Chili pepper help!

Hey guys, I know this isn't bonsai related, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who gardens here!

I have a greenhouse in my basement that I grow a bunch of weird stuff in (sorry no pot lol).

My chili peppers leaves are curling, but they still look very healthy? I check them closely and they don't have any bugs or mites. The lights are about a foot and a half away from the plants. Any clue what's going on here?

Are all the leaves curling? Or only the ones on the tops of the plants?

Are they new leaves only? Or do you see some new and old leaves curling?

Do you have any other plants in there besides the chili? Are they showing any stress?

Bonsai Nut said:

Are all the leaves curling? Or only the ones on the tops of the plants?

Are they new leaves only? Or do you see some new and old leaves curling?

Do you have any other plants in there besides the chili? Are they showing any stress?

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It seems like the more mature the leaves get, the less curled they get. There are a few mature leaves that are curled, but mostly the new ones. The other plants in my greenhouse are succulents and cacti, they all seem to be doing fine.

I don't have a greenhouse or use artificial lighting, but at first pass it almost looks like leaf burn from too much PAR (photosynthetically available radiation). Do the curled shiny leaves feel thicker / harder?

Have you kept chili plants under these same lights in the past without problems? Or is this the first time you have tried chilies under these particular lights? Did you just get new bulbs?

I'm not at home anymore, but I believe that they're more rigid if I recall correctly. Like if you try to uncurl them they crack a little.

Should I move the lights further from the plant? Sounds like a good first step

What kind of peppers? I am thinking fertilizer. I have ghost peppers that react that way if I over fertilize them. Check your fertilizer...how much...how often...inorganic seems to work better for me on the peppers...not as concentrated. Just a thought. Check out the New Mexico Chili Institute website. They have great info on peppers. If you love peppers they have them!
https://chile.nmsu.edu/

I actually haven't fertilized they yet! They're only about a month old and just haven't gotten around to it yet

What kind of peppers are they? 18 inches away from the light seems like a good distance away. Depending on what type of light.

AZbonsai said:

What kind of peppers are they? 18 inches away from the light seems like a good distance away. Depending on what type of light.

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I got the seeds from a friend. I can't remember the exact name but they're the multi-colored mini chili peppers I believe

gallina1594 said:

I'm not at home anymore, but I believe that they're more rigid if I recall correctly. Like if you try to uncurl them they crack a little.

Should I move the lights further from the plant? Sounds like a good first step

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It clearly appears to be something environmental. So you are left with light (too much) heat (too much) or fertilizer (too much) LOL.

If I had to guess, they are growing up to the point where they are getting burnt by the lights. Not "burnt" like dried out - but burnt from excessive radiation. A plant's first line of defense against too much sun is to callous - the leaves get thicker and tighten up. Light diminishes based on the square of the distance from the source... so if the base of your pepper plants are 24" from the light, and the tops of the plants are 12" from the light, the top leaves are getting 4x as much light per square inch as the bottom leaves (just an illustration).

If you are keeping cacti under these same lights, and they are located even further from the bulbs than your peppers, you can think of it like keeping your pepper plants in the Mojave desert... under a magnifying glass Because those are grow bulbs they are emitting the majority of their light spectra in the red and blue bands plants use for photosynthesis. They might not look that bright to the human eye because we have evolved to have eyesight that sees yellows and greens best. But to a plant, they may be getting hammered.

@gallina1594
This reminds me, when I was at a hydro shop a couple months ago they were growing peppers under (I think) an LEC fixture. The leaves near the top looked really thick and leathery, not quite as contorted as your leaves but definitely different from what you'd expect from sunlight. Could be what BonsaiNut thought with the PAR...

Hello, I actually had this happen to very young plants (about 2 month old habaneros) when they started to get root bound in the 200ml containers i started them in. After being moved to bigger pots and being placed outside they were just fine. Might be a coincidence, but as the problem sorted itself out I didn't really investigate further.

Mihai said:

Hello, I actually had this happen to very young plants (about 2 month old habaneros) when they started to get root bound in the 200ml containers i started them in. After being moved to bigger pots and being placed outside they were just fine. Might be a coincidence, but as the problem sorted itself out I didn't really investigate further.

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Thanks for the input! I wonder if it will effect pepper production. I don't really want them to get big. I hope for the strongest ones to kill the weaker ones and kinda bonsai em

This is the little forced arangement my peppers reside in now. Last winter the missus put her foot down and refused to let me overwinter all the 5 gallon pots the pepers were in inside the appartment so i improvised. The thicker trunked ones are the habaneros i was talking about. They're almost two and a half years old and still going strong.
And trust me they can take abuse... i started them in soil, left them in it for a year, overwintered them with no additional light in my semi-dark living room, switched them to hydro for nine months and them back to the arangement you see in the pics from last fall untill now. They've been neglected, underwatered, overwatered, chopped, starved for fert and over fertilised... still kicking somehow.
If you want yield, top them when they reach four--five sets of leaves so they ramify. If you want trunk thickness, let them grow out untouched.
They can take a LOT of root reduction... more than 60-80% if you're lucky and the plant is in good health.
If you want a lot of flowers try to get as much rammification as possible because flower buds form on nodes. More nodes, more flowers. Also remove the first flowers that appear so you get more vegetative growth and stronger plants.
If you like it spicy and want heat, don't water untill you see a little leaf dehydration.
What they like best to grow is a lot of heat, a lot of water, a lot of fert. If you don't have fungal issues, mist them often with very weak fert sollution.
Over winter don't let them flower. Let them concentrate on surviving with low humidity and low light indoors without the added stress of flowering and fruiting.

That's exactly something I envisioned my end product to be! Very nice setup, it's cool to have a visually appealing pepper plant that will also yields for you!

Ow... some things i forgot:
As far as species go, the best fruiting in adverse conditions for me are bolivian rainbow, the most demanding are the ghost pepper and carolina reaper.
And mine seem to thrive on hydroponic ferts. Organic.. less so

Mihai said:

Ow... some things i forgot:
As far as species go, the best fruiting in adverse conditions for me are bolivian rainbow, the most demanding are the ghost pepper and carolina reaper.
And mine seem to thrive on hydroponic ferts. Organic.. less so

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I have some variation of the rainbow pepper. Says small colorful on the package lol. Wonder if they're Bolivian?