New Leaves so pale, help

[scion]

Hi,

I am a new gardener I do not have much experiences. I have some chili seedlings most of them are super hot chilies. Now two of my ghost chili plants' new leaves are so pale. I cannot figure it out the reason of this problem. I use some florescent lamps not all the time. I am afraid to give fertilizer because I had bad experiences of over fertilize before. The soil is not damp and water regularly.





I am looking for your help. Any help will be very much appreciated.

Regards,

Scion

[Macex]

Do you water the plants allways regularly or just when they seem to need some water?

The problem may be the overwatering, because the soil may have not dried completaly yeat.

OT: Sry my bad English, it may be more like Finglish 

[scion]

Hi Macex,

Thank you for the reply, I water them regularly (seem to need some water) when the soil is almost dry. I use a small computer fan to air the soil properly and it makes the soil dry too.

I do not think it is the problem of overwater, I am sorry to say this. I have suspicion of lack of nutrients and lights, but I cannot say because the other seedlings do not have this problem.  I do not fertilize regularly. These two plants are Ghost Yellow and Ghost Brown both of them are from the same seed source.

By the way, your English is better than mine. I am also not so good in English 

Regards,
Scion

[Macex]

Ok, so my next guess is that the nutrients of the soil must have run out and so there is a lack of nutrients right now.

Those are c.chinense variety of chiles, so they need a little bit more nutrients, light and heat than for example c.annuums and c.baccatums, so you might have to put some nutrients next time you water them.

Try some small amounts of nutrient and watch if there is change. They might not show nothing instantly.

Do ypu have any clue about the moisture around them?

[scion]

Hi Macex,

Thank you for your advice, I'll do what you said. The soil has slow realizing-fertilizer too. I have some fertilizers, such as Chili Focus, Super Thrive 50 in 1 and NPK 3-1-4 concentrate. Which one I should choose under this condition is indecisive. Any preference will be very much appreciated.

The moisture around the seedlings may not be very favorable, they are not in the green house. The room is big and the fan I use may be avoiding the moisture around the seedlings too. The room humidity is 45% and the temperature is about 23 C according to my digital weather forecast.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Scion

[cix]

What soil do you use? Do You know the pH of the soil? I'm mot sure, but the lack of light can be a problem. On the other hand, a plant at that stage grow leaves and roots so quickly that it can have a hard time getting all the nutritions it need from the soil. I think You just have to wait and see. Maybe the leaves darken when they get older. If you have to little nutritions in the soil, the growth will be slow and the color of the older leaves starts to fade as well. If You decide to give them more nutrients just don't give them too much.

[scion]

Hi Cix,

The soil is called 5:1:1 (5 parts fine pine bark, 1 part sphagnum peat moss, 1 part perlite and slow-releasing fertilizer added). The soil dries (like sand) very fast, so I water the seedlings two times a day. To keep the soil moisten I did mulch all the seedlings with pine bark yesterday.

The pH of the soil is almost 7 according to the Rapitest 4 in 1 Tester. The pale leaves are only the new leaves. Before only 2 plants have this problem now 3 more plants are also having same problem.

The growth of the seedlings were slow, I thought it was winter dormancy. These pale new leaves are appeared recently and the old leaves are not pale. Now the growth of my seedlings are faster than before. So my plants may not have lack of nutrients. Just now I learned it from your post.

I fertilized the seedlings with Super Thrive 50 in 1 yesterday. I have suspicion of dry soil, lack of nutrients and lights. I hope the result of fertilization may be known within a few days and I will update the information here.

A bit more detail picture:



Thank you for your time and advice.

Regards,

Sciion

[cix]

Did You fertilize all plants? It would have been interesting to only give it to a few at first. Then you would have know for sure that it was a nutrition problem. pH 7 sounds a little bit high for chilies, but I'm not an expert in this at all. In fact I have never tested pH of the soil. And I think that growing in soil is usually much more forgiving than in an hydroponic system. The reason why i asked about the pH was because some bark have a very low pH and that of course reduce the nutritions available for the plant.

[scion]

Hi Cix,

I did fertilize all the seedlings. It is a very good idea to test on few seedlings, it should be done, I like.

I am not very familiar with this soil, this is my first time use and consider it is experimental. May be next week the result of fertilization may show up.

I'll try to reduce the soil pH by adding vinegar in the water. It would be very nice of you If you have any suggestion to reduce the soil pH.   

Thank you for your time and this chart.


Regards,

Scion 

[scion]

Updates:

My seedlings are doing very good. I usually do time lapse video recording of my seedlings. Before the seedlings were not much active, they looked like natural dormancy, now they are very active and growing faster. However the color are not yet change, still pale but the leaves are getting bigger.

I have been looking for more information about pale leaves on the net. I found something very interesting:

"Water
A chili plant's water needs change throughout the growth and fruiting cycles. Closely monitor the soil to keep it moist without flooding it. Soggy or dry soil will cause the pepper plant to be pale droop."

Here is the link:

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5580699_pepper-plants-pale_.html

The soil are not soggy and the leavers are not pale drooping but fresh pale leaves. So probable the problem may be due to the lack of water and nutrients.

Regards,

Scion

[scion]

Updates:

After fertilization



Regards,

Scion