Bell Pepper Problems

Last year and this year I tried bell peppers from seed. Both years the results have been 4 inch stunted plants. I planted them inside under fluorescent lights in January. They germinated in 10 days. I kept them wiith my tomatoes. The tomatoes did well. The peppers just stopped growing. I transplanted them into 3 inch pots when they were about 3 weeks old. Soon after that they just seemed to stop growing. I moved them into my green house at the same time I moved the tomatoes. The tomatoes did okay, the peppers did not! Also something is eating holes in the leaves. I hate to use insecticide, is there an alternative. Everything else around the plants are not affected. What am I not doing, or what am I doing wrong?
HELP!

Jan
snails are probably eating your plants. are you keeping them warm enough? If they get too cold they may get stunted, also spider mites will stunt them badly.
Calalily

Calalily
Thanks for your suggestions. I'm not sure what warm enough is. But that may have happened. I seeded my tomatoes very early, and the peppers with them. I'll try seed more now that the weather is good and warm. One more question, how do I know if I have spider mites, and are they visible?
Jan

jan, I found some info and pictures for you that might be helpful. :)

Terri

Jan
the leaves, especially in the top look deformed and thickened. Sometimes they have lighter colored places on them. hold a piece of plain white paper under the plant and lightly flick the leaf. The mites are tiny, but can be seen on the white paper.
Calalily

I'm sorry, Jan! I must have been distracted by one of the kids when I made that post above. Obviously, I forgot to include the link/links to what I wanted to show you. Boy, what a dope I can be sometimes! LOL

Here's a place I like that has some pretty good info and pictures. They have some good pictures of pepper problems.
http://plant-disease.orst.edu/index.htm

I'll see if I can find the other site for you, too. :)

Terri

This message was edited Sunday, Apr 29th 10:56 AM

Here's a picture of spider mites and the damage they can do. The state of Virginia has a great site! :)

http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/ornamentals/spidermites.html

Terri

This message was edited Sunday, Apr 29th 11:05 AM

Here's more general spider mite info but it's not necessarily about the vegetable garden. It is interesting though. I sure did learn something from reading this. Just goes to show you that gardening teaches us something new just about every day. That's one of the things I love about it don't you? :)

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/Ornamentals_and_Turf/trees_contents/ort077e/ort077e.htm

Terri