Peppers looking stunted and distorted

[Wildcat82]

I over-summered 8 peppers (Marconi and jalapeno plus 1 Serrano I think). During our heat wave the plants were under a 40% shade cloth. The shade cloth was taken down 3 weeks ago. The plants were looking rather haggard but I figured once the cooler weather arrived they'd perk up. Instead they are looking even worse. Two jalapenos I set out 1 August have looked just fine til recently but are now developing really stunted tops now too. I've not seen anything like this. Is it possible the heat wave just permanently stunted the plants? Or am I missing something else?

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[Shule]

That's a tough one. I don't really know. My guess is mites and/or disease. I do see some mite symptoms, but I can't guarantee they're the problem. I've never gardened in Texas, but I wouldn't think the heat would be the cause; but the heat might have made the plant more susceptible, nutrients less available, and the diseases/mites more aggressive. It might be some kind of wilt, though.

Watering diligently and often during the heat seems to help keep disease down in my garden. After the heat subsides, it's not quite as essential (but it still helps).

[karstopography]

I have a poblano that has those weird tiny leaves up top, has been that way for a while. I chalked it up to letting the plant get too dry too many times. Whatever it was or is the malady hasn’t spread to the other peppers. The poblano in question sometimes got the short shrift on irrigation.

My peppers were mostly lackluster this year, at least partly due to my lackluster attention to them. I treated my peppers as an afterthought this season and it showed. Too little fertilizer, lack of timely watering, stuff like that. The remaining peppers I haven’t yet dug up, though, mostly have perked up lately.

I had a serious problem with grasshoppers eating the fruit on several peppers. Grasshoppers decimated my best jalapeño plant, ate almost every pepper that got close to turning color. I could never catch the grasshoppers at the deed. Now that we’ve had a front, the grasshoppers seem to have departed. Rabbits ate some other peppers not protected by netting.

I don’t think the awful extraordinary heat was all that bad or awful for my peppers this past summer season. Fruit did set on most of them even in the heat. The main issue is that I wasn’t very good with spacing (too tight, too big plants too close to small plants) or support, staking and some like Aji Lemon Drop totally crowded out some of the less vigorous types. I had some peppers planted too close to tomatoes and got buried in the deep shade of massive tomato plants. Poor planning on my part.

The trouble with peppers is I don’t use all that many. A little go a long way. I’m sort of over making my own hot sauce. Canning jalapeños holds little excitement. I freeze a bunch and end up a year later not using them and having to toss them in the compost bin. I try to dry whatever ones get to ripeness, but cannot seem to be able to use up those fast enough.

[pepperhead212]

Sorry to hear about that. Those peppers definitely look like they were attacked by disease or insects, or both. Though I don't live somewhere quite as hot as you do (!), in the hottest summers I've had here, the peppers would be doing even better! And the heat in the soil in those SIPs seems to make them grow even better! I had a couple of varieties this year that got some sort of blight (though they looked different than those), right next to some that were unaffected! But it seems they are all producing something. Are any of yours looking normal, amongst all those bad ones? If all bad, I would guess it's more likely the insects.

[Cole_Robbie]

I'm guessing mites, probably russets. They eat the newest growth first. You can't see them without magnification. I have a cheap little microscope that clips to my phone that I use to look for them. If it is mites of any kind, a massage of dish soap suds will kill them, wash off afterward. That slows them down, but the eggs start hatching again right away. It takes a balance of natural predators to control them outside.

[Wildcat82]

I'm guessing mites, probably russets. They eat the newest growth first. You can't see them without magnification. I have a cheap little microscope that clips to my phone that I use to look for them. If it is mites of any kind, a massage of dish soap suds will kill them, wash off afterward. That slows them down, but the eggs start hatching again right away. It takes a balance of natural predators to control them outside.

What's weird is that I have tomatoes and eggplant growing all round the peppers and they are completely unaffected. Probably won't hurt to spray.