No, not the Grim Reaper! After getting myself a Carolina Reaper plant from my local gardening store late last year, I've been watering, feeding and waiting for it to grow me a chilli.
At the beginning of this year something attacked it, and was sucking the life out of it, one leaf and stem at a time. It looked like this:
Underneath most of the leaves was a white fungus-like substance, with what appeared to be little green bugs.
So, I sat one day with a cotton tip swab and soapy water, and cleaned every leaf and stem, making sure none of the bad bugs were still there.
Two months on, amd my tree has thrived from being a stick with a few leaves, to this:
Some of the flowers are still falling off here and there, and Ive been keeping an eye on them to see if any of them will grow into a chilli.
On Sunday, after cutting the gras, I was sitting on the lawn and turned to look at the chilli bush, and there it was! The first chilli is growing!
It's ugly and beautiful at the same time! I'm looking forward o seeing it turn bright red and ready to harvest.
Notnsure I'm brave enough tonhave a taste though!
Have a great day.... and I'll be seeing you on Hive soon!
I love a jalapeno. Tried to grow jabanero's, but couldn't keep them alive.
You can keep your reapers though; that's some crispy, juicy agony right there.
J is working from home as of today and he reckons it looks like it might be pretty warm XD
He also declared the bugs to be aphids when I read your description if that helps.
Enjoy your chilli :D
It had meliebugs, a form of sap sucker, but you did a good job getting rid of them
Yeah, I eventually figured out what they were. Soapy water worked really well, and a lot cheaper than buying some horrible chemical spray too.