We regularly get questions from people, especially toward the end of summer, about problems with their pepper plants. A common cause is that people forget how important proper fertilization is for a fruit-bearing plant such as the pepper plant. Fortunately, you can use excellent general plant food for this purpose, which is available in many stores.

Nutrients and deficiencies in chile plants

On the English-language site, worldofchillies, you'll find a nice infographic explaining the well-known deficiency symptoms you can see in peppers. We made a Dutch translation of this, so you can find out what's going on if your pepper plants don't look so healthy. And if things really don't work out and your plants give up, you can always order your much-needed portion of peppers through our web shop.

• Iron deficiency: The new leaves have parts of yellow & white between the veins it can spread all over the leaf.
• Lime deficiency: Deformed new leaves and heads, curled, crumpled. The old leaves remain unaffected.
• Nitrogen deficiency: The old leaves first turn yellow, then more and more leaves turn yellow from the stem to the tip of the leaf.
• Potassium deficiency: The leaf edges of especially the young leaves turn yellow, the yellow and dead spots may later become holes in the leaves.
• Magnesium deficiency: Old leaves turn yellow from tip to stem, veins remain green.
• Manganese deficiency: Old leaves show yellow spots and gaps form between the veins.
• Phosphorus deficiency: Old leaves turn dark green purple, it spreads through the plant if not noticed.