Week 10 Good and Bad

First the bad...About a week and a half ago Andy started reporting leaves falling off his pepper plants. This process accelerated with time with 10, 15 or more leaves falling off in one day. Well, not long after this began with his plants one of mine also started to drop leaves. I also noticed some leaves turning yellow with spots and others drying up before falling off. At first this was just on my largest plant, but then it occurred on my smallest plant as well. The third plant has only lost one or two leaves and still looks fairly healthy.

So what is causing this? We were able to rule out environmental causes such as temperature and relative humidity. Andy's garage is warmer and drier while my grow room is cooler and moister - yet our plants are observing the same symptoms. Almost every other aspect of our grow conditions are the same - lighting, soil, containers, fertilizer, etc. A little online research (or a lot in Andy's case!) seems to indicate the most likely cause is a nutrient deficiency - possibly calcium, magnesium, and/or micronutrients - all of which would be more plentiful if planted in the soil outdoors.

It makes sense that this would pop up at the stage of fruit production. Andy and I both snipped the initial set of buds off to promote more plant growth and even more buds. The plant requires nutrients to produce the fruit and continue to grow. Andy purchased a series of water-soluble nutrients which we are now applying. After applying for less than a week Andy has seen improvement in his plants with just a few leaves falling off. I just applied the nutrients for the first time yesterday, so we'll have to see how the plants respond. Even without the nutrients I don't seem to be getting as many leaves falling as Andy was. Of course, my plants are not as big or quite as mature.

The good news for the week is that my herbs continue to make great progress. Everything from the latest planting on March 11th has germinated with the exception of Rosemary. One of Andy's Rosemary seeds took 4 weeks to germinate! It won't be long before I can start to harvest some of these, especially the Basil.

Peppers (10 weeks old) and Herbs (various ages). The pepper plant on the left has lost the most leaves while the one on the right has only lost a couple and still looks healthy.

Genovese Basil (small pot) and Sweet Basil (large pot).

Sage (front) and Oregano (back).

Spearmint (front), Thyme (back left), and Parsley (back right).

My tallest plant is up to around 11 1/2" and looking much thinner after losing a lot of leaves. This is only one inch  of growth since last week, likely due to the suspected nutrient deficiency.

Thanks to the smarts of Andy and Kendra who stopped by last Monday, this is the new and improved set-up. The shelf which was rubbing against the metal light fixture hanger has been removed. The hangers which connect to the fixture hangers have been reversed (with pulley section connected to light fixture) to allow me to easily raise and lower the light fixture.