GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Help please! Chilli plants, leaves brown/white

allen73 · 16-05-2012, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aress

Hi all,

new to this forum, I would appreciate any help or advice on this problem.

At the beginning of February this year, I decided to sow 11 varieties of chilli plants, ranging from Habanero all the way to Scorpion Butch T. I propgated them indoors, in lidded propogatoers, and in a warm, sunny room. They germinated very quickly and began to leaf.

Once they were strong enough to handle, I transplanted them to seedling trays, and then into my greenhouse. They seemed to be doing very well, with big, green, healthy leaves.

But over the past week or so, I have been noticing that a lot of the leaves are rapidly decaying, showing black, brown or white spots, and a couple of leaves of some plants have begun to deteriorate. I have attached 4 photos as one image for you to look at.

I have put a lot of work into this crop, and am quite concerned that this is happening. Could anyone advise me what is happening to my chilli plants, and perhaps how to bring them back to health, so that I might have a good crop after the summer?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Although it is advantageous to grow peppers in a greenhouse or conservatory, chili plants will thrive outside in areas of the UK south of North Wales once night time temperatures reach 10 degrees centigrade and above. Like tomato plants, pepper plants rarely withstand even the slightest frost. It should be noted that the growth of pepper plants is slow at temperatures below 15 degrees centigrade, the flowers form at temperatures of 18.5 degrees centigrade and fruit formation is hampered by temperatures over 32 degrees centigrade. Chili plants prefer a well-drained, sandy or silt-loam soil. If growing outside then stand the plants 18 cm apart in a sunny but sheltered site.