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Why Are My Pepper Plant Leaves Turning Yellow – 6 Reasons

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Home gardeners enjoy planting pepper plants.

Some enjoy sweet peppers, others want chili peppers, and a particular group prefers bell peppers.

Growing your own pepper plants can be cost-effective and also can be therapeutic.

However, seeing your plant leaves turn yellow can turn your world upside down. Seeing something which you’ve put so much effort in turn bad can be a frustrating experience.

There are a lot of factors that can lead to leaves turning yellow; some of them are discussed in this article.

If you’re wondering,” Why are my pepper plant leaves turning yellow?” This article will have all the answers for you.

Why Are My Pepper Plant Leaves Turning Yellow
Why Are My Pepper Plant Leaves Turning Yellow – via Reddit

Reasons Why Pepper Plant Leaves Turn Yellow

Lack Of Water and Nutrients

The most common reason for leaves turning yellow is a shortage of watering or a lack of nutrients available for the plant. When this happens, the pepper plant becomes stunned, and all the flowers or fruit in the plant will drop.

You can increase the water you give to the plant or can alter the time of the day you water it.

Another thing that you can do is use a more balanced fertilizer for your plant. This will give it balanced nutrients, which can improve the health of your plant.

One important nutrient your pepper plant needs is nitrogen. It is very important for the growth of vegetative plants. It strengthens the leaves of the plant and improves its overall life of it.

If your plant doesn’t get enough nitrogen, there will be a lot of apparent weaknesses in your plant. One of them will be the yellowing of leaves.

To find out if your plant needs more nitrogen, just look at the lowest leaves of your plant. If the lower plants are yellowing, that means your plant probably needs a little more nitrogen.

You can use a better fertilizer to improve the nitrogen concentration of your plant.

Diseases Which Can Cause Yellowing Of Leaves

Another factor that can cause the yellowing of your plant’s leaves is a disease. Some diseases which can cause your leaves to turn yellow are phytophthora blight, wilt and bacterial leaf spot.

These diseases have a lot of effects on the leaves of the plant. In some cases, they will cause brown leaf spots, and in other cases, you will have wilted leaves on the plant.

Most diseases that affect a pepper plant are usually untraceable. It is very sad, but you have to discard your plant if it gets sick. If you don’t discard it, you won’t be able to grow nightshade vegetables in that location for almost a year.

If your plant gets sick, you can try consulting a professional in the final hopes of saving it. Otherwise, you will have to discard it to save all the other plants growing in that area.

Pests

In some cases, the yellowing of pepper plant leaves is caused by pests. Some pests like psyllids, aphids and mites can infest your plant and suck all of the nutrients out of it.

Pests also pray on the water provided to the plant. This will leave it dehydrated and in need of more water. Pests are overall detrimental to the plant’s health, and you should make every effort to keep them as far away from your plant as possible.

You can treat the plants with insecticides and pesticides to keep these pests away from them. One good option to treat pests is using neem oil. This is a good choice because it does not affect people and only kills all the harmful pests.

Why Are My Pepper Plant Leaves Turning Yellow
Jalapeño pepper plant leaves turning yellow – via Reddit

Over-watering Your Plant

Just like under-watering, over-watering can also prove to be a menace to your gardening dreams.

You have to find the correct mix of watering your plant; otherwise, the question “Why are my pepper plant leaves turning yellow?” will persist for a long time.

One tip is to water the plant just enough to keep the soil moist. Make sure that the soil of your plant is not soaking wet. You have to make sure that the pot in which your plant is has good drainage.

If you have poor drainage, your plants won’t be able to access oxygen which will lead to many different problems. Bad drainage can cause lesser productivity and smaller plants.

You can shop for a soil meter online to judge the moisture of your soil. It gives you an accurate measure with which you can judge the amount of water in your soil.

Cold Weather

Another reason why your leaves can turn yellow is very cold weather. Pepper plants are made for relatively hotter climates. Your plants will be stressed out if they are exposed to cold weather.

This usually happens as the growing season is coming to an end. If the temperature at night drops to anything below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the leaves start turning yellow and begin to fall off.

Make sure that you keep your plant within a controlled temperature range because if the temperature drops to anything lower than 32 degrees, it will most likely kill the pepper plant.

A Shortage of Magnesium

Magnesium is another nutrient that is essential for pepper plants. Just like nitrogen, a lack of magnesium will start turning the leaves of the plant yellow.

This condition is known as Chlorosis. It is one of the ways you can tell that the plant is low on magnesium.


Conclusion

Watching the plant in which you invested so much effort turn yellow is a very disheartening feeling.

When your leaves start turning yellow, you can consider changing your fertilizer or even the watering routine of your plant.

I hope this article sheds some light on your issue and that your question of “Why are my pepper plant leaves turning yellow?” is answered.