I’ve recently planted some chili plants, and after a week, I noticed that the leaves were yellowing. After running through all the possibilities, I found that the soil stays super wet even in summer in the full sun.

​Does anyone know why this is happening?

And how can I fix it?

Thanks for any help!

  • fireweed@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    10 days ago

    How often are you watering? Is it by hand or irrigation system? Is there runoff, e.g. from a nearby lawn? If the issue is your soil drains poorly, you might be able to condition it by breaking up any compact soil and amending it with organic matter (and maybe sand). However this is fairly labor intensive and takes time to do properly (and might not fix the issue, depending on the cause). Building raised beds might be a faster and more effective solution.

    Peppers have a fairly small root ball, so you could always grow them in grow bags (I’d recommend one 10 gallon bag per plant); it’s nearly impossible to over-water grow bags (but on the flip side, it’s very easy to under-water them!) Plus growing them in bags makes it super easy to overwinter them, assuming you have access to a garage/basement.