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UGH! My pepper plants are dying! The leaves are curling up and falling off rapidly.  It's been super hot here in Kansas and I have shaded the plants.  Was thinking back to what I've done recently... I was sprayed the plants last week with worm tea. After I was done, noticed a slight smell.  (Dumped the batch.) Don't know if it is the heat or the bad worm tea. I don't see any bugs or fungus. Even with a magnifying glass. Suggestions??  Any chance they will recover?? 

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:-)

Vlad Jovanovic said:

Yeah, well the important thing is to not get discouraged, and just do it again and again. Every fail is pretty much a real good learning experience IMO. As you figure out old problems and get a handle on them, new ones crop up, but then you learn from those too. And every incarnation of what you are doing just gets better and better as you go...Gardening, in all it's forms, is a great hobby IMO. Though, I doubt that a "problem free" variety exists hehe.

I think that Sahib's advice is very, very sound.

@Sahib, good call on my last winter's mysterious/unknown hot yellow pepper species. Turns out they are physiologically (and in taste/heat) identical to (red) cayennes, except that they are yellow. Just like you called it before they were ripe. I didn't even know that there existed a yellow cayenne. The plant in my 'torture test'(s) system is still plugging away and pumping out peppers (again now that I've 'let' it) 8 months later in various horrendous conditions...it looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, but geesh can that plant take some abuse. Good call.

even "distressed" your peppers look better than mine.

Hahaha!! That's pretty bad, Rick! Sorry.

Do y'all think the tomato leaf curl is the heat too??  Just went out and checked on the garden. One more of the romas is curling, as well as one of the other tomatoes. I don't remember what variety they are. Some kind that is more bushy. Looks very wilted. If it was in the ground, I would think it needed water badly. But... that can't be the problem. Would I be able to see a fungus if it was a fungus?

@Shaib, I did dig out the one roma and planted it elsewhere. (I'll let you know how that goes.) I looked around in the gravel where it was planted and didn't see any bugs or unusual build up of any kind.

Ouch. Those look very much like some of our plants - strawberries and various sprouts - that just endured a major ammonia spike (cycling a new system.) Well, some endured, and many died. This is probably a silly question, but have you tested your water?

I did a couple of days ago... all good. Guess I should again!!  

Mine looked pretty sad during cycling, too. Then they were looking great! Now, different story! UGH!

Going to test the water!

Well... Sheri, wonder what happened there! Nitrates are around 10 ppm, nitrites are 3.0 ppm, 0 ammonia, ph 6.8. Two days ago the nitrates and nitrites were at 0. Ph has remained at 6.8. Now what?  Slack off on feeding the fish. What causes those numbers to change? 

Sheri Schmeckpeper said:

Ouch. Those look very much like some of our plants - strawberries and various sprouts - that just endured a major ammonia spike (cycling a new system.) Well, some endured, and many died. This is probably a silly question, but have you tested your water?

Nope, the fungus I'm guessing on (peppers) is a vascular disease, you would not be able to see it. Certain oomycetes you can see damage to the crown (the part between the roots and the stem)...I've got about 300 tomatoes spread between 7-8 varieties...a couple of which appear to be real inclined to physiological leaf curl (harmless...leaves look like taco shells and will be getting leathery in the coming weeks, but it wont effect fruit quality at all)...they (all 300) are all getting the same treatment...you could always leave your plants in, shade them etc... paying close attention, and see what happens/what it is for sure, taking photographs and notes for next time...if nothing else...

After all, it's your trip...your call...

Cheryl Laird said:

Do y'all think the tomato leaf curl is the heat too??  Just went out and checked on the garden. One more of the romas is curling, as well as one of the other tomatoes. I don't remember what variety they are. Some kind that is more bushy. Looks very wilted. If it was in the ground, I would think it needed water badly. But... that can't be the problem. Would I be able to see a fungus if it was a fungus?

@Shaib, I did dig out the one roma and planted it elsewhere. (I'll let you know how that goes.) I looked around in the gravel where it was planted and didn't see any bugs or unusual build up of any kind.

Those numbers wouldn't kill plants. Nitrates may be higher because the plants aren't absorbing the nutrients. So it, along with the curly leaves, are probably symptoms of the problem, not the cause.

Next thought...I assume you have plenty of aeration? Heat depletes oxygen in the water, so what might have been fine in the cooler weather can be deadly in the heat.

Had an even higher nitrite spike this morning... it's up to 10 ppm.

There is good aeration.  Have an good size air pump running 24/7 and my husband added a venturi valve in the return line to the fish tank right after it started heating up. 

Going to do a partial water change today... couldn't hurt. 


Sheri Schmeckpeper said:

Those numbers wouldn't kill plants. Nitrates may be higher because the plants aren't absorbing the nutrients. So it, along with the curly leaves, are probably symptoms of the problem, not the cause.

Next thought...I assume you have plenty of aeration? Heat depletes oxygen in the water, so what might have been fine in the cooler weather can be deadly in the heat.

i would try and spray with liquid seaweed, and biowash.

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