Sad chile de arbol newly moved to a Mexican rooftop garden needs your help

Hi all,

I haven't been on the forums for a bit, but I'm very pleased to say that folks in my building are starting a rooftop garden in central Mexico. Yay!

I'll be providing pics of the project elsewhere on the forums, to give back a little bit!

Till then, since I'm not an experienced gardener, I'll be asking for help here and there.

Our conditions for the rooftop garden: mostly sunny all day with a few cloudy days here and there. Temps in January range from about 34-40 at night to 65-75 F during the day. It rarely freezes here.

I've inherited the care of the sad little chile tree in the attached pics. Something is clearly at it, but I don't see signs of crawlies.

It was in a courtyard with scarcely any sun up till a few days ago. I've moved it to the rooftop, where there is full sun.

The soil is damp, so I have not watered it at all. I put a few beads of organic fertilizer in the soil, and sprayed a solution of diatomaceous earth / neem oil on the leaves this morning.

Thoughts / suggestions appreciated. Thanks!

Amy

it might perk up after some time in the sun and regular watering. The damage looks pretty random and varied-- I'd cut off that one fruit, give it some TLC (not too much though, since peppers seem to like it on the hot and dry side) and see what happens. My weather is similar to yours (rarely frost, but probably significantly wetter) and only the hottest peppers actually live as perennials, the rest all seem to somehow give up the ghost after the season is over for one rason or another. So I tend not to get too attached. You could conceivably start seeds from the pepper on the plant, and grow a replacement!

Hi Amy. I'l second Tereza's advice. Be patient, as chiles do their growing in the summer and autumn, since that is when you're more likely to get rain in Mexico. They pretty much go dormant in winter. Don't water it too much right now and let it rest until the days get longer. When the monsoon arrives you can expect to see it put on a flush of activity, just like its cousins in the barrancas.