Help! Whats happening to my chilli plant.

Hi,

I have this chilli plant that was growing very well, its got a strong stem, growing upright with lots of leaves but suddenly I noticed some of the top leaves getting cupped and crinkled and some tiny microscopic brown things moving under the leaves.

I give my plant a good spray bath and rubbed neem oil on the underside of all leaves. Today I noticed, the underside of almost all big leaves continues to turn brown. And there are these brown things on the stem joints too. Any idea what this is and what is bothering it? Its growing pretty fast (lots of new leaf growth) but why are the old leaves getting brown from underneath? And some new leaves appear crinkly (will know better when they have grown)

I've been unsuccessful in growing chillies up until now. I had to throw off many plants last year because of spider mites and this year, the first time a chilli plant has grown so big but it has started getting these damages.

Please help.

The pot looks kind of small...but that doesn't have anything to do with your original question. From what you describe and the pics my guess would be Aphids or Spider Mites. You may need to apply multiple applications of Neem Oil before you notice results.

Thanks!

You're welcome. I wish others would reply bc I could be wrong....but that's my experience.

Actually I don't see any aphids but it may be mites, I had this problem last year too. I've never been successful in growing chillies, this year my luck with tomatoes has also been bad. None of the plants fruited because of a heat stress. I just murdered 3 tomato plants today, they had become all light green leaves that were housing whiteflies.

I suspect this chilli plant is going next because a little bit of web surfing has taught me that this condition may be bacterial spot which is common with chillies and not really curable. It may be mites, even though that is curable, I doubt it will recover this time because the brown spots seem quite intense on all the older leaves. I have been spraying neem oil and insecticidal spray, hoping the new growth looks better so I don't have to kill one more. :-( . Right now every leaf seems to be affected by these brown spots except for the new growth which seems crinkled.

Just thought I might put it here once before deciding to kill the plant, just in case there is a chance to save it.

Crinkled new growth can be from being pot bound. Pot is too small.

I think I'm getting the brown "microscopic moving" things confused with the brown spots. If its moving it has to be an insect or mite. I think we have all killed more plants then we care to admit. : )