This capsicum plant is now 3 years old. It was a dwarf capsicum but it got drowned out by a rampant tomato and reached for the sky.
As an experiment I let it stay in over winter and the next spring it produced more small capsicums. I gave it a tomato cage to lean on and it did okay.
I honestly didn’t think it would last another winter but it did, and now it’s going nuts making baby capsicums. Unfortunately most of them are going soft and/or falling off early. The photo is just the ones I found in a few minutes, mostly on the ground.
I think it may be a fertiliser issue. I gave it some a couple of weeks ago but it’s still happening. I’ve never been great at remembering to fertilise. I’m considering picking off all babies and giving it a good dose of fertiliser.
Any ideas and insights welcome.
by Distinct_Ad_8415
6 Comments
Oh boy where to begin.
It’s either got, or recently had broad mites, so needs a good bath of miticide as a start. You can tell that by the long, strappy leaves and squiggly leaf growth.
Second, defo needs some fertilizer, looks like possibly magnesium but could also be just nitrogen or any one of another few elements. Their deficiencies tend to look similar. Try some Epsom salts and a decent fertilizer and should come right.
Third, it’s got blossom end rot which is a calcium issue. So needs calcium. You could also try repotting it in fresh soil.
I kept mine over a few years by the third year it produced next to nothing. I read that you’re better off getting a new plant every year otherwise they produce less and less.
From my experience chillies and Capsicums dont last more than 3 years unfortunately
I find second year gives peak production (more than the first year) and rapidly declines after that. I would give this one a good prune, plant another one now, and remove the original one at the end of the season as they can harbour mites over the winter when they’re dormant.
Also your cucumbers/zucchini’s have spider mite, you can tell by the little brown dots hose the underside of the leaves for 3-4 days and cut it back cucumbers thrive when trimmed.
Mine before
https://preview.redd.it/q9g208g28q8g1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e5dfe9b03203ff52e15b40167b2bed7b3898ea7e
Yeah I’d pull that bad boy and toss it like it’s hot. Add some worm compost and move on to the next thing