THE LEAF CURLER

January 01, 2021

The pepper plant, planted in a cement pot (inside 12” X 10”) covered with ½” wire mesh, received over four hours of direct sunlight daily. With just water, sunlight, soil, and compost, the plant grew well. The problems began with the removal of the mesh. The seeds of one of the fruits were planted.

However, this time a raised bed was prepared for planting pepper plants, instead of the cement pots, to improve drainage of water. I noticed the pepper plants were growing well in the raised bed. I did not use a mesh this time to cover my plants.

CURLED UP

Initially, the plant had one fruit. When the problems began to appear, the plant’s height was just over one foot. It looked as if the plant was not healthy. The fruit of this plant was removed after it was ripe, and seeds were planted. Banana pepper leaves curled up. There were some yellow spots on some leaves. The plant was not growing, and no fruits. Some leaves turned yellow and fell off. Leaves that looked unhealthy were cut and removed. After days of heavy rainfalls, the plant had new leaves, and a few flowers appeared. It seemed that the problem was with the lack of water. However, leaves started to curl up during low or no rainy days.

TROUBLESHOOTING

I was wondering what went wrong with my banana pepper plant.

"Troubleshooting" is not an unfamiliar thing for me. I began to troubleshoot the plant by myself.

I carefully inspected the leaves’ top and under, but I could not find any suspect during the day. One day, around 8 PM, at night, I observed an insect on a banana pepper leaf, brown in color, looks like an ant from the top. Also, around 9 AM, in the morning, on the following day, I observed the insect on the same leaf.

It measures about 2 millimeters across its body.

The images were captured as it was found happening in nature, and not enhanced using software. Images may be subject to copyright.

WHAT’S NEXT

Let's see in the next article, whether my plants’ health will improve if I get rid of this insect.