Why Are My Pepper Leaves Turning Yellow And Falling Off?
Why are my pepper leaves turning yellow and falling off? This is one question a lot of gardeners or pepper farmers get to ask a lot of times.So, are your pepper leaves or plants turning yellow? And you are wondering what could be the cause? Worry no more. In this article, we will show you the causes, how to pinpoint the major culprit, and how to solve the problem!Are you ready? Let’s start with the question:
Why Are My Pepper Leaves Turning Yellow And Falling Off?
There are many reasons why your pepper leaves turning yellow and falling off, the most common reason why pepper leaves turn yellow is a lack of nutrients. Here are the major nutrients pepper plantsneedto thrive: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium.Once any of these are not adequately supplied to your pepper plant, the seed starts turning yellow as a notification to you, which signifies that something is wrong.
Lack Of Water Or Inconsistent Watering
Lack of water or a poor supply of water to your pepper plant can get your pepper leaves turning yellow and falling off almost immediately. Not just that, it also causes your pepper plant to have stunted growth, wither or produce lower pepper fruits.
Extreme Temperature
Pepper plant hates extreme temperatures and hotness. This causes drought for your pepper plant and makes the water available insufficient to serve the plant. Thus making the pepper leaves die and fall off or turn yellow. This is especially common in cold weather, below 50°F.
Nitrogen Deficiency
Just as I have mentioned earlier, there are certain nutrients that pepper plants need to thrive and one such nutrient is Nitrogen. Nitrogen is a very important nutrient for a well-roundedpepper’s growth, performance, and productivity. Beside helping your pepper plant grow big, a good presence of Nitrogen in your soil helps your pepper plant grow strong and also produces a lot of healthy green leaves and pepper fruits.
When nitrogen is not sufficient for your pepper plant, the plant notifies you in different ways and one of such ways is by your pepper leaves turning to yellow. Thus, making you ask the question: Why are my pepper leaves turning yellow?
How Do I Know If My Peppers Need Nitrogen?
Remember that nitrogen is amobile nutrient. This means that nitrogen moves from one part of the pepper plant to another.
So, what happens is that; once there is a shortage of nitrogen on one part of your plant, your pepper plant immediately begins to move the remaining nutrients from the lower or older part of your pepper leaves up toward the top or newer part of the leaves.
So, one of the simplest ways to detect a lack of nitrogen in your pepper plant or leaves is by observation. Yes, by observing your pepper plant at each stages of its growth will help you a lot. Normally, when there is no nitrogen or when the supply is small, the pepper leaves start turning to yellow from the bottom of your pepper leave or plant, and then move upwards as time goes.
Signs That Shows Lack Of Nitrogen On Your Pepper Leaves
At this stage, let me outline some of the signs you will notice once your plant leaves starts turning yellow as a result of lack of nitrogen. In no particular order, here are a few of them:
- Pepper leaves start turning yellow
- Pepper leaves start falling off
- Pepper flowers start falling off too
- Pepper plant starts experiencing stunted growth.
How To Stop Your Pepper Leaves From Turning Yellow By Adding Nitrogen
To stop your pepper leaves from turning yellow is very simple to solve. All you need to do is apply a fertilizer with a good dose of nitrogen. While a lot of fertilizerscontain nitrogen, there are organic compost that contains good dose of nitrogen too. For example, fowl and cow dung. However, fertilizer will give you a quicker and faster remedy especially if your pepper plant or pepper leaves are far from the damage.
How To Apply Fertilizer On Your Pepper Plant To Stop Pepper Leaves From Turning Yellow and Falling Off.
To properly apply fertilizer to your pepper plant, I strongly advise you to follow the instructions on your fertilizer packaging or that of your Agro dealer. If you can afford to consult with an experienced Agro consultant or agronomist, that will be perfect. At Brilliant Tech Farmer, we offer consultation services on fertilizer application and general farm setup and management. Reach out to us here
The answer is simple: All fertilizers are not the same. While some fertilizers are slow-release, some other fertilizers are fast-release. You can only detect this on the fertilizer packaging plus this gives you an idea of how frequently you should apply them.
Generally, I will recommend you use any fertilizer with good measure of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium such as 3-3-3 or 5-5-5 fertilizers as they are proven to provide plenty of nitrogen that keeps your pepper leaves from turning yellow. Note that fertilizers are best applied to pepper plantsonce every week or two.
