Holy crap your growing big!! I looked up pepper deficiencies and the closest thing I can relate that issue to is nitrogen. Give them some time to possibly grow it out and if it stays yellow give them a shot of fertilizer with high nitrogen so the first number in NKP should be higher than the rest good luck!
-Nick

Fertilized with Epsom Salt? How much did you use?

Also, was there a reason that you decided to fertilize with Magnesium Sulfate? Did you determine that your plants were lacking in Magnesium?

I'd start with a test subject and fertilize it with a complete fertilizer. Typically, Nitrogen deficiency shows up in the lowest/oldest leaves first, so this is quite strange.

Josh

Ah, thanks Josh.

I used about 1/2 tablespoon in 1.5 gal of water. The reason was pretty much a knee jerk reaction (nope, I did not determine they were deficient, and, yep, I know better), since it's supposed to green up leaves I was hoping it would green them up.. I have been using dilute MG for tomatoes (starting after they turned yellow). This just seems so weird, the only plants with yellow leaves are the Aji Amarillo, on top of all the other varieties I'm growing I'm growing several Ajis and none are doing this. Also, I figured since I'm using a good soil, I shouldn't have issues with deficiencies, but I'm at a loss as to what's going on. The leaves are also curling up just the slightest bit. This is so weird. I wonder if the seeds could be diseased, but if so, what kind of disease would have this effect? Plus, should have said this before, the leaves didn't turn yellow, they came out yellow. The lower ones on some are starting to yellow now.
Pam

I just read that big jumps in temps can lead to yellowing. Could this variety be more susceptible to jumps? Right now the greenhouse can get up to 100 during the day and 40 at night. Do you think this could be causing it?
Pam

Well, I guess it's called "Amarillo" with good reason, hehe ;-) (Amarillo being 'yellow' in Spanish, of course).

I honestly don't know what's causing this....but I do know that cold temps will turn plants yellow. I'm hoping that someone who's grown this variety will eventually add their input.

Josh

hardy har har (although, I have to admit, I kinda wondered the same thing). Maybe I've let them get too wet. I should move them back into the house with a more controlled environment and see what happens.
Pam

Pam, perfectly normal for that type imho. Been growing Aji Habanero for a few years now and every single one of my plants did that. I never figured out any common denominator since they all greened up eventually with no special treatment.

It's a fert and light hog too btw. Give them ~ 10+ hours of direct sun a day, with lots of manure or lots of soft ferts (fish etc), and you'll have a giant on your hands, more of a sprawler. They tolerate cool temps well and are the easiest to overwinter. Besides being a Baccatum type, they do not look or taste like any Aji Amarillo that i've grown, pretty sure they are totally different types of pepper btw.

^^ i've reposted that pic a few times but there's my biggest in late October 2011 i believe, after a huge harvest. Over 6ft across and 2 1/2ft high. This plant provided hundreds of pods.

They taste good enough green, and take on a orange or golden flavor when ripe. At the end of the season i would dry or mash the softer ones, and pickle the crisper ones.

Steve,

This post was edited by sjetski on Thu, Feb 20, 14 at 10:46

Found a pic of the same plant from when it was a teenager.

I see the newer bottom growth was just starting to green up.

Steve

Thanks Steve, I am glad to hear from someone who has grown this plant. When they turned yellow they were on a lower shelf, I wondered if it might be light and moved them to the top shelf they haven't greened up, still growling and looking healthy otherwise. I guess I'll just give them time to green up. Thanks for all the info on it, it's good to know. Can't wait to see how they grow and try the fruit.

Pam

(and sorry Josh, dummy me, I put Aji Habanero in the title and Aji Amarillo in the body, duh, I guess I was thinking Yellow... Amarillo, but it is in fact an Aji Habanero)

Cut back on the watering. Plants should almost droop before watering. This will help with root development. You want to "water starve" you plants. The plant will send more roots out looking for water. Stronger roots equals stronger plants. Also the green will come back when you water starve them.

No worries ;-)
Sounds like you might want to do a heavier fertilization on these, per Steve's comments.

Josh

I wouldn't deny a growing plant water - rather, I'd aim to keep the mix evenly moist during this developmental phase. Once the plant is in a much larger volume of soil, or when one plans to harvest, that would be the time to decrease watering to encourage root expansion or to concentrate sugar and capsaicin.

