Help with sick hatch chili plant

[Scott75h]

Can any green thumbs out there help me with this? This is a hatch chili plant that has been brought out of hibernation and one plant is very healthy and the other one has these wilted leaves. These plants are one year old, they should be able to survive about five years I think.

Thanks!

[Two_Sheds]

your photo is too small to see clearly what's going on. Any chance of a close up, big photo?


the affected leaves look thin & curly, rather than quite wide and flat. is that right?

What've you got them planted in? Horse muck, by any chance?

And are there any aphids on the plants? Look closely, they might be hiding.

[Scott75h]

I can upload a better photo tomorrow.

Yes the leaves are thin and quite curly. They are planted in some kind of soil for vegetables, with some composted leaves and charcoal type material, no horse muck. They also have 5cm or so sized pebbles for air mixed in. Its the same pot and soil they were in last year and they sprouted like crazy and gave us more than 50 chiles I would say. This year one of the plant's leaves are very sickly. Do we need new soil? Bigger pot? I can check for aphids in the morning.

Thanks!

[Scott75h]

Just asked the wife, no bugs.

[rustylady]

I would think that the plants have exhausted the nutrients in the soil. The pot looks big enough, but you could carefully scrape of the top inch or two of compost and replace it with fresh.

If you can't or don't want to do that then you need to start feeding.

[eirish]

It's homesick for Hatch?

Seriously, though, where did you find the plants/seeds? I'd love to get my hands on some proper New Mexico chillies. I do have NuMex Joe E. Parker which I'm hoping will do the trick but other options are always good.

[Urbansussexgardener]

Hmmmm. Tricky. Could be lack of nutrients, water or overwatering. Chillies thy normally say water hen the soil is completely dry. And also is the container relevant t the plants size?

[Scott75h]

Ok to answer all of your posts (in order),

Posting some larger photos now of the sick and healthy plants (they are in the same pot).

Thanks for the advice re the soil, we will try that today.

We got baby plants from just about the only place in Japan that sells anything related to chiles, bless their chile fevered hearts!

As for watering, New Mexico chiles like lots of water, if they dont get enough the chiles get these dried up spots on them. Its not got to do with water I think. Maybe nutrients like Rustylady said? The container size was fine last year, but I really dont know.

My balcony is the only source of fresh hatch chiles in all of Western Japan so these babies have to thrive! Please have a look at the photos!

Thanks!

[Scarlet]

I think a picture of the whole plant, including its pot would be better.
I would agree with RL, the soil is probably exhausted. scrape of some of the topsoil and add some new or repot maybe into bigger pots if the need it? What size are your pots? Have you got 2 plants per pot?

[eirish]

Oh wow, you're in Japan! (It does help if you put your location in your profile.) You're probably even more desperate for those NM chiles than I am in the UK. I hope they pull through.

[Scott75h]

Just replanted them to a bigger pot. We have a compost machine teeming with little bugs that turn our food scraps into mulch. Used that mulch mixed 1:1 with plant soil to fill the new pot, sprinkled some fertilizer stuff on top.

Eirish, Im a Californian living in Japan, my blood is made with Mexican food, so yeah Im pretty desperate!

Here's the new pot, its got 3 plants.

[rustylady]

Scott, have you thought about saving seed from one of your ripe chillies and growing new plants from them?

[Scott75h]

Its apparently quite hard in Tokyo to get chiles to sprout, they need some kind of incubator to get started. I guess the season isnt long enough here for them to do well. Thats why we started from baby plants last year. Its supposed to be fairly easy to bring them in during winter and trim off the leaves and water them once a week until spring.

[eirish]

Eirish, Im a Californian living in Japan, my blood is made with Mexican food, so yeah Im pretty desperate!
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Heh, I grew up in New Mexico - I missed 'proper' Mexican food living in California! And now I'm in the UK, so yeah, I sympathise completely with your chile desperation.

Chiles are pretty easy to start from seed, actually - they do appreciate some heat to germinate, but 70 F is plenty.

I've heard that the larger, fleshier types are harder to overwinter than, say, the little Thai types.

[rustylady]

Its apparently quite hard in Tokyo to get chiles to sprout, they need some kind of incubator to get started. I guess the season isnt long enough here for them to do well. Thats why we started from baby plants last year. Its supposed to be fairly easy to bring them in during winter and trim off the leaves and water them once a week until spring.

Even so, they won't last forever. I would try, but then I am a compulsive seed sower. What sort of temperatures do you get over there? Do you have any really warm areas in the house?