Too Much Water:
Just like every other plant, pepper plant needs water to grow, thrive and produce. But, it becomes a problem when the water supply is too much or far less compared to what the plant needs.
So, to get a healthy and productive pepper, we must ensure we get our water quantity right while watering our pepper plant to avoid a lot of damages that comes with excessive watering like stunted growth, root rot and pepper leaves turning into yellow.
How Do I Know If My Peppers Need Water?
Pepper plants do not need much water to do well. They simply need moist soil to grow and thrive. So, once your soil is not moist or becomes dry, your pepper plant needs water. To determine the moistness of your soil, simply dip your index finger into the soil and if it feels dry, your pepper plant needs water.
Signs That Your Pepper Plant Suffers From Excessive Water
- Stunt growth in pepper plant
- Root rot in pepper plant
- Yellowness of pepper leaves
- Poor produce of pepper fruit
Do not dampen your farm with water. You just need enough water just enough to keep the soil moist. Once water is logged in your farm, your pepper root will become logged as well and it will cause it to rot.
Too Little Water:
The fact that pepper doesn’t need too much water to grow and produce healthy fruits doesn’t mean you should starve your pepper plant of water. Drought can kill your pepper plant and cause your pepper leaves to turn yellow and even fall off. So, once you notice that your pepper leaves have started withering than it is time to water your pepper plant some more.
However, between over-watering and under-watering your pepper plant, over-watering is the major culprit. So, it is better to be on thetoo little water side than excessive water side.
Signs That Your Pepper Plant Suffers From Little Watering
- Pepper leave start wilting
- Pepper leaves turns yellow
- Pepper leaves shrinks
- Pepper flowers start falling off
How Do I Water My Pepper Plant?
When it comes to watering your pepper plant, the first step is to check if your pepper garden actually need water. You can do this by digging your index finger into the soil or beds and feeling the soil to determine how moist or not it is. This is the simplest way to determine soil moisture level without using any instrument.
However, there are instruments you can use that are cheap and pocket-friendly. For example, you can also use a water meter which is pocket-friendly to tell the amount of water in your soil.
If you are growing in plastics, containers, sacks, pots, or grow bags, the best way to check this is by lifting them and feeling how heavy they are. This can be difficult most times but if you do it often, you will soon be able to accurately determine the amount of water left and make a decision if you should add more.
Magnesium
Magnesium is another nutrient that your pepper plant needs to thrive and grow especially if you don’t want your pepper leaves to turn to yellow. It is highly required to grow healthy and productive pepper plants. One big mistake that a lot of gardeners make is to think that magnesium can never be lackingin their soil. I get it. This is because magnesium is one of the soil’smost commonnutrients. However, you should note that magnesium can still be lacking in your soil.
Signs That Show Lack Of Magnesium On Your Pepper Leaves
- Pepper veins remain green,
- Pepper flesh turns yellow.
- Pepper leaves turn yellow
- Pepper leaves turning yellow from the bottom
Calcium
Calcium is also very important for pepper growth. When it comes to developing great and healthy fruit in pepper, the importance of calcium cannot be overrated.
Calcium builds strong cells and gets your pepper plant in perfect shape to bear fruits. Calcium is a transporter, it takes up nutrients from the soil and moves them to all parts of the plant
Signs That Showa Lack Of Calciumin Your Pepper Leaves
- Formation of brown spot on pepper leaves
- Curly pepper leaves.
- Pepper leaves shrinks
Frequently Asked Question:
Q: Why is my pepper leaves still yellow, even though I used fertilizer?
Fertilizers do not cure yellow leaves in pepper. It causes your pepper plant to grow greener and healthier leaves after the yellow ones. For example, if your pepper leaves are yellow, and you apply fertilizer; those leaves will not become green instead, the pepper plant will sprout new leaves that will be much greener and healthier
Final Thought:
Congratulations on reading to the end. I want to believe that this article helped you figure out what causes your pepper leaves to turn yellow, I also want to believe that you have learned the signs and how to treat these causes so that they do not spread.
Now it is up to you to apply this knowledge and get your desired result. If you would love to ask more questions and interact with other gardeners and farmers; then join our fast-growing community of gardeners and farmers across the world here: Brilliant Tech Farmers Hub
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