Josh

Yep Josh, definitely going to do that. I'm glad Steve spoke up! Thanks again Steve!

fanatic, yep, I know about the water, and I will admit that I don't let mine dry out enough (at least not this time of year) but, thing is, I work all day (leave at 6:30am get home 5pm), I have come home to way too many dead burned up plants (when you leave and the temp is 35 and overcast and you come home to bright sun and 50 degrees it can be over 100 degrees in the greenhouse). I tend to water more than I want to because I've never lost a plant to too much water (I use a good draining soil) but I have already lost about 30-40 this year from burning up. and I've got around 20 that I'm nursing back to health because they got too dry and right now they have no leaves. Once the temps get better and I can leave them outside I back off of the watering. If I wasn't gone 10 hrs a day I'd definitely back off of the water. 20 yrs with a greenhouse in Oklahoma I've found what works best for me.
Pam

Greenhouse growing is a different beast. I grow mine in my basement under grow lights, watering them once maybe twice per week.

Damn Pam! How many are you planting and how many will be sold?

You must love that OK summer heat and humidity. Or importing Mexican day labor. ;)

Kevin

Fanatic, yep, it's not only a different beast but a PITA beast. ;-) There's times I wish I could do mine indoors under lights, but I don't have enough empty space anywhere. I have a few in the sunroom and they are so much easier to take care of, like you, I only water them once, maybe twice a week. I thought about turning my sunroom into a greenhouse Dec-March (which it almost is) but the sunroom has the house on the east side and garage on the west so it only gets direct sun for a short time in any one specific area.... so, pita greenhouse it is. ;-)

hey Kevin, at last count I had around 2600... way way too many. But, you want 14 of one variety so you start 20 knowing some won't germinate and some will die along the way, or, none come up the first germination, so you plant more, then both the first and second all come up. ;-) I'm hoping all will be sold (other than the ones I am keeping for myself) each year I sell more than the previous year.

I absolutely HATE OK summer heat and humidity, I like it cold, once it gets over 70 degrees it's too hot. Last summer was pretty nice though so it wasn't bad. But the summer before that with almost 3 months of 100+ you had to get inside by 10am. Sorry, no importing of day labor. ;-) I only plan to keep 1-2 of each variety for myself, so it's not so bad. Worst part is disposing of the unsold plants... it's very hard and sad.
Pam

BUY 2 GET 1 FREE !

this way you can triple your sales. It works with the grocery stores all the time. So the guys comes to buy just one plants , walks out wit three or multiples thereof.

I was there that summer for a couple weeks. Cursed OK the whole time I was there. Had to attend G'mas funeral and clean her house out. No A/C. I'd go out at 6 a.m. to have a cig at the hotel and you could already feel the heat coming on for the day. I don't know how anybody lives/works there.

Stupid heat wave followed us all the way back to the Pacific.

:)

Kevin

2600 plants? Haha, nice, hope you sell them all! Seyson's idea is a good one, throw in surprise freebies on your last day of sales. Most people like surprises, especially if you were to label a Reaper as a Bell :p

Otherwise the Aji Habanero is a good small workhorse pepper and should be on everyone's list imho. It's not like the flavor will knock you over, but it's subtle & unusual imho, and not like anything i can recall (the closest i can think of is somewhere between a Fatalii and Trinidad Perfume, minus the heat and Chinense smell). Their heat average is def below 1000 SHU, once in a rare while you'll get one as spicy as a Serrano.

Steve

Hey Seysonn, good idea. Although I don't know of anyone that comes in a buys just one, mostly 5+, but I agree, that would help thin them out, our last fair is our biggest, so that could help to where I have to destroy less plants in the end.

Kevin, sorry about your grandmother. Yeah, summers are usually hell in Ok, high heat and high humidity (but, the humidity isn't as bad as the gulf coast). hahaha, yeah, the climate can be brutal, but then you have our stupid officials constantly doing something to make the state look even more lame (like everyone in the state has an IQ in the double digits) it's hard to find many positives about ok. ;-)

Hey Steve, ha, I may end up getting sued if I label a Reaper a Bell. And thanks for the info on the Aji Hab, I'm really excited to try it now, you've really piqued my curiosity. I may use some of your description on my label. :-)

Pam

Based on all the comments, this Aji Habanero is interesting to me. I really like Aji Lemon Drop, and this year I'm also growing Aji Pineapple. How does Aji Habanero compare to those two? Does anyone have seeds to spare?

Thanks, Tom

Hey Tom, sorry i did not save any seeds from last season, just an overwinter and 3 seeds from my original order in 2010. I'll have to isolate flowers this year and replenish my stash. As for comparing to Aji Lemon and Aji Pineapple, it has a different texture, taste and smell, i don't feel they're comparable.

My original stash was ordered from an old established Aussie seller, John "The Chilli man". He has a site and presence on Ebay btw in case you want to check out his products.

