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Vegetable Gardening

Why is my pepper plant dropping leaves?

edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28

14 years ago

One of my sweet bell pepper plant is dropping a few leaves. Not from the bottom up, but a few of the middle larger leaves. I transplanted them outside a month ago and protected them with wall-o-waters for a couple of weeks. They have been growing well, although the plants seen a little small. A few days ago I noticed that one of the plants is a little stunted and was dropping some middle leaves. The soil is good and well drained. The only thing I can figure is that I've been under watering a little or the sunny dry days have taken a toll. Other than that, I have no clue. Generally the weather has been dry and sunny with 60's to 70's in the day and 40's to 50's at night. Any feedback is much appreciated. I guess I'll try watering a little more.

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Comments (4)

Karen Pease
14 years ago
Dropping leaves is usually water stress. But what's causing the water stress I can't say without a closer look, because all sorts of things can cause water stress -- to little water, bugs feeding on the roots, root rot, too much heat, and on and on.

Strange that it's not bottom up, though -- that's how they normally do it. Did the lost leaves appear chewed or diseased?
digdirt2
14 years ago
Agree it is almost always due to watering problems - over-watering most commonly as peppers prefer to dry out between waterings. If you have been having excessive rain that too could explain it.

Dave
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Are you planting them out in full sun? They may have come directly from a greenhouse and full sun may be too harsh at first(they may not have ever been hardened off). Try keeping your new plants in their pots for a few days, gradually letting them get used to sun exposure. Also, most plants go through transplant shock to some degree and take some time to recover(and don't fertilize them until they do). I planted some peppers one year without enough hardening off and they were scalded by the sun. All the leaves dropped off and they were just green sticks in the ground, but eventually they sprouted new leaves and bounced back completely.
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The Douglah weren't out for very long - like a day while I added potting soil and fertilized them with fish emulsion midsummer - and 1 is fine. Should I just cut the other to stimulate growth? The bihs and serrano were out all summer, that's how they got aphids. I'll just try to keep up with them, thanks. These are in the family room in the south bay window, near the couch and I still got a couple aphids on my hands while I'm sitting here typing this AM so I'm not sure how long it will take to get rid of them. I guess I should move the 2 Douglah to another room so they don't get infested (if they aren't already). We've got tons of ladybugs now - anyone know if the Asiatic (orange) ones eat aphids ;-)? This post was edited by ajsmama on Fri, Oct 17, 14 at 12:01
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rdback
14 years ago
Forties at night is not good at all for a pepper. They'll drop flowers, buds and even leaves. Have you checked your soil temp? - it should be at least 60 degrees. You might want to go back to the wall-o-water until the nighttime temps (and soil temp) come up some.

jmho

Rick
edweather USDA 9a, HZ 9, Sunset 28
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the feedback. I use black landscape fabric, so I assumed that the soil temp. was ok, especially with all the sun we've had lately, but I will check the soil temperature anyway, and go back to the w-o-w's if necessary. If anything I under watered, because I didn't want to over water. My plan of attack will to be to check the soil temp and water a little more. I don't think I have to worry too much about over watering because the soil drains really well. Oh yeah,......the leaves just appeared to die and dropoff....doesn't look like bugs. Thanks again.

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