Help! What is causing deformed new growth on pepper plants?

[Parnassus]

I've been growing peppers for a few years, but haven't seen this before. My Jalapeno and scotch bonnet plants stopped growing early in the season. The new growth they were trying to make was getting deformed. New leaves were curled and stunted and the terminal buds got gnarled up and stopped putting out new growth (see photo). The older leaves seem less/not impacted. It started with the jalapeno plant and then hit the scotch bonnet a few weeks later.

I thought about:

• Calcium deficiency – soil is about 2/3’s new potting soil and 1/3 refreshed soil from last year that was refreshed with Jobe’s organic slow release fertilizer and some worm castings. Everything else is fine growing in the same stuff. Just in case I gave it some liquid fert, but no impact.
• Aphids – looks exactly like aphid damage to me. Moreover, i had a bunch of aphids attacking some strawberries not too far away in the garden. However, there were no aphids anywhere on the plants.
• Broad Mites – I’ve never dealt with them before, but I became convinced they were the culprit. It looks like insect damage to me, but I couldn’t see any insects so must be really small insects, right? I bought a pocket microscope (60-120x) and looked all over the plants, but I couldn’t find a single one. Could I be missing them?
• Cold damage - We had a relatively chilly, overcast and wet May, but I’m growing in containers and brought them in if it ever looked like it was dropping below 50 at night. June has been hot and sunnier, but the growth hasn’t really kicked in as expected.

Does anyone have any ideas what it could be?

 

[Chuck]

I've been growing peppers for a few years, but haven't seen this before. My Jalapeno and scotch bonnet plants stopped growing early in the season. The new growth they were trying to make was getting deformed. New leaves were curled and stunted and the terminal buds got gnarled up and stopped putting out new growth (see photo). The older leaves seem less/not impacted. It started with the jalapeno plant and then hit the scotch bonnet a few weeks later.

I thought about:

• Calcium deficiency – soil is about 2/3’s new potting soil and 1/3 refreshed soil from last year that was refreshed with Jobe’s organic slow release fertilizer and some worm castings. Everything else is fine growing in the same stuff. Just in case I gave it some liquid fert, but no impact.
• Aphids – looks exactly like aphid damage to me. Moreover, i had a bunch of aphids attacking some strawberries not too far away in the garden. However, there were no aphids anywhere on the plants.
• Broad Mites – I’ve never dealt with them before, but I became convinced they were the culprit. It looks like insect damage to me, but I couldn’t see any insects so must be really small insects, right? I bought a pocket microscope (60-120x) and looked all over the plants, but I couldn’t find a single one. Could I be missing them?
• Cold damage - We had a relatively chilly, overcast and wet May, but I’m growing in containers and brought them in if it ever looked like it was dropping below 50 at night. June has been hot and sunnier, but the growth hasn’t really kicked in as expected.

Does anyone have any ideas what it could be?


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From the way the leaf margins curl up and the leaf tip curls down, from this particular picture I would have to say chilli mosaic virus. I need more pictures to get a more informed diagnosis.

 

[DirtMechanic]

How many plants effected?

 

[Parnassus]

I'm only growing the 2 pepper plants this year. I grew them from seed and gave my back-ups to my neighbor. Those are still doing fine.

Chuck - attaching a few other photos that show more of the plants. The orig post photo was of the jalapeno plant a week or two ago. First photo here shows how it looks this morning. The next 3 are the scotch bonnet that more recently started showing problems.

 

[Chuck]

I'm only growing the 2 pepper plants this year. I grew them from seed and gave my back-ups to my neighbor. Those are still doing fine.

Chuck - attaching a few other photos that show more of the plants. The orig post photo was of the jalapeno plant a week or two ago. First photo here shows how it looks this morning. The next 3 are the scotch bonnet that more recently started showing problems.

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Much better pictures. I do not believe this is a disease. I think you were correct in saying calcium deficiency. I am pretty sure you have plenty of calcium available but the plant is unable to uptake. I also think the plants are lacking in trace minerals. Try this. Spread a couple of handfuls of Epsom Salts around the base of the plants and water it in with Chelated Iron. I think the main problem is calcium and the ES should fix this.

 

[Parnassus]

Thanks Chuck. I was wondering about the mineral uptake being an issue. I thought about the ph being off, but it's majority new soil, and everything else is growing in roughly the same mix. I spread some epsom salt around the peppers last week. I haven't heard of chelated iron before, but I can give it a shot as well.