Don't mind the damp soil as they where just given a mild dose of water.

This is a Reaper

Red Devils Tongue

Again, no bugs. No Aphids, no hornworms, no spiders nothing... An Ant here or there but no infestation of them.

A very concerned and pissed off first year grower.

Bill

I had one plant do the same thing about a week ago. I also had water/fertilized it about 2 days prior to it dropping leaves. I had some others drop a few leaves, but 1 bhut dropped over half of it's leaves. It was just like you said, healthy, green leaves. I'm still not sure what caused it. The good news is that the plant is doing fine and starting to put out new leaves. The pods are still growing also, so I believe you will b ok. Good Luck, and keep us posted.

Tim

Some plants are sensitive to drafts and will drop their leaves. Has it been windy?

No wind. They have survived 30-50mph winds with no problems over the past few months. Have had no wind in the past 3 days to speak of. It is effecting ALL my plants (over 100)

Wow Bill that first picture was not a 'feel good' picture! I haven't had leaf drop like that before, but I am far from an experienced pepper grower.

The fertilizing sure does sound suspicious, it seems to be the only variable that has changed.

I use foliage pro, so am not too familiar with the miracle gro product. What is a normal dose for you? Maybe someone can help address that.

I am sure they will bounce back, but hoping some other more experienced growers can chime in.

Good luck!

Thank you all so far.... Really worried and concerned here as I literally can just sit there and watch leaves fall off for no apparent reason. To much N in the N-P-K? This would not be a cause for repotting I hope....?

I used MG water soluble 24-8-16 at normal strength. 1 Tablespoon per Gal of cool water.

Bill

That could have been the problem. You said you had only fertilized twice up to that point. And then you went FULL strength.

Well, most people fertilize their container plants weekly or bi-weekly with 1/4 or 1/2 strength MG or other water soluble ferts. Add in the stress of the really warm temps and I don't know.

I'll let other, more experienced, container growers weigh in here, but you may want to give the pots some good flushes of just plain water before resuming ferts. Rain water even better

Good luck. Hope you recover. Your plants were looking awesome.

Kevin.

Hmmm. I know I feed 1 tsp. Foliage pro per gallon, aiming for once a week. With the rain my fertilizer routine is about every 1 1/2- 2 weeks. Foliage pro is 9-3-6. So 1 T. of a 24-8-16 sounds kind of much to me, but I don't know the exact ratio or specifics of miracle go.

Need some miracle gro users to pipe in here. But I think too much ferts might have done the damage. Flushing should help, but careful on letting them sit in waterlogged soil.

I have used Miracle Gro for years on my jalapenos and ring of fire and never had any issues.. so far.

I am a hefty measurer so if anything I might have dosed a little too much.

The difference may be that I use really cheap garden soil. No fancy mixes for these guys. The plants might be just panting for fertilizer because of this?

Hmmmm, this is interesting. I don't know what is causing it but this issue still intrigues me since I just fertilzed my plants for the first time since the first week that I put them in their summer pots way back in mid May. And, I gave them a double strength dose of FP 9-3-6 since they hadn't had any. The reason that I had not fertilized was that we have been getting so much rain that it didn't seem wise to dump more water with fertilizer on them. I finally got to the point where I figured it might start to become a problem with my 5-1-1 free draining mix so I dumped a quart of water with a double strength dose of FP in it into each plant (which was still quite wet). I was hoping the subsequent rain would dilute and distribute it well. We got the rain and the plants seem to be doing just fine. But I guess you would say it was a "Sudden" and Heavy dose. They were doing pretty well before I fertilized and I probably should have gone with the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" rule but I was worried that with my plants blooming and setting fruit that they might start dropping blooms or having other problems if they couldn't find the nutrients they need. It has been a couple days, but I will keep an eye on them to see if anything negative happens and if so, I will report back here.
Bruce

I use MG and FP (back and forth) full strength almost every time I water. I am using a 5-1-1 mix. It may be that they didn't have the tolerance, but, I really don't know. If you think that's the issue, you could flush them good. I'd say it's either that, or wait it out.

I do not have any idea. I am very curious how it was happening and how it is going to fix it. Regular soil pH testing would be helpful to diagnose problems of a plant sometimes.

Best of luck to find a solution soon.

Caelian