calcium deficiency in pepper plants - habanero puckered, curling, bumpy leaves - solution

Shows the progression of calcium deficiency in hot pepper plants like the chocolate habanero. Planted from seed, the soil had enough calcium at first and when the plant ran out it started to put out deformed growth with twisted, curled and puckered leaves.
The solution was to add 10ml/gallon of botanicare's cal mag fertilizer supplement: http://www.botanicare.net/supplements/cal-mag In less than a week new leaves appeared without any deformities.
Note that the pepper plants were started from seed in bagged potting soil and in this video they are shown 2 days after transplanting to a coir fiber / rockwool cube mixture. Through out the life of the plants Genesis nutrients parts M & 1 were used at 800ppm but apparently genesis's formulation expects a certain level of calcium magnesium in it. For plants with a high cal mag requirement supplementation may be needed. Note also I could have bumped the fertilizer concentration up to 1600ppm rather than supplement with botanicare but I do not know if that would have worked as well. Note: if you are using a one part fertilizer you WILL have calcium deficiencies unless there is enough in the soil.

Wiki article on calcium deficiency: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_deficiency_%28plant_disorder%29

"...very rarely due to calcium deficiency in the soil. The problem is in transport of calcium from the soil to the fruit. Soil temperature, water saturation of the soil (oxygen etc), and high levels of nitrogen= high vegetative growth all contribute. " http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg0413031513506.html
Tricks for growing peppers: CALCIUM CALCIUM CALCIUM. The mild 800ppm genesis formula I was using only supplied 50ppm of calcium and peppers need 160-200ppm. Even with the supplement it was only 130PPM! Of course, this is assuming there is no calcium in your water. I am going to bump up the nutes to make sure I hit at least 160ppm calcium and also make sure I get the pH right by checking with pHydrion paper. (Ebay pH roll and pick one in the 5.5-8.0 range)
Note is this had happened during fruiting it would have resulted in blossom end rot so i am happy to find it out early and correct it.
Will post an update when the results come in!
Note calcium can also be locked out by using a fertilizer too high in ammoniacal nitrogen. ammoniacal nitrogen makes your plants grow fast in high light environments and is common in most nutrient formulas like miracle grow. Look for nitrate nitrogen only formula or one with low ammonium nitrate.
As far as NPK ratios, what you are looking for is 1.5 times as much K as N and for the nitrogen and calcium ppm to be about equal. To increase the potassium to meet the 1:1.5 N to K ratio I used Pro-Tekt silicon supplement which provided about 13ppm of K with 5ml/1tsp.
Forget about the P, as long as there is some it isn't important.
pH balance to 6.0-6.5 and you are all good. Add 10ml of hygrozyme if you really want to see explosive root growth.
Even after all of this if your starting water has a lot of calcium carbonate (the form found in Tums which is also not a form you plants can absorb) in it that will "lock out" the proper forms of calcium that you added via supplement. So if all else fails (or you want to get it right the first time) use rainwater or purified water to start with.
DO NOT USE TUMS! Its Calcium Carbonate is not bio-available to the plant will LOCK OUT the other forms of calcium that would otherwise be available. More info on Calcium: http://www.maximumyield.com/article_sh_db.php?articleID=447&yearVar=2009&...

Here is a link to a helpful article on pepper fertilization http://www.agnet.org/library/eb/441/

Update: they look GREAT but all my flowers are dropping except with the college pepper. I need to look into nute lockout and adjust the pH to 5.8-6.2 as I did have it closer to 5.5 before but I doubt that is the issue.

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[TheRastaRick]

Thanks for the tip :) the food i use is RITE GREEN CITRUS, AVOCADO & MANGO FERTILIZER 4-6-8 mixed with Ocean Forest soil & horse manure. I normally use it for my mango tree & it works phenomenal. I also use it on my spinach, peppers, cucumbers, basically all my vegetables & it seems to give me an abundance of healthy green food to my service. This fertilizer is bought at any walmart if you were wondering. But where do you get your hot pepper seeds from? You have an outstanding variety

[pabbananna]

@TheRastaRick

Mangos? I am so envious! As far as seeds go I'm not sure where I got them but probably at totallytomato (dot) com - my Chocolate Habanero Peppers are their item number 03047

That sounds like an awesome organic mix you have there - much easier (and healthier) to go the natural way. I hear great things about that Ocean Forest soil.

[TheRastaRick]

On that note, Peppers love nitrogen! People say dont add too much nitrogen to pepper plants, but I put loads of nitrogen food in my soil & my pepper plants yield so much fruit. Mine is barely a foot tall, just more bushier & has over 70+ peppers on it. The thing is this, nitrogen produces more leaves on a plant, but where do leaves grow from? They grow from branches, & peppers grow from branches. So that being said, the more leaves, the more branches. The more branches, the more peppers! Enjoy:)

[pabbananna]

@TheRastaRick Congrats on your fat plants and thanks for commenting! I just wanted to note to others that it is generally accepted (I haven't tested it) that excess nitrogen will delay/inhibit onset of fruits on pepper plants. Of course there are A LOT of other factors - not the least of which is the strain you are growing. My best tip is to mind the pH & air/water temperatures, use a well balanced 2 part fertilizer and if going soil-less - calculate calcium ppm in the solution.

[iammrproful]

erm ur plants like shit.. is true to me

[pabbananna]

@theitalian556 Thanks for the comment! and I agree bone meal would be a great insurance policy. personally im scared of it because of mad cow disease - the two were correlated in some outbreak as I recall. that and my substrate is mostly inert (the coco fiber does add nutrient buffering / absorbs some at the start / has a bit of sodium in it)

I think the takeaway from the video should be that peppers put most of the calcium into the fruit at the beginning of fruitset so be ready!

[theitalian556]

@pabbananna There is also bone meal but that takes a long time to work in. For the quickest results cal mag works best! Good video and explanation btw!

[pabbananna]

@tato312 i don't know about avocado but burnt leaf tips is often caused by over fertilization or too low of humidity. Get a cheap hydrometer and check it out. And don't use full strength nutrients. hope this helps

[tato312]

hello, I dont know alot about how many nutrients plants need, so heres my question:

I have a small avocado plant, maybe its like 4 inches tall, but the tip of the leaves are starting to dry out, they get brown and brittle. Is it caused by a lack of some nutrient?

thanks :)

[pabbananna]

@strangeluv23 Tums is Calcium Carbonate and that will not work. See below from the june 2009 issue of maximum yield:

"The most typical form of these minerals in your untreated water is calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate. Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, these forms are virtually unusable by plants, especially fast growing plants. The molecules of these compounds are far too large and immobile to be absorbed by the roots and transported to where the plant needs them. "