Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul M. Cook
I noticed that one of my pepper plants is putting out very deformed and
stunted leaves. They look like they have been chewed on but in fact they
are growing that way. It was just transplanted about 10 days ago from a
seedling bought at Lowes. Should I give up on it and start over? For 2
bucks I can replace it but if it is diseased then I probably won't bother.
This is a picture I Googled of what the leaves look like.
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Paul |
Could be one of two things.
Either the plants have suffered an aphid attack at some point whilst very young.
The aphids stay very close to the growing tip of the plant and suck the sap ,this distorts the embrionic leaves which then don't show up as being damaged until the leaves grow much bigger, by which time the aphid attack may have come and gone.
You can help prevent this by spraying with insecticide as the plants grow (especially when very young) and putting up fly traps in the glasshouse or conservatory.
The other thing that could of happened too, which is also aphid related, is that as the the aphids suck the sap, they can introduce viruses to the plant, which can damage the growth.
Here's an exaple of an aphid attack....
avocado8: Aphids!