Habanero Leaves Cracking

[Dave2000]

Hi all.

I started several different kinds of hot peppers this spring, most of which are in same gardening soil (store bought), fertilized the same, same sun/water/rain/etc... sitting in pots next to each other.

My white habanero and red habanero peppers have strange cracks in the leaves. It does not look like insect damage and I have seen few if any insects around any of my plants (not flowering yet). None of my other peppers have them, not jalapenos, Kung Pao, Cayenne, Tabasco, Hungarian Waxed, Green Bell, etc.

I'm currently using mild 10/20/10 fertilizer with calcium added which the other plants seem to like fine. I've done very little (almost none) foliar feeding yet. Living near Cincinnati, OH we haven't had as much sun as I'd like but a fair amount recently. I don't water the leaves in direct sunlight and the leaves (as far as I know) look the proper shape and color except for these cracks.

I suppose a few pictures are worth a thousand words. These are young leaves and I haven't grown habaneros before so I'm not sure if the wrinkled texture is ok/normal or if it is a sign of something too. What can I do to stop this cracking and have happier plants?

 

[lesa]

Those leaves look fine- the "cracking" I would attribute to insect damage....

 

[Dave2000]

Thanks for your reply.

I am doubtful of insect damage because some (most) of the cracks don't have ANY of the leaf missing, in the pictures you can't see that the flap of leaf is folded back or fell off on the soil, and I see no insects, and there are over 20 other pepper plants of various types around them, none of which have any damage except the habaneros. And I have the red and white habaneros separated by several different peppers trying to prevent cross-pollination but both red and white have the cracks (no other peppers are c. chinense as far as I recall).

What kind of insect would be this discriminating and if I need to spray for bugs what would anyone suggest? Homebrew and/or human & animal safe spray would be nice if possible since the plants produce fruit and we have rabbits/deer/cats/etc around a lot due to our proximity to a wooded area.