I noticed one of my baby bell peppers upper leaves are curling down/into themselves. I'm wondering what is causing this, as it just started, and is worse today.

A long history of my grow, I'm growing 2 baby bells in one 5 gallon bucket, and one Jalapeno plant in another 5 gallon bucket. The bells were a last minute thing and all that was left at walmart, as I started late in the season from starter plants.
I'm using the cheapest potting soil I could get from wallyworld, it has tons of 'mulch' in it, it DID drain well 3 months ago, now it doesn't drain worth a EDITED - PLEASE REPORT THIS POST and is compacted. When I first transplanted, for 3-4 weeks my plants barely grew, I figured it was transplant shock, then I got some granual 10-15-10 fertilizer that I add in with watering, it says to use every 1-2 weeks. Soon as I started using it, my plants exploded with growth. At first I felt I was over-doing the fertilizing, I have basically been feeding them 2 out of 3 waterings (2-3 times a week total) with 1/3-2/3 strength of what is recommended, and it has worked GREAT! My Jalapeno plant has aprox 50+ peppers and aprox 20-30 more small ones going, and I just transplanted it in early July, AND I only get 2-3 hours of direct sunlight! My Jalapeno though does get artificial light in the form of 4 23w 5000k CFL's for about 12 hours a day, I spoil it =P

So 5 days ago I decided to flush my plants with straight water, I flushed them real good, I filled them up and let them drain out like 10+ times to remove any old salts/nutrients, then waited 3 days to water again, and used 2/3 strength nutes on them, just poured enough in until the buckets started to drain. The next day (yesterday) I noticed ONE of hte baby bells with this curling of the leaves, the other bell looks normal, and my Jalapeno plant is still being its normal self aka awesome lol....

I'm just curious as to why one of my baby bell plants is doing this. Trying to learn, mainly for the future. I don't plan on doing baby bells next year unless I can find a place to grow in direct sun with more space. Plan on growing more rare peppers, as well as starting from seed indoors EARLY under my grow lights (might add more lights) so I can have nice sized plants to put out after last frost. I will also be making my own "soil" next year, probably will use my current soil but ammend it with much better drainage properties and some compost. My soil choice was bad this year, but live and learn!

[applestar]

Just how much and what size drainage holes did you put in the bucket?

If the planting medium is not draining well any more, all that flushing may have overwatered it and it may have suffered root rot/loss. The excess moisture could have also activated some fungal growths in the medium.

If you don't want to re-pot, you could try drilling 1/4-1/2 inch holes up the side of the bucket to provide more air to the roots.

[Towlieee]

I put like 20 3/8" holes in the bottom. About 3 weeks ago I put around 5-6 holes 1" up the sides, and 5-6 more about 4-5 inches up the side

my Jalapeno and other baby bell looks great. The season is almost over so I don't want to risk re-potting this year, my Jalapeno has 50-60 big peppers that'll be ready to pick soon, and another 20-30 just starting! I don't wanna risk root damage.

Next year I'll be making my soil way better, set it up to drain VERY good! It's been getting into upper 40's at night lately, supposed to warm back up for a couple weeks at the least, just want my harvest to finish

[applestar]

I overwinter my jalapeños in the house -- dug up from the ground, branches thinned and cut back to half-sized green fruits, and potted up in 7-8" pots up to 2 gallon.

They bloom and fruit until December, then take a break and resume growing and blooming around end of Jan to mid-Feb. I only have one plant this year which is 3 or 4 years old. (I"ll probably start some new ones next spring).

If you have the room, you could keep it in the current 5 gal bucket.