Poor pepper plants in So Cal

[GoBruins]

Hi,

New to gardening in general. Live in the So Cal area. I'm trying to raise super-hot pepper plants like Ghost, Trinidad, etc.

I've just never had much luck with them, and they all seem to falter in pretty much the same fashion. The leaves look stunted and pockmarked, and eventually all fall off.

I'm wondering if something could give me some clues. Pics attached. Thanks in advance.

[thesnapman44]

Not sure if this will help, but check it out.
https://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/05/p ... eshooting/

[applestar]

Take a look at the pictures of aphid-infested and damaged peppers I posted in this thread:

Subject: Embrace Your INNER APE –dealing with APHIDS >> got ladybugs

I have mentioned several times this winter that my overwintering inside plants are suffering from ants bringing aphids to pasture every time there's thaw. I do try to control the ants which is what *I* always advise, but they manage to find their way in.

If I miss the first incursion, the aphids happily reproduce and *voilà* an infestation

Do they look similar to yours? If so then it's most likely that your peppers are severely infested by sucking insects which could be aphids or something else.

Next step would be to examine your plants more closely. Look underneath the leaves and at the new leaf and flower buds. See if you can get some close up pictures -- try to get them in focus (sometimes, using the AF/AE lock on the leaf or the stem rather than the bugs works better).

[GoBruins]

Well, unless these things a microscopic and invisible to the naked eye, there doesn't appear to be any infestation.

[rainbowgardener]

I don't know, but they do look terrible. Honestly, if you hadn't told us, I wouldn't have recognized them as pepper plants. Not much main trunk, very branchy, long spaces between leaf nodes. Do they get enough sun? If so, I would think the next step would be to get your soil tested to see if there is some nutrient missing.

[GoBruins]

LOL - it's sad, but funny at the same time.

They get plenty of afternoon sun. It's some kind of systemic problem. I did note that some of the fruit turn black.

I guess I'll start over. Is it too late to start with a new batch this year? I'm in Southern Cal. And, are pepper plants perrenials?

[grrlgeek]

They get plenty of afternoon sun. It's some kind of systemic problem. I did note that some of the fruit turn black.
I guess I'll start over. Is it too late to start with a new batch this year? I'm in Southern Cal. And, are pepper plants perrenials?

Hiya,

I'm in SoCal too, and we get really harsh afternoon sun here in the desert. We've been growing peppers for many years every summer, and find that they benefit from shade cloth to protect them. Some varieties are more tolerant than others. I'm not advanced enough to diagnose what's going on with your plants, so I defer to the good advice already given.

To answer your other question - yes, peppers are perennial but they are frost tender, meaning that they can live for years, but you can't let them get cold. Ideally, they would prefer never to see temps below 50 degrees, and frost or freeze will kill them outright. Check out this thread discussing bringing peppers indoors for the winter:

2013-14 Winter Indoor Peppers https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... 81&t=55256 .

You could start over now, but they wont be producing for months. Depending on where you are in SoCal, you will probably have to bring them in, at least sometimes, or maybe just at night, during the winter.

[GoBruins]

I'm determined. Maybe I'll do a mulligan now - maybe in large pots. Thank you - your post was very helpful.

[Lindsaylew82]

They remind me of my plant that was exposed to herbicide from my neighbor. Curling, distortion of leaves. I'm not sure what it would do to a pepper, but it's pretty bad on my tomato.

[imafan26]

Besides aphids, thrips can cause curling, puckered; distorted leaves. Pepper thrips like to fold a leaf in half and hide inside it. Because they are small and favor the younger growth, you may not see the pest itself, just the damage. Sometimes you can tell what pests cause the problems by recognizing their damage.

https://insects.tamu.edu/extension/publ ... -00041.pdf

Thrips are ubiquitous and have many host plants. They are not hard to kill by themselves but you need to take care of all of their hosts as well. There are natural predators that will keep them in check and eventually the thrip impact will be tolerable, but not zero. if you choose to spray, it does not take much to kill them, but you will be obligated to spraying everything regularly, since anything you spray will likely kill the predators as well.

https://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7429.html

For a beginner to start with ghost and scorpion peppers ambitious. I have grown peppers for a long time and I do have ghost and Trinidad scorpions and they are so different from my other peppers. They look different and they really do not have a lot of natural resistance to disease and they are a bit unstable. Some of the peppers are hot and some not.
I have a problem getting bell peppers to give me more than 5 peppers before it dies too, while other people here in this forum say that bell peppers produce until frost, but that may be because of where I live. However, the tabasco, chilipetin (bird peppers) grow like weeds and pop up after the birds drop them off.