Abbasrizvi
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Pepper cuttings leaf drop.

I took cuttings of a sweet banana pepper and ghost pepper plant. I put them in cups of water in a humidity dome with lights. Now all the leaves are falling off at the touch

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applestar
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Yeah peppers are not as easy to root as, say, tomatoes. The are fussy and need to be rooted in well-draining aerated mix like perlite, plus pepper roots just wont grow well unless soil temp is min mid70’s or above.

Abbasrizvi
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applestar wrote:Yeah peppers are not as easy to root as, say, tomatoes. The are fussy and need to be rooted in well-draining aerated mix like perlite, plus pepper roots just wont grow well unless soil temp is min mid70’s or above.
Thanks for the advice. I saw this video and thought it would be as simple as trimming it and putting it in water.

pepperhead212
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How hot was it inside the humidity dome? If it is too close to the lights, it could be too hot. And you don't need a lot of light when rooting, only when they start growing. I always place my cloner about 2' away from the lights.

Peppers have rooted well for me in the cloner. It helps to score the stems lightly. I can see when this is done, roots grow out from the score lines, with these, and many others I do this with.

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applestar
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Yeah I think it’s the aerated root zone that’s key. I knew they do root well in cloners, which is basically water constantly or periodically sprayed onto the roots in enclosed space. —but’s that’s a very different setup compared to cuttings in water...it would be a different story if the water is aerated via air stone and an air pump.

What do you estimate the temperature range is inside your cloner , pepperhead212?


...I don’t like videos like that — it would be very nice if they mentioned what time if the year/season this attempt was made, I suspect some warm/hot months, especially because one rooted faster than expected. But he should have noted temperature range. I’m especially leery of ones that say “I’m trying this for the first time and I’m going to show how I’m going to do it” — though this one sounded like it was at least not the very first try.


When propagating from cuttings, there is actually sections of the stem that are more likely to root and sections that are less likely to root. His tip cuttings are less likely than the more mature cuttings lower down, but once you get into much older, too woody cuttings, they are less likely again when rooted in water.

Did you remove most of the leaves like he mentioned? That’s is important since those leaves transpire and cause water to evaporate out of the stem. Those leaves fall off because the cuttings can’t support them and cut their losses, but by then, too much moisture might have been lost for them to carry on and root.

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rainbowgardener
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I've never had much luck rooting cuttings in water (and then getting them to transfer to soil). It works much better for me to dip the cutting in rooting powder and plant it in damp potting soil, with humidity dome. I usually keep them in a place protected from any direct light.

Humidity dome:

Image

Abbasrizvi
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I did remove most of the leaves. I live in zone 5 ontario and I had these cuttings to my disposal because I was over wintering the plants. I have now removed them from the humidity dome, and the problem seems to have stopped. I guess it was something with the temp and humidity



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