My green pepper plant isn't growing and the leaves are dropping off. I purchased the plant through Burpee, planted it in May and it is the same height. I have fungicided, miticited and insecticided it with a natural product. What do I do next?

This happened to me last year also. The plants never took off. I think the store life is hard on them, then moving puts them in shock. Adding all those "cide" chemicals may not have helped as they stress the plant too. Plus, like antibiotics, if you don't have a specific problem you are treating, don't just use them as a blind "vitamin" - they don't do the plant any good and over use causes resistance.

Keep them very well watered, give them time. You might get lucky and they'll recover.

That is all mostly a guess based on what you posted. A picture of the plant would help be more accurate.

Also, welcome!

Btw, where it is planted, sun levels, soil conditions, all those play into this as well if you can tell us.

Concur: Bell peppers are the most difficult type to to grow. Cal Wonder is an older variety with little disease resistance. From your description I would suspect a root system problem. This could be due to soil conditions, too wet ( peppers can't stand wet feet) too few nutrients. too compacted etc. You may try digging it up and if the roots are in decent condition, replanting in loose friable well drained soil. Mosaic or Southern Blight are also possibilities, but there is no recovery from those. The only defense is disease resistent varieties, but even these are not foolproof. http://www.gardeningknowhow.co...

Hi @farmerdill

What would you recommend to replace Cal Wonders. Years past I have grown them with no problems and they produced truck loads of fruit. I would only have 12 plants and harvest more than I could eat during season. Now I am planting 30 (sometimes more) and getting about half production. I guess I did not think about and just blamed the weather. Thanks for the help.

First I would identify the problem and the choose a variety that combats that problem. I grew Cal Wonders with no problems untill I bought a couple of replacement plants and introduced Mild Mottle Virus. I trial a lot of different varieties and thus far Socrates has been the best replacment for Cal Wonder. I also get good performance from a green to yellow variety Aladin. Another green to red that did pretty well was Crispy. A pleasant surprise was the dark purple/black to red Mavras. Striking visual and a decent performer.

farmerdill said:First I would identify the problem and the choose a variety that combats that problem. I grew Cal Wonders with no problems untill I bought a couple of replacement plants and introduced Mild Mottle Virus. I trial a lot of different varieties and thus far Socrates has been the best replacment for Cal Wonder. I also get good performance from a green to yellow variety Aladin. Another green to red that did pretty well was Crispy. A pleasant surprise was the dark purple/black to red Mavras. Striking visual and a decent performer.

Thanks Dillard, I will order some Socrates seeds and give them a try come Spring. I might move to a new location to plant the Peppers next year.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I agree, I don't think I did the plant any favors by spraying it with everything. I did dig up the roots and they were stunted so I moved it to a totally different location. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good soil tester?

If you have never had the soil tested, I would suggest that you contact your local Ag Extension Agent and pick up some sample bags from them. Have them do the testing which is normally pretty cheap. Then each year you can do a general test with paper strips.

Maybe now you can amend the soil at the original spot with lots of compost and organic matter. So that you can plant there again in the future.

I will contact the ag agent and start working on the soil now

Dennie0813 said: ... I did dig up the roots and they were stunted so I moved it to a totally different location. ...

I'm always quick to suspect "bad drainage" because I have only gardened in clay soil.

Roots might be stunted because of some soil disease, but my "usual suspect" is poor drainage. If the soil around the roots was "heavy" and wet, poor drainage might have restricted the amount of air reaching the roots. Roots need to breath, even though they don't have lungs. Each heavy rain or watering could have choked off the few molecules of oxygen that WERE getting through the soil. Without air (oxygen), they drown, die and rot.

As the water drains or evaporates from the root zone, the plants just try to grow more roots in the same, flood-prone, location. A plant will put all its energy into trying to grow roots to some spot where they can get both water AND AIR. Eventually, the stunted plant are likely to die.

Totally moving the plant may have been the only option. But if there is a slope to work with, near the original spot, some trenching and deep amending may recover that spot for plants that need better drainage. Or, adding a raised bed will "elevate the root zone", hopefully enough that even the deepest roots don't drown every time there is a heavy rain.

But if the problem is NOT poor drainage, there's no need to dig up and move around a few cubic yards of clay.