Leaves turning yellow with brown spots

My pepper plants all came up nice until a few days ago I noticed the leaves are getting yellow and then start to have brown spots what could that be? Not all of them do have that but most of them.

I fertilized them just on the weekend and I noticed only one of them being more yellowish but now most of them look sick.
What could that be any kind of advise and help would be appreciated.

sounds like a to much fertilizer problem but that's just a guess. Can you post some pictures?

The leaves turning brown is very serious: that's necrosis, or dead tissue.

You might start thinking about replacement plants in case they never come back.

Here are my two guesses - only generic guesses, and the cures somewhat contradict each other.

1.
Too much fertilizer:

Stop adding any fertilizer. Seedlings need very very little fertilizer.

Consider flushing the pots until a good amount of water comes out the bottom *** IF *** the potting mix drains fast enough that water WILL run out the bottom and leave air spaces behind.

If the potting mix retains water and would be water-logged (almost airless) if you flushed the pots, don't flush.


2.
Too much water:

If the mix holds water and is fine-grained, the crucial air spaces would fill with capillary water and exclude air or prevent rapid air diffusion through the mix ... causing roots to drown and die.

Water them less each time, and less often. Place the pots on top of a towel or other fluffy absorbent cloth like flannel or many layers of Tee shirts. That will pull some water out of the pots. You can let one end of the towel drape down a foot or two, which will pull more water out of the pot.

If the plants were very high-value and you thought they were NOT almost dead, you might re-pot the plants into somewhat larger pots, with more open mix, and hope the water wicks out of the current root-ball and lets the existing roots breath.

This is just like helping a drowning person keep their head above the water line. Except your plant may already be past helping..

RickCorey,

do I have to worry about all my other plants? I did seed enough of that kind if they would die I still have some more. I just don't know if my other once can catch that.

Here are some pictures of my plants they did not turn out the best but it might help

>> I did seed enough of that kind if they would die I still have some more.

That's always smart! If they ALL germinate and none die, you can pick the best ones to keep, and kill or give away the rest.


>> I just don't know if my other once can catch that.

If the problem is either too-much-fertilizer or over-watering, sure. Just keep doing what you have been doing, and expect similar results.

I would be surprised if it was some kind of leaf pathogen that could infect other plants, but if someone with more experience says otherwise, I defer to them. It's a good idea to remove any plant part that LOOKS or MIGHT BE diseased. Throw them away or burn them, don't compost them or use them for mulch.

(I would only suspect plant disease if the pattern of spots looked more like they were spreading out from some kind of insect holes. If insects were spreading some kind of leaf disease, then maybe it would be more likely. But usually the "disease" that gets young seedlings is "damping off" (stem rot where the soil surface touches the baby stem).

The first thing for you to consider doing is to be sure of is that you [b]never fertilize really young seedlings[/b], and once they have a few pairs of real leaves, give them [b]at most 1/4 strength[/b] fertilizer, not very often. Twice per month?

In fact, you can even "never fertilize" seedlings until leaves start turning lime-green or even yellow-green in places. THEN give them one feeding of 1/4 strength, or maybe 1/2 strength if they are getting big enough to need a 3" or 4" pot.

I still have not learned how to [b]avoid over-watering[/b], so I use VERY fast-draining soilless mix, plus the bottom-watering pad method.

http://allthingsplants.com/ideas/view/RickCorey/646/Bottom-Watering-Seedling-Trays-with-Cotton-Flannel-Prevents-Water-Logging/

I add screened bark BBs and chips to commercial soilless potting mix to assure good drainage - well, really, what it assures is good AERATION. Others use very coarse Perlite to "open up" a fine-grained or peaty or water-retaining soilless mix.


Hmmm, you might test what is wrong with your current seedlings - sacrifice a few of the ones with browning spots (dead tissue = necrosis). Skip a few of your usual waterings for those dieing plants, then push them out of their cells and inspect the "root ball".

If the soil is still moist after skipping a few waterings, you should have been skipping that many waterings for all of them.

The photos look like the soil is fine and tightly packed, with a few chunks lying on top. If those chunks are mixed all through the soil, it might be well-aerated. I always find it difficult to take clear pictures of soil or soilless mixes.

If over-watering was the only problem, I would not expect to see a root BALL, more like a few straggly and rotting root THREADS. That's all that's left after anaerobic soil or hypoxia slows root growth and drowns then rots the young rootlets.

Hey, I hope I'm totally wrong and the problem is easily correctable.

If I am right, potting up a few plants a little early, and getting them into faster-draining better-aerated soilless mix would assure you of some plants that weren't struggling to survive.