invisiblegirl76
Newly Registered
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2016 11:57 am

What's Wrong With My Bell Pepper Plants?

Hey! I live in Petaluma, California, north of San Francisco. I planted these bell peppers in a raised bed on April 14th, and they don’t seem to be doing well. The leaves are small, curled upwards, and a weird olive green color with yellower veins. The plants don’t seem to be growing, although they’re flowering. They seem weak and spindly. All 8 plants have this same problem.

I fertilized the bed with cow manure, bat guano, and compost (the beds were really depleted). The PH in the soil is around 7.0. I tried Epson salts in case the problem was magnesium, but didn’t see an improvement.

Any ideas?

Sorry my pictures aren’t better. My camera sucks…
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bri80
Senior Member
Posts: 282
Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2016 5:12 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Looking at the weather for the month in your city, I'd say it's too early. Peppers don't like night time temps below 50*, and bell peppers are possibly even more sensitive (I don't even attempt to grow them in Portland, OR). You've had several nights where the temp not only dropped below 50*, but dropped below 40*. Cold soils don't release nitrogen and other nutrients as readily, either.

I'd get a covering over them ASAP.

invisiblegirl76
Newly Registered
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Feb 27, 2016 11:57 am

Thanks! I kind of suspected that's might be the problem. I'll see if covering them improves things.

imafan26
Mod
Posts: 13961
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Bat guano phosphorus, cow manure organic matter very little nitrogen, compost alkaline. Magnesium will be bound in alkaline soils. Try fish emulsion weekly if you want to go the organic route. The things you added are on the alkaline end of the scale and their nutrients are not readily available. Cold soils do not encourage growth.

I would go with miracle grow for acid loving plants. weakly weekly. 1/2 tablespoon in a gallon of water weekly. It will be a quick fix if it is a nutritional problem. You can stop once the plants have recovered. Young plants need more nutrients available than older plants. Nitrogen is a limiting factor of growth and it is less available in alkaline conditions and cold soils also means soil bacteria are not very active breaking down your organic fertilizers.

It takes a few years for an organic garden to become self sufficient. The first three years it is building, and you will need to supplement a lot. Fish emulsion is probably the most available fast release organic nitrogen you can get, but it stinks. You can also use blood meal, and Bonide garden tone. They are organic but have a combination of fast and slow release nitrogen. It would also help if new organic gardens started with a crop fo beans and peas instead of tomatoes, peppers and corn.

I use a combination of organic and synthetic
I add organic matter every time I plant, I do soil tests so I know exactly what kind of fertilizer and how much I need to use. I do use synthetic nitrogen because I do not like to use animal byproducts and organically, animal byproducts are the best source.
According to my soil tests, except for organic matter which gives me some things I really don't need like phosphorus, all I need is a very small amount of nitrogen. And I had to change my compost to peat moss on one plot since the pH had risen from
pH 7.4 to pH 7.8. Peat moss will lower the pH faster than sulfur and be stable longer. The local compost has pH of 8.13.

Stunted growth and yellow lower leaves are signs of nitrogen deficiency. Your leaf does not show typical magnesium deficiency. Usually only the edges of the leaf yellow first and the center is greener for magnesium. Nitrogen deficiency shows yellow leaves on the bottom first and paler green leaves in general from the norm. If the yellowing start on the top then it is a phosphorous deficiency. Giving the plants a boost with Miracle grow for acid loving plants a couple of weeks should show dramatic improvement within a couple of week if it is a nutritional problem. If it is weather related or related to mites or thrips it won't stop the leaves from curling.

https://extension.arizona.edu/sites/ext ... az1106.pdf
https://www.organicagardensupply.com/dis ... th-photos/

dragonthumbs
Full Member
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2017 7:41 pm

Do you know which compost has sulphur in it? Pepper plants benefit greatly from a dose of Sulphur, if need be, place three unlit match sticks into the soil by your plant, that will give it a boost. But I have to agree with the pervious comment, your plant may have too much heat.

Wej
Full Member
Posts: 14
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2017 1:45 am
Location: zone 9

invisiblegirl,
I'm in Santa Rosa and having similar problems with my corn and zukes. Ugly yellow. We had a nice week of warm weather for the gardens a bit ago then it turned cold again. My raised bed is brand new and I know it's not depleted. What bri and imafan say makes sense to me. Time to help the plants out a bit. Thanks for posting the question!



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