First Harvest

[AshyLlama12]

First time gardener and first post. Hi All! I was finally able to pick my first pepper and some overgrown chives, very excited. I’m having some trouble with the pepper plant though. I bought it at my local grocery store, it was labeled Gypsy Pepper. The leaves are pale yellow and slightly droopy. It’s not produced any new leaves that I can see but after a while the pepper did start to ripen up rather quickly. Something got ahold of the pepper plant and my Bougainvillea; I’m suspecting a kadydid. Could the plant just be stressed out?

 

[AshyLlama12]

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Hi, welcome to the forum.
Yellow leaves on the pepper makes me think maybe more nitrogen needed. What are you doing to fertilize? Have you started composting?
Anyway, well done, good start. It is a great feeling to get your first crop. I love chives, they really make a potato salad.

 

[AshyLlama12]

I haven’t fertilized at all, honestly a bit overwhelmed with all the things I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve had the plant for a month now, I used raised garden bed soil and it’s in a well draining pot with some mulch on top in a full Sun area. My jalapeño plant is doing great, alittle slow going but is performing much better and it was treated the same way. Is there a specific fertilizer I should look for?

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Is there a specific fertilizer I should look for?

'Do you want to be 'organic', or do you use chemicals? Blood fish and bone is good, I will let someone more local to you advise on what brands are good in 'artificials'. I tend to go for whatever I can get locally for free, like horse manure or hop shoddy, or what they are selling cheap at the time.

 

[YumYum]

Post a pic of your plant. There are a couple folks from Texas that know the climate. Plain yellowing of the leaves might indicate a nitrogen deficiency or a lack of sunlight which causes the plant to basically abandon those leaves which will yellow. I'm not good at diagnosing but some are.

Here the temp and humidity is starting to go down so fruit set should be increasing.

Bugs can transmit diseases to the plant also.

 

[AshyLlama12]

Update: I think I discovered the problem. The plant was completely water logged. I had no idea the soil was so dense and compacted. I threw away the old soil and got a new and more airy mix put in. The roots were in better shape then I was expecting after realizing the state of the soil. I will post new pics tomorrow, hopefully I will be able to save the little guys

 

[AshyLlama12]

Post a pic of your plant. There are a couple folks from Texas that know the climate. Plain yellowing of the leaves might indicate a nitrogen deficiency or a lack of sunlight which causes the plant to basically abandon those leaves which will yellow. I'm not good at diagnosing but some are.

Here the temp and humidity is starting to go down so fruit set should be increasing.

Bugs can transmit diseases to the plant also.

Here is the pepper plant is a better location with more consistent Sun exposure and with the new soil set up

 

[YumYum]

I've never seen such big round bites taken out of a leaf.

It does look like it needs some nitrogen.

 

[AshyLlama12]

I think it was definitely a katydid that ate it, it hasn’t been back since. Ok I will add some fertilizer this weekend, I want to wait a few days to make sure it’s ok with all the new changes

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I want to wait a few days to make sure it’s ok with all the new changes

Good thinking, plants take time to adjust and you may even find the changes have done the trick.

 

[AshyLlama12]

Good thinking, plants take time to adjust and you may even find the changes have done the trick.

Can I use Fish Fertilizer for the pepper plants? It has a 5-1-1 ratio

 

[AshyLlama12]

Also, should I be adding worm castings as well, as more of a general soil improvement or will that be too much in combination with a more specific fertilizer?