Pepper plant dropped all its leaves

honu · June 20, 2006

Is this something that peppers do occasionally after fruiting, or is something wrong?
My serrano in a 4 gal pot produced a nice steady crop for many months, then the leaves started falling off, peppers shrank in size and quantity, till one day, the plant went totally bald.
I procrastinated on pulling it, kept it hooked up to the drippers, then one day I saw some tiny leaf buds, so added some slow release fert, and all the leaves popped back out, and it looks fine now and even starting to flower again. Now my Red Fatalii has gone bald after producing it's first crop, but the stems are still green and I see little bumpy buds, so I'm hoping that will come back as well. I've never seen this happen before, and wish to know what's going on. Both events occurred during sunny weather in the mid to upper 80s. Has this happened to anyone else?

SelfSufficient1 · June 30, 2006

Mine did this last year only mine were in the ground and we had a very, very wet spring so I felt it was from being too wet all the time. Later on as we dried up some they got their leaves back.

honu · July 1, 2006

Thanks for the feedback. Strangely, they survived all our heavy rains in Feb-March, but pooped out in May and June when the weather was hot and dry. Maybe a delayed reaction? In any case, looks like 2 plants came back from the dead, but 2 (including the fatalii

) look like they are not coming back.

June 20, 2006	#1
honu Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Hawaii Posts: 270	Pepper plant dropped all its leaves Is this something that peppers do occasionally after fruiting, or is something wrong? My serrano in a 4 gal pot produced a nice steady crop for many months, then the leaves started falling off, peppers shrank in size and quantity, till one day, the plant went totally bald. I procrastinated on pulling it, kept it hooked up to the drippers, then one day I saw some tiny leaf buds, so added some slow release fert, and all the leaves popped back out, and it looks fine now and even starting to flower again. Now my Red Fatalii has gone bald after producing it's first crop, but the stems are still green and I see little bumpy buds, so I'm hoping that will come back as well. I've never seen this happen before, and wish to know what's going on. Both events occurred during sunny weather in the mid to upper 80s. Has this happened to anyone else?

June 30, 2006	#2
SelfSufficient1 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 188	Mine did this last year only mine were in the ground and we had a very, very wet spring so I felt it was from being too wet all the time. Later on as we dried up some they got their leaves back. __________________ I could spend all day here!

July 1, 2006	#3
honu Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Hawaii Posts: 270	Thanks for the feedback. Strangely, they survived all our heavy rains in Feb-March, but pooped out in May and June when the weather was hot and dry. Maybe a delayed reaction? In any case, looks like 2 plants came back from the dead, but 2 (including the fatalii ) look like they are not coming back.