Droopy pepper plants

[Southern Gardener]

They look great except they look sad at the end of the day. Too much sun? Not enough water or too much water?

 

[ducks4you]

Not enough water. That's what mine have done in the past when they were dry--droop, then perk up after the watering. Could you mulch around them?

 

[patandchickens]

If they are drooping in late afternoon, they are not able to take up as much water as they are transpiring.

If they have been in the ground for a long time, like a month or more, then it is possible they just need to be watered more. (or mulched)

But if they've been transplanted semi-recently it can easily be that their root system just has not taken hold enough to USe what water's available. In that case, the solution would involve giving them some afternoon shade, also perhaps a windbreak if it's been windy lately. You can set up a low "thing" of some sort, just to the W of each row, so that as the sun lowers they get shade. Then just wait for them to outgrow the problem.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Southern Gardener]

They've been in the ground for over a month and yup the do get a lot of sun in the afternoons so I'll start watering more. I started mulching last night and haven't made it to the peppers yet. Thank you!

 

[ducks4you]

I love it when Pat and I agree--it makes my feel like "professor's pet"!!
**ducks4you proudly shows thumb turning more green than brown**

 

[Southern Gardener]

 

[hoodat]

They've been in the ground for over a month and yup the do get a lot of sun in the afternoons so I'll start watering more. I started mulching last night and haven't made it to the peppers yet. Thank you!

Actually they look fine to me. Your sun is already getting hot. It's normal for them to droop a bit in late afternoon, so long as they look perky in the early morning. It's best to keep your soil moist but not soaked all the time and let the plants just do their thing. I had the same thing in Oklahoma in the late Summer.
Be sure you have plenty of calcium in the ground so you don't get blossom end rot. That's the biggest problem when they can't keep the water pumping to the leaves.
In Louisiana a garden without peppers is no garden at all. Almost every Louisiana recipe starts with the "holy trinity" of peppers, onions and celery.

 

[Southern Gardener]

They've been in the ground for over a month and yup the do get a lot of sun in the afternoons so I'll start watering more. I started mulching last night and haven't made it to the peppers yet. Thank you!

Actually they look fine to me. Your sun is already getting hot. It's normal for them to droop a bit in late afternoon, so long as they look perky in the early morning. It's best to keep your soil moist but not soaked all the time and let the plants just do their thing. I had the same thing in Oklahoma in the late Summer.
Be sure you have plenty of calcium in the ground so you don't get blossom end rot. That's the biggest problem when they can't keep the water pumping to the leaves.
In Louisiana a garden without peppers is no garden at all. Almost every Louisiana recipe starts with the "holy trinity" of peppers, onions and celery.

Hmm, not sure if I have plenty of calcium in the ground.
Almost every recipe? you mean every recipe

 

[hoodat]

Your soil down there is probably acid so you can add lime. A soil test kit will tell you how much. We have alkaline soil here so we use gypsum. They are both a slow acting type of calcium. Oyster shells are an organic source of it and egg shells provide some but slower than oyster shells. You can also buy bagged mineral mixes and they are always heavy on calcium. The important thing is to have it available to the plants at all times. It takes a while for the soil to turn it into useable form.

 

[Southern Gardener]

Your soil down there is probably acid so you can add lime. A soil test kit will tell you how much. We have alkaline soil here so we use gypsum. They are both a slow acting type of calcium. Oyster shells are an organic source of it and egg shells provide some but slower than oyster shells. You can also buy bagged mineral mixes and they are always heavy on calcium. The important thing is to have it available to the plants at all times. It takes a while for the soil to turn it into useable form.

I have a huge bag of oyster shells I give to the chickens. I'll put some on them tomorrow. I mulched and watered the peppers but they were still droopy when the shade finally came round - some did perk up, but most didn't. We haven't had a good rain in a couple of weeks and it's been very windy here.

So will the oyster shells help out my peppers NOW? :/