Growing problem

[Urbansage_gardener]

Hi I'm growing peppers in Los Angeles Had a lot of bloom age of leaves and now the leaves are falling off wonder what should I do I have two of them in the same condition

[rainbowgardener]

Um.... I'm sorry, but have you actually gotten peppers off those plants? They don't look like pepper plants to me, they look like an herb, something like basil. Pepper plants do not put up tall flower spikes like that. Do those leaves smell herbal?

Basil when it is getting older and hasn't been cut back regularly, gets woody stemmed like that and when it is woody and flowering, it is at the end of its life span; basil is an annual. To keep basil producing longer, cut it back regularly so you are getting new tender-stemmed green growth.

[applestar]

Yep. I was going to say I think you meant basil, too.

If these are regular Italian basil then it really is toss-up whether you can get them to recover, although there are some members here who have posted that they have been successful. It might be easier to just let those blossoms mature and develop into to seeds, then in your climate, they will most likely self-seed and new babies will volunteer/grow all around the base. -- Thoroughly weed and leave the ground around the mother plants bare or with just a light mulch layer so the seeds and seedlings will be able to grow without competition.

If you want to try, you could cut down to just above the lowest, most healthy-looking, non-blooming branch, and thereafter, keep all the tip growth that are trying to flower cut off.

In my experience, Thai basil will come back with fresh vigorous growths from the base after the top dies off.

[imafan26]

I consider basil to be annuals. They live about 10 mos then they bloom, turn bitter and the stems become woody. Younger ones can be cut back, but these older ones are usually not worth the trouble so I'd start with new plants. At least you don't have downy mildew.