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When to stop giving nitrogen?

obeychase

obeychase



Ever since feeding my plants with fish emulsion 5-1-1, they have taken off. I know that if you feed with nitrogen too often, you will get big beautiful plants with no fruit or flowers. When should I stop feeding with the fish?

Also, what nutrient promotes flowering? Which promotes root growth? Thanks.
 
never stop feeding nitrogen, peppers are always growing.
 
just decrease the amount of high nitrogen and supplement some higher p and k and ca and mg
 
bone meal, dolomite lime, epsom salt
 
or just get a fertilizer that has it all like chem gro hobby, dyngagro grow, osmocote vegetable, etc
 
I have to agree with juanitos. Your plant will always grow and will need to replace damaged foliage, so is in permanent need of some nitrogen. What people tend to do wrong is to go with a very high nitrogen feed (usually liquid universal plant feed meant for indoor plants or with high nitrogen fertilized potting mix) that doesn't contain much phosperus and potassium. You need that for flowering and fruit production. Nothing wrong with a big bushy plant, just make sure it also gets the other nutes. Big bushy plants can carry tons of pods!
 
So if you have the wrong ratio you'll indeed end up with a lot of flower drop, barely any pods.. and a huge bushy plant.
 
Pfeffer said:
I have to agree with juanitos. Your plant will always grow and will need to replace damaged foliage, so is in permanent need of some nitrogen. What people tend to do wrong is to go with a very high nitrogen feed (usually liquid universal plant feed meant for indoor plants or with high nitrogen fertilized potting mix) that doesn't contain much phosperus and potassium. You need that for flowering and fruit production. Nothing wrong with a big bushy plant, just make sure it also gets the other nutes. Big bushy plants can carry tons of pods!
 
So if you have the wrong ratio you'll indeed end up with a lot of flower drop, barely any pods.. and a huge bushy plant.
Click to expand...
 
So what should I feed my plants in another month or so? I currently have 2 tsp of fish mixed with 1 gallon of water. I water each plant with about 2 cups of fish mix every couple days. I also have some organic fertilizer powder mixed in the soil. This fertilizer is sold at my local ACE Hardware Store and is called "Mike's Organic Fertilizer", it's a 5-7-3 mix containing bloodmeal, composted chicken manure, etc. etc.
 
My questions are:
 
  1. What should I start feeding my plants in about another month or so?
  2. What element promotes root growth?
  3. What element promotes flowering and fruiting?
  4. Is this OK to feed my seedlings? (I have been doing so and they seem to like it)
I understand that seedlings don't require ferts because of their cotyledon leaves, but I fertilize anyway.
 
Mycorrhizal fungi promote roots. For floweing time, check out any liquid fertilizer that has an NPK ratio that is slightly higher in the P and K than the N and feed with that in a few months. I prefer the combination of Botanicare Pro Bloom and Cal-Mag Plus, but everyone has their own preference.
 
It's not as simple as this element means this this one means this. Plant uses them all in conjunction.

Feed whenever u want just start with a lower dose up to a normal dose over a few waterings
 
Thanks for the input guys. Does anyone use, or has had experience with cactus potting soil? That's what I have my peppers transplanted in. The drainage is unbelievable. The sand works instead of the perlite
 
I believe cactus potting mix has no or very minimal nutes in it... So you will need to transplant them into something else or feed them more than usual.
P is thought of as the root nute but I agree plants need a combination of them all to grow properly
 
Well sand is great for water drainage but when the weather gets hot, if there in pots in direct sun sand also holds heat and you can find your soil drying out real quick .. I used to use a mix that had 20% sand but it just couldn't hold moisture .. Roots grew like crazy and plants did we'll but my local weather made a sandy mix a bad idea.

But I know people who use it in their mixes..
 
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