- http://stores.ebay.com/The-Chilli-Man
- http://www.thechilliman.biz/

As long as you get the seeds in the dirt by March, then you'll have plenty of time for ripe pods, and this plant will hold out the longest in Autumn, enough time to ripen the last hundred pods or so ;)

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for all the info. It makes me all the more interested in the Habanero. I hope you can save seeds this year, and if I remember I'll check with you in the fall. I've already got too many seedlings on the go for this year, so I'm thinking about next year.

Tom

I don't have any seeds either this being my first year growing them. But, you can check with me too in the fall and hopefully I will have collected seeds. I bag all flowers so they should be pure.
Pam

Thanks Pam

Steve: you may want to remind Tom that buying seeds off e-bay is usually a no-no, but in this case you've had positive dealings with the guy.

Kevin

Pam: No worries. She was 94 and smoked Camel non-filters. That's funny you say that about the intelligence of okies. My mom is always telling me that's why she left when she was 16. My mom's like me though... quite pedantic. Not really a good quality.. ;)

Kevin

Kevin: Boy, that generation sure was a lot tougher than the subsequent generations. We used to have a secretary, Betty, she smoked non-filters and she had angina. I think I might argue that it's "not really a good quality". I tend to be too.
Pam

Pam: " I think I might argue that it's "not really a good quality"."

LMFAO. Yep. you May be also. Let's debate it!

:P

Kevin

I have a question For you, Pam, Kevin, Steve, ...

As I understand "Aji" is another name for "chili" or "hot pepper" in south America. So instead of saying "Limon chili pepper" they say "Aji Limon" etc.
So then "Aji Habanero" should be Habanero chili pepper ??

Now, I know that Habanero has is SHU of about 300,000. But I read that Aji Habanero has the same heat as Anaheim (500 -2500).
So actually this is a sweet pepper !

Seyson i'd classify it as a sweet pepper as most of them don't even give a tingle. Only the most sensitive will notice some heat. But calling it a Habanero Chili pepper would make it too confusing imho as it belongs to a different family. Heck i remember calling them every name under the sun the first year, till i studied them a little better.

^^ Check out that silly temporary mis-label on another Aji Habanero, un-pedantic as i was. That's a coffee grinds booby-trap for the silly slugs that thought i had planted them a salad. I think the wet spot was a dose of Myco's, well that's the story i'm sticking with anyways...

You guys are making me in the mood for them now, but i think i have one or two left in a mixed pickle jar so har har :P

Steve

Also, the Aji is a baccatum vs a chininse, so it couldn't be a habanero, at least the chinense variety. I'm glad you chimed in Steve, since I've never grown them before I'm just spouting what I've read. I can't wait to try one.

and Kevin... bring it on. ;-)

Pam

Ok. Thanks Pam and Steve. So Aji peppers are generally BACCATUMs, while Habanero is a Chinense.

Off Topic.
O, Steve, I see you use Old coffee grinds for slugs. I do that too. I thinks it works. I also mix some sand with it for drainage and roughness to take care of their tender belly. plus sprinkle a tiny bit of slug bait. Not too much. Slugs are my number one pest problem. Have you tried ET? I am going to get a bag of floor dry and crush it, to have sharp edges for them bellies.haha

You might even try diatomaceous earth for slugs. I am very lucky I don't have problems with them, except the ones that come into the house, I need to replace the copper tape I had on the outside near the doors, they never came in when I had that.
Pam

Seysonn: Not ever growing any of the Ajis, I wouldn't know. Down here, with so much Mexican influence, it's CHILES. So, traditional habs( the hot, hot ones) would be Chile Habanero.

Different Spanish dialects for all the Spanish speaking countries. But Ajis must have something different about it in the name AND species(baccatum). After all, there's a reason why the Country Chile is named so.

Dunno.

Yep Diatomaceous Earth works on slugs too. The problem with it is it's ineffectiveness once it becomes wet. And when do slugs come? When the soil's WET.

Believe it or not, I have a slug problem here in DRY SoCal. Never seems to be a problem for my peppers though. Maybe for seedlings, but i just sprinkle some iron phosphate and some DE after planting and before I know it, the plants are big enough to fend for themselves.

Pam: I say you ARE pedantic. Now... argue against it! ;)

Kevin

I couldn't be pedantic, I never did finish my Masters. Plus, I like to play in the dirt (gardening and such).
Pam

sjetski, do you have any aji habaneros left in your garden? I would seriously buy as many as you had left if so. I've been trying to grow them for years here in Northern Utah to no avail. E-mail me? whisperinggalaxy at gmail dot com.