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Seedlings have 'Halo' - Light color in the middle

18 years ago

This is bizzare. My pepper plants are fairly healthy. They are growing on a normal rate. However on some of the seedlings, when you look from the top of the plant, you can see a distinct circular shape of faded green leaves; as if it did not produce ample amount of chlorophyll, so the leaves on that circular area is lighter in color than the normal darker green leaf..... The leaves has not turned yellow; it has turned lime green in color. This is kind of bizzare.

The plants get plenty of lights; they are not leggy. They are growing in normal rate. I grew them on a under the floroscent(sp?) lights and I have been taking them out to the porch since we have been getting great sun. I do not believe this is related to lighting issue.

I have read in other post, that this could be caused by exposure to herbacide. However it is not the case.

In order to fix this problem, I have...

...Applied diluted epsom salt foliar spray.

...Today I also fed it with diluted form of miracle grow; thinking iron defeciency may have caused this.

Keep in mind, this problem is not visible in all the plants. All of these plants were germitated together in a batch, with no variable..i.e - they all grew on same medium, same fertilizer and same environment.

I am assuming this may be related to pH...does non-optimum pH causes plants to act this way. I also mixed some slow releasing fertilizer when i trasfered them to 8 oz foam cups. Also could this be genetics?

Any help on this issue is appreciated. I have not seen this before.

thanks.

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Comments (9)

hotpepper
18 years ago
you seem you know your stuff, way more than I....

but is it possible since you only have them under flourescents you could have burned a couple with direct sunlight?
John__ShowMe__USA
18 years ago
Color me confused...

Any pictures?
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organic_nut
18 years ago
more information is needed. some good photos would really help.

I dont think it is iron deficiency.

it might be too much fertilizer. maybe you have too much slow release in some pots and not in others. if you did them individually.

PH totally affects the way plants grow. ph can easy be the problem.

here is one trick that can work on most things.

get some known good soil. and transplant with good water. try to get rid of a lot of the old soil. wash out the old soil with rain water or other soft water. not water softened water. You want to get rid of all chemical fertilizers out of the soil. completely washed out.

water softener water kills plants.
fertilizer kills plants.
wrong ph kills plants.

good organic compost is the best.
byron
18 years ago
Might be excess fertilizer.
lil_rhody
18 years ago
"...when you look from the top of the plant, you can see a distinct circular shape of faded green leaves; as if it did not produce ample amount of chlorophyll, so the leaves on that circular area is lighter in color than the normal darker green leaf...."

I'm going suggest the likelyhood that those plants in question are harboring leaf miners.
You may see squiggly light/white colored (sometimes "halo" looking) areas on leaves. Common host plants are tomato, pepper, spinach, squash and pumpkin.

Leaf miners are small caterpillars that burrow in between the leaf layers so they can't be reached with a regular insecticide. Although difficult to control w/ pesticides, Rotenone and Pyrethrum have been known to help in control but will also affect the fruit to some degree..
The best defense is to cut away and completely destroy infested leaves. Biological control would be to introduce parasitic wasps.

If it is the case where you definately have leaf miners, control is a must. Several generations of this insect will develop in a summer.
It is said that approx. 60% of the plant leaves must be infested before noticeable affects are seen on fruit and yield.

Paul B.
vera_eastern_wa
18 years ago
I don't know, but my pepper plants in the greenhouse (at school) and the ones in my kitchen window are the same...the newest leaves on top center look lighter green and as they mature darken up to normal color.

Vera
sanj
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for your response...

It sounds like the problem is related to excessive fertilizer. I have been leaching the fertilizer out with water..other than the color of leaves the plant looks relatively healthy. I do not think this is bug related issue as Paul suggested; I closely looked at each leaves, and they look very clean, without any or, leaf miners.
Since this is my first year of growing pepper from the seed, I will file this under lesson learned. I think, I may have been too much enthusiastic, and added extra fertilizer hoping the pepper plants will grow faster...oh well.
vera_eastern_wa
18 years ago
I think it's just new leaves....

Vera
lil_rhody
18 years ago
Without pictures, it could be a multitude of potential problems.

Paul B.

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