HelpfulGardener.com

Hi,
I've recently moved house and brought my sweet pepper plant with me and a few of the leaves have started to grow oddly. Not sure if this is a disease or stress possibly? I'm new to growing peppers and only had this one about 7 months.
Thanks for any help

The damage on the leaves look mechanical —- like they were pinched, rubbed against, or caught against something while still tiny buds or tender unfurling leaves.

Are you keeping this plant indoors? I think it’s wanting more light. Higher up near the window or light, remove/open window coverings, or provide some form of supplemental light — at the very least, 100W equivalent daylight cfl in a lamp will help.

Thanks for your reply, I'm keeping it indoors at the moment. I'll keep it nearer the window from now. Out of interest what about the plant indicates the need for more light?

Photosynthesis is the process on which all life on earth depends. Radiant energy from the sun (the light spectrum that plants need most are in the red and blue spectrum between 400-700 nanometers) are collected by the plant chloroplasts and converted into chemical energy and stored as sugars and carbohydrates like glucose and fructose. A byproduct of this process is oxygen.

Tree and Rain Forest Facts: Trees renew our air supply by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. The amount of oxygen produced by an acre of trees per year equals the amount consumed by 18 people annually. One tree produces nearly 260 pounds of oxygen each year.

Photosynthesis:
carbon dioxide + water+ light energy -> oxygen + glucose

However, in darkness, plants consume the stored energy (unless they are forest floor plants that have lower energy requirements or use alternate energy sources (like venus fly traps, pitcher plants) and can be sustained in balance in low light conditions) and only perform respiration which consumes oxygen and stored energy (glucose) and expires carbon dioxide

Respiration:
oxygen + glucose -> carbon dioxide + water + heat energy

Plants need more light when

1. Leaves are darker than normal.

Photoperiodism controls the plants reaction to darkness or light. The result of the plant trying to adapt to low light conditions
by shifting the phytochrome pigment depending on whether it is receiving more red or far red light. Photoperiodism controls
many plant reactions from seed germination, stem elongation (etiolation),dormancy, and blooming in day length sensitive
plants

2. Plants leaves drop, and go dormant

Photoperiodism- darkness and shorter day length stimulates plants to go into dormancy for "winter". Photoperiodism
is important for day length sensitive plants like many bulbs and fruit trees that require chilling to induce dormancy and are
reawakened when days become warmer and longer. Poinsettia require long nights (at least 12 hours) to induce bloom. Most
poinsettias are kept in darkness for a time to induce them to bloom for Christmas. It is also why ficus plants are so sensitive
changes in light intensity and will drop every leaf if they are moved into lower light conditions.

3. Plant is lanky with longer than normal internodes. Leaves are softer and sometimes larger than normal. Plant stems turn or lean toward the light. It controls bloom cycles for daylight sensitive plants. Plants that require more light will fail to flower or fruit in low light conditions. Other plants require a period of darkness to initiate regrowth and bloom.

Phototropism is the plant's movement in response to light.
Phytochrome controls stem length. It is why plants become leggy in low light conditions. It controls stem length for
germinating seedlings in the soil, guiding the stems toward the light.

https://extension.illinois.edu/hortihints/0012b.html
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/plant-lig ... 72801.html

Nickb191 wrote:Thanks for your reply, I'm keeping it indoors at the moment. I'll keep it nearer the window from now. Out of interest what about the plant indicates the need for more light?

Ha. I have often said that, what I’m not too bad at doing is keeping my plants from Dying. (And I usually follow that by saying they might not be thriving, but I can keep them from dying )

What I mean by this is that I have been growing all kind of different plants for a long time, and have an instinctive sense of when something is wrong and need doing. Sometimes with my own plants, I know it but don’t do anything right away, so that each time I look at the poor plant, I say to myself, I REALLY need to “water that” or “feed that” or “check it for pests” or “give it more light”.

I don’t always know WHY I think that, but if I continue to ignore it, the plant will start showing more obvious signs of distress, and, for the most part, if I follow my intuition and fix it, the plant will recover, or not deteriorate (further), or generally do better.

When I looked at your photos, it popped in my head that your plant is “wanting more light.”

Imafan posted a detailed response, but I guess I will go with this one:

3. Plant is lanky with longer than normal internodes. Leaves are softer and sometimes larger than normal. Plant stems turn or lean toward the light.

...giving it some more thought, I guess the leaf stems look longer and weaker than they should (leaves shouldn’t be so droopy), and the main stem should be sturdier with sort of a beginning of angled/corky structure and the stem color is wrong somehow - darker? more streaked-looking?