Did my Ghost pepper go dormant?

john wishmyer

Well-Known Member
What kinda pH are you feeding them? I know Cali isn't very humid often, and these guys like higher humidity and a pH closer to 6 than 7. You could do some foliar misting every other day and see how it goes. A nice compost (or tea) and keeping the soil warm is crucial. I think if you do this you will see an explosion of life. I think you will be just fine as it's getting towards summer now and that's where these guys shine. I am growing them indoors right now and I am trying to keep the humidity right.
i usually do around 6.2-6.5, was going to actually brew a tea but I dont have molasses at the moment to feed the microbes. I was going to get that n try growers recharge for a super boost of microbes. besides that its pretty sunny all day in my area and my peppers seem to be doing so good, jalapeños and serranos came back to life as well as my cobra chillis. do you know anything about deficiencies ? the ghost chilli plant was transplantsd into its new pot with a solid soil mix I added some compost i had bought from a store as well as top dressed my own vermicompost but the plant it self is growing kinda warped with new growth not looking so good.
 

Federucci

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you're on the right track, the fact that there is growth is a good indicator. I had a fungus gnat infestation on my fresnos and it the growth looked like your leaves on the first photo, so check and see if there are any little bastards crawling around. The "experts" say that peppers are more calcium dependent than many other fruits so try some CalMag Plus, it works great for me on RO water at about 6.5pH. Depending on how you water them, they seem to like more at a time than I thought when compared to other plants, it seems that watering them until you see at least 20% runoff has better results for me than just making the soil moist enough. A good soil that worked, at least for me, has very high drainage composed of 40-50% pumice and horticultural charcoal/superchar, and your soil looks nice from the first photos, but seems "depleted" and appears "faded". Last season I only used Superthrive on them with a good "calciumed up" water and got a bigger bush than a 70's porn star budy.
 

john wishmyer

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you're on the right track, the fact that there is growth is a good indicator. I had a fungus gnat infestation on my fresnos and it the growth looked like your leaves on the first photo, so check and see if there are any little bastards crawling around. The "experts" say that peppers are more calcium dependent than many other fruits so try some CalMag Plus, it works great for me on RO water at about 6.5pH. Depending on how you water them, they seem to like more at a time than I thought when compared to other plants, it seems that watering them until you see at least 20% runoff has better results for me than just making the soil moist enough. A good soil that worked, at least for me, has very high drainage composed of 40-50% pumice and horticultural charcoal/superchar, and your soil looks nice from the first photos, but seems "depleted" and appears "faded". Last season I only used Superthrive on them with a good "calciumed up" water and got a bigger bush than a 70's porn star budy.
haha a 70s porn star eh? the soil when dry from how hot its been. I had reset her into a bigger pot she had been in 7 gal smart pot but it seems it did dry off on the upper layer, i added some castings from the bottom of my bin, but i think you may be right i also noticed some pepper plants absolutely thrive on calcium. i have some powdered calcium from roots organic i believe that ill probably work into the soil asap.
 

Federucci

Well-Known Member
Try it out man, you can eliminate the variables one by one. Maybe try watering with a diluted calcium solution first and observe, then work in some calcium as a top dressing if that does the trick. I just ate 1/4 of one from a recent harvest, what a good burn lol.
 

john wishmyer

Well-Known Member
Try it out man, you can eliminate the variables one by one. Maybe try watering with a diluted calcium solution first and observe, then work in some calcium as a top dressing if that does the trick. I just ate 1/4 of one from a recent harvest, what a good burn lol.
mine were a pain to eat, burn would last like 30 minutes in the spot you would first chew like a hot coal was put in your mouth or something, would clear my sinuses and leave me feeling euphoric haha.. cant wait to try out these reapers n 7 pot bubblegums i have.
 

john wishmyer

Well-Known Member
so no real change yet all my other peppers are already producing tons of pods.. ghost pepper plant just seems to have something wrong with it, the growth comes in then turns kinda yellow and ugly looking, i decided to take cuttings to try and propagate a couple..any idea what could be wrong it? its producing flowers just the foliage is either all yellow brown spotted or just falling off.
 
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