Dear Friends,
I'm taking a stab in the dark but does anyone here know what is wrong with my Chili Plants. The new leaves are crinkled. I was expecting some fruit this season but not it seems unlikely. These plants have been fertilised with cow manure and liquid fertiliser.
Here are some pictures of the specimens
http://i.imgur.com/xnS9328.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0qY5Nc9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0151pR4.jpg
Thanks for your help.
Haha I'm glad the title grabbed someone attention. Dream of Californication
I have no idea, but I can say that I've seen that on my tomatoes. Terrible crop it was too.
In my research, something tomatoes get new crinkled leaves because of a lack of calcium. Crushed egg shells or garden lime should do the trick.
An issue could be changes to the soil pH from the multiple types of fertiliser, depending on how much of each type was added it may have made the soil too alkaline and the chillis are not enjoying it. I think chillis are similar to tomatoes and like neutral to slightly acidic soil.
If you have had a recent snap of hot or heavily fluctuating weather this could also cause leaf crinkling.
It's hard to narrow down the problem because not all my plants are suffering from leaf crinkling. I'll buy a pH probe on ebay and see if my soil needs amending. Haha the heat in Sydney is even making me crinkle into a sultana
I'm guessing this is a virus infection usually brought on by the emergence of flowers like i've seen in the past on my plants.
I heard on tv somewhere that flowers are like open wounds and easy vectors for virus and disease.
What i have learned to do is to prune all the shriveled tips (leaves and flowers) that are affected and slightly brown. It will delay your fruit crop by 3 weeks but if you don't, the plant will likely not produce good fruit this year. The flowers will grow back healthy. The sooner you do this, the quicker it will recover.
Test out a plant if your unsure and let me know how it goes.
It's very interesting that you think its a virus infection. You are exactly right in saying that this problem started as soon as flower emerged. I only just found out this, but last year my dad cut off the crinkled leaves and then the new leaved that emerged were healthy so I'm going to take this approach. Thanks for your advice :)
Chillies should be fed with chicken manure, this also keeps them extremely hot (spicy). I grow plenty of chillies and it seems this is either a combination of being exposed to direct sunlight all day and/or lack of water.
My current chilli crop is flowering like no tomorrow and it was a recent purchase from Masters as a small plant 2 months ago.
Woah I was told about chicken manure and even seen some farmers use it (on youtube) when growing chillis. I didn't know it makes that much difference but I'm convinced now. I'll have to go buy some of it. I'm glad your chillis are doing very healthy
It looks to me as though it may be "leaf miner"….are there small yellow snake-like trails in the leaves?…these little A'holes are citrus specialists, but I'm almost sure that they hit peppers and chillies, as well!
It is nuts in Sydney with this stuff at the moment! It has wiped out all new growth on my blood oranges, mandarins and lemons.
I have a couple of Jalopenos that are not doing well. I'll have a look and get back to you.
Yes my problem(s) are spider mite and aphids, although the flowers and fruit are fine.
If it is a viral infection, I would give the plants some "Seasol" and some "blood and bone" and reduce watering until infection clears. May be a good time (before the flowers set) to spray with white oil to clean up the sap-sucking pests….good luck!
I'm not going to lie, I came to this page because I thought it had something to do with the red hot chilli peppers…