I was wondering if someone might have some information about Capsicum's? I have 4 plants growing and they look sick. I have never had any success growing Cap's. I would like to grow these all the time as I use them a lot. My plants at present have some curled leaves, and when I looked at them this morning, the leaves look like they are going a bit yellow, like they are missing zinc or something. I have cut Comfrey leaves and put these around them hoping that they would give them some fertiliser. If you can help me in saving these plant's, please let me know. Thanks heaps
Re: Capsicum Julie H... It is a bit hard to advise without seeing the plants and their situation. Firstly, they may be short on moisture as capsicums are a fairly thirsty crop. If you are in an area that was hard hit during the drought the subsoil may have dried up to such an extent that water is not penetrating past a couple of inches. Try digging a hole more than 300mm deep and see. Plants short of moisture struggle to take up enough nutrient as well. It also seems like they are short on the basic NPK [nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous], the 3 primary requirements of plants. If the soil is damp enough then these may be deficient. What was the soil like before planting? Did it grow big healthy weeds or just stragglers? In short make sure your plants are not thirsty and hungry and work from there. I suggest: Surround them with good compost - if no compost. A handful of slow release generic fertiliser under some decent mulch and then feed them heavily with a foliar feed like Aquasol or similar for a couple of weeks to kickstart their growth. Generally, capsicums are a pretty hardy plant that does well in most areas and will often hang on to act as a perennial. Hope this helps,
Re: Capsicum Julie, where are you located? Is it the right time to be planting them in your area? Comfery is great, I would make a liquid manure with the leaves and pour this onto the plants, as liquid fertiliser. Comfery is also great in the compost. I don't know what is would do with just putting around the plant. Have you seen any pests on the underside of the leaves? White scale? or manure droppings on the ground beneath the plants? You could have a pest or disease? How did you propagate the plant? your own seed? or seedlings? This is just the list of things that I would go through to try and find the problem...hope this is of some help...Leanne
Re: Capsicum Hi Leanne, I am near the Samford Valley, North of Brisbane. My Cap's Were from Seedlings bought from a shop.
Re: Capsicum Hi Julie I went to global gardener and capsium seedlings are right to do now in your area. So you could have purchased seedlings with a disease, some nursery's are not as hygenic as necessary (or overwater/fertilise) or they could have purchased contaminated soil mix. Something could have happened in the transplanting process, being careful not pull the seedling from the tray and handle by the leaf rather than the stem (as you could damage the vascular system of the plant). All these little things can aid in sucess. I would try to sow your own seedlings using a reputable seed source, like a friend who has had sucess with growing capsiums or try Eden seeds, also I think you have a seed savers group up your way you maybe able to source seed through them, they are very easy to propagate via seed using a seed raising mix. CSIRO have a site to identify pest and diseases if you want to investigate that avenue. I am in Canberra so my climate is different and it is not the time for capscium down here. I hope this helps...let me know in time if you get a different result. warmly Leanne
Re: Capsicum If the edges are crinkling and dying, and it moves inward, it could be a potassium deficiency. Sue
Re: Capsicum I never really had any success with capsicums until this year. The only difference this time was an extra thick covering of mulch and i planted them near a north facing timber fence. The fruit were small but successful.
Re: Capsicum I planted a heap of seeds from the insides of capsicums from the fruit store, and one came up, and it's given us heaps of lovely big capsicums. It's in a garden that's had mulch put on it pretty consistently for at least 5 years or so. It has full sun. It's next to a really strong smelling lavender (maybe keeping some pests away?). Sometimes I find bought seedlings have been too spoilt during their short lifetimes in the nursery and shop (overfed with fertilisers and water to make em nice and lovely looking to sell), then when they get to my place, and have to fend for themselves a bit, they suffer from the withdrawals. The comfrey leaves would help, but it might be too late by the time they decompose and release their nutrients. A quicker fix might be to make a strong comfrey tea and pour the cooled water at the caps' dripline. Or better yet, pick some of the same type of weeds that were growing where you planted the caps, and make a tea of that. Good luck!
