I am new to growing chillies. At the start of march I planted some chilli's using the box from this site. Recently the chilies have flowers (or are flowering). The lower leaves of the chilli plants one by one seem to be turning yellow and then dropping off. What do i do? I water them once (sometimes twice) per day, so far I have not added any fertiliser or chilli focus or anything like that. I repotted them into multi-purpose compost (is this bad?) into 3 inch square pots, so far the tallest chilli's (jalapenos) are about 30cm from soil to top leaf. This seems not to effect the scotch bonnets chilli's i grow. Please give advise!

Note that I also started growing a second batch of chilli's more recently. They have sprouted and have a few leaves each. The are also being affected (maybe a result of temperature), however this could be due to the fact that they need repotting but i haven't gotten around to it as i've just been taking my GCSE's.

Hi

Watering once or twice a day is too much unless misting with a spray....

Over watering will cause symptoms like leaves turning yellow and dropping off.

From what what you have said I would take the plant out of the pot and let the roots and compost dry out a bit for a day or so

I would then get a larger pot (I would use a 15cm round one) to pot on

I would remove as much of the multi-purpose I could from the roots without disturbing them too much and get some John Innes number 3 and repot the plant

You will loose some more leaves but the plant should pull itself back..

My watering would then be a good soaking until the excess comes out the bottom ones a week and daily (or every other day) sprays with a mister...

Suggest getting some Chilli Focus from SDCF and using this to give the plants the nutrient needed

Colin

Hi Isaac, welcome to the forum,

I'd say your main problem is your pot size, just far too small for such a big plant.
And with so little neutrients available, especialy if you're watering every day ( water once with lots of run off from the bottom, then leave them to dry out before watering again), any neuts that where in the soil would have been flushed out long ago. That's why your leaves are yellowing and dropping off, the plant is drawing out the only neutrient available to it, the nitrogen in the leaves.

Let the soil dry out for a few days and repot into the bigger pots colin suggested, John Innes is great stuff, but if you need to the multi purpose will do. Either one will have enough neutrients to rectify the problem.

And good luck for your results, lol.

Paul.

Thanks for the responses, i'll try them out straight away www.southdevonchillifarm.co.uk/component.../emoticons/smile.png

Thanks again for the responses, i have re-potted the chilli's now into 15cm round pots with John innes no.3. Still have 2 questions:
•I bought a spray bottle now for misting, how often should i be watering the chilli's? (also should i water the new compost straight away?)
•On my last post I stupidly forgot to mention that I was planting 2 chilli's to each pot (clearly the pot was far too small in hindsight) Is this going to have a negative effect on the chilli's growth as they compete? Also is it too late now to separate if 'yes' as the roots are probably interlinked?

2 chilli's on one pot would have led them to fight for the goodness in the soil..

When I pot on I tend not to water for the first few days as John Innes is moist enough out of the bag

I tend to mist every couple of days and you will work out how much to spray as you go along.
I have a gadget from Wilkinson's that tells you how moist the water is and its PH level (cost £4)

If its been a hot day (yes I know your all laughing) I mist my plants daily

Remember to use Chilli Focus nutrient from SDCF's shop

Hope it helps

Colin