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No Ferts for Now??

frjeff

frjeff

Well, everyone has gotten my head clear on when I shall be "potting up" my seedlings. Thus, I have some waiting before I move them into 3x3 pots and into the ProMix BX. They shall then remain there until garden transplant at end of May (zone 5b here).

I have Tomato Tone, some liquid plant food, bone meal and fish emulsion on hand. But, it is my understanding (from what I read here) that no fertilizer is necessary until I do the potting up (and even then a mild mix of Tomato Tone into the ProMix) and then maybe a mild fert every other week until garden plant.

There does not seem to be a solid consensus on this matter, but it appears most do not begin a "feeding" program until at least the potting up stage.

I like and admire the individuality of each grower and have been weighing every opinion. I am just so anxious to have pods this Summer and not wanting to mess it up.......................

Am I on track here in my above understanding and plan?

Again, my gratitude for your helping "grow" this noob! :confused:
 
I am not as aggressive as most, but my method has worked for me.

I use PHC seedling & houseplants 6-12-6 biofertilizer after my first pot up by means of bottom feeding until they go outside. Then I use "Pro-Gro Organic Fertilizer" until the flowering stage which I will use another fertilizer that takes them the rest of the way.

I have a sandy soil mix outside and I add lots of cow manure to build it up.

Like I said they're many here that crank it up a lot more than me.

Good luck!!
 
Tough call, since there are many variables in play: growing medium, light duration and intensity, temp highs and lows, moisture and humidity--and existing nutes in the medium you have now, even minor amounts. If you have all of those nailed, then a weak nute solution would likely spur some growth. Too much nutes if conditions don't warrant it could be bad, I think.

This noob tried a few different things in 3 waves of pepper starts--too many to make a scientific call. But I settled on the Botanicare line of products because they are low NPK, liquid, and thus easy to control percentages while bottom watering.(1/4 dose mentioned mentioned here a lot.) Pro-Grow and etc also have a yummy list of ingredients like fish meal, bird shit and kelp. I think it was AJ who caught my attention when he mentioned using nutes like that from first hooks.

Having said that, slow growth is not necessarily a bad thing. Most of my non-nuted plants have grown up to be viable plants--just took them a month longer. They were also grown in some crappy home-made soil. Who knows, maybe they will rule when it comes time this summer.

Enjoy the dilemma, try a few things and Good Luck.... :cool:
 
In my first year I had good results with the traditional standard ferts being mixed into water and then watering the plant, but as I did more and more research it was hard to ignore the facts of foiler feeding and the addition of worm tea. Now that's the only way I feed my plants. Feeding them this way not only ensures they intake the nutes 60% faster, but they actually intake more of what your giving them so a typical feeding is now 4-6-4 instead of 8-12-8.
 
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