Last week I came back form work and found that virtually all of my chilli plants leaves were drooping. This can’t have been due to lack of light as the weather has been gloriously sunny recently.
Potential Causes of Drooping Leaves
1. Excess heat
The plants have been spending their days in a conservatory and with the very warm weather recently it was getting very hot in their during the day. Despite the high temperatures they had been well watered and the soil hadn’t dried out so I have ruled out lack of water. The shock of the high temperatures however may be a factor.
2. Re-potting
Quite often drooping leaves can be caused by the shock of re-potting. I re potted all of my plants just before this started to happen which probably explains their current drooping. When re-potting always try to minimize handling and damaging the roots.
3. Lack of nutrients
This can be an issue, particularly when the plants start flowering and fruiting. In such cases you can add a little tomato feed to their diet which should help give the plants the boost they need (I usually dilute it down to about half strength).
Curing Leaf Droop
Quite often the best plan is to simply let the chilli plants get used to their new environment. It is best to try to minimize any further stress to the plants. To do this move them to a warn, shady place out of direct sunlight.
Another suggestion I got from one of our twitter followers was to mist the plants with water. I’ve found this seems to have helped them recover too, though the problem is still persisting to some extent.