My Black Panther Pepper Plants are days away from 5 months old. They USED to look much better than they do now. There’s ONLY 1 left. No matter how much water I put on them the moisture is being sucked outta them! The leaves look scraggly and just won’t perk up. It only started in November. The weather feels really dry, and cold now. I don’t imagine I’ll ever see fruit 🌶️, but I want to learn what I can from this first attempt at growing.
I used to have recurring mold problems beginning August. It has not returned since I started watering with dropper💧bottles. However 🪰👀 I still have GNATS. I think they showed up in August too, and I’m still swatting them.
by Dreamspitter
3 Comments
I’m growing Hallow’s eve, which is a similar hybrid to Black Panther.
Generally pepper plants need sun, nutrition, water, and air to thrive. Fluffy, well draining, high nutrient soil goes a long way for 3 out of those 4. Lack of any of the four could cause stunting.
It’s also possible that the fungus gnats have harmed the roots too much (seedlings are much more susceptible than mature plants). If you’re growing outdoors, then it could also be environmental since peppers tend to be unhappy in cold weather (much happier above 50F).
Your plants are definitely stunted though, because that level of growth should be achievable in a few weeks (not 5 months).
You might want to add some details about how you’re growing for more specific help. 🙂
You have to water the whole soil, not just a patch. The pots also need to be able to drain away so get them off the plastic. Those plants look 1-2 weeks from breaking soil.
1. fully saturate the soil. The whole pot needs to be moist or there’s a good chance that the soil is hydrophobic and all your water is wicking out to the bottom and your plants not getting much of it if any.
2. Nutrients likely isn’t the issue cause your soils too dry so the plant probably hasn’t been pulling neuts from it… but after getting the soil saturated you should probably give it a gentle feeding heavy on the nitrogen just in case.
3. If the gnats are in your soil.. after rehydrating the soil you can water it with 1/3 parts diluted 3% hydrogen peroxide. It will kill any gnats or other pests making a home in the soil and won’t do much damage to the plant. The peroxide breaks down into h2o. If the soils too dry the peroxide will channel through your soil and not actually do anything.
Once you get them in a better spot you can put large ziplock bags over them to help maintain humidity till they get larger.