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More than 3 months old and only 4- 6''

yesh

yesh

I planted 3 varieties of peppers(habanero.cayenne and poblano) in March inside and they seem healthy and happy but they just dont grow!!!
They seem to have stayed at an average 4 to 6 inches in height since weeks.I transplanted them outside after all danger of frost and have given them fish emulsion but they decided to stop growing.Here in Canada we can have frosts in september and I am worried that these chilies will not
make it till fruit time.Strangelly 1 cayenne flowered 2 weeks ago but it was the only one and it was only about 6 '' tall !
Have others here ended up with dwarf plants like me?
 
Sun exposure? Drainage? Soil type and ph?

Compost from a dairy station where the cows are fed on a slab?
I find that some of the 'composted cow manure comes from milk 'factories' in our area!
The cows don't graze. they stay on a concrete slab and feed is brought to them.
Harvested crops, all the latest in chemicals, herbicides, antibiotics and steroids for maximum milk production.
Then all their poop is collected from the concrete, straw added and 'composted' (concentrating the chemical soup)
and sold to us as 'compost'!
 
Pictures might help.

Several things will stunt them. While growing inside they may have had far too little light or it was not warm enough. On the other hand if you give them lots of light they will have short thick stems and get bushy which is ideal for surviving wind outside.

For them to really take off they need lots of light and temperatures over 80F, as well as fairly warm nights. I'm afraid you won't do very well with the Habaneros in Canada (may get little fruit and it'll take forever to ripen) and will have stunted Cayennes and Poblanos.

Personally if I were you, I would pick the blooms off right now because by sacrificing the first few peppers your plant may easily grow over twice as fast by using energy for that instead of growing fruit, and you could end up with a lot more peppers by the end of the season due to a larger plant.

On the other hand, overwatering or overly compacted soil can also cause problems. We don't have a reference point as to whether they are slower this year than in past years or if this is the first time you've had pepper plants this age at this time of year in Canada.
 
Well I have spent the last half hour trying to figure out how to post a photo here but with no luck. Anyhow, SanPatricio: I agree very much with you, I bought for my plants an organic sea compost with algae.
It is my very first year growing chilies. after reading your post Dave2000 I am realizing what my problem may be.I think it is my soil which is too compact in the garden. I planted almost 30 hot chilies in the ground which tends to harden and get compact(maybe to much clay) and my last 3 plants which had no space in the garden were planted in big pots and they are doing great. Now, that I am realizing that it's maybe not the right place for them in the garden, I think I am going to dig them out and plant them in big containers that way I could set the containers in the green house if ever it gets cold at night.
I did not know habaneros were so slow to grow.Well maybe after I transfer them to containers for them to grow the rest of the summer I could bring them in the house in september to continue to grow. I am jealous of all you guys which can grow hot chilies without fearing cold weather returning so quickly.
Thanks for the responses!
 
Upload your pics to Photobucket.com. Then just copy the img code and paste. Its gonna be really hard to give any advice without pics.
 
As jam said photobucket or the likes of it works like a charm. Facebookw works well too but is more complicated.

As for habs, they can be a bitch to grow and even in ideal conditions stagnate growth and then suddenly pop for no real good reason. Get your photobucket on and share the pics and what your soil, light, temp, fert and water conditions and frequency are.
 
This same thing happens to me from time to time. I think it really comes down to trying to grow peppers in a climate they are non-native to. I'm too stubborn to let the stunted plants die, so i just keep them watered and bring them inside for the winter. You can't change your climate but you can bring them indoors and give them a significant head start on next season.

I had a butch T that wouldn't grow for me last season that I kept alive all winter and now its over 3 feet tall. No pods yet but my fingers are crossed.
 
I'm sure people are getting tired of me preaching about Tea by now, but that's something you can give to small plants and it wont burn them.
Also Kelp has growth hormones in it. I just started playing with home made kelp ferts and I have a few NuMex that grew so fast that they cant hold them self's up lol.
BRB ill get a pic cause it is sorta funny.

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They seem to be growing out of it but you can see what I am talking about.
 
I have about 30 plants in my garden and most of them are getting to be big bushes, but 3 of them are still 6" seedling looking plants. I have no idea what the deal is, and I am just letting them all do their thing. I don't know why mine are doing this either, but I am too busy these days to try and intervene. So, anyhow, long story short I too am having this problem.
 
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[font="Times New Roman""]YAY ,now I know how to post pictures!!! SO :[/font]


[font="Times New Roman""]#1[/font][font="Times New Roman""] : is my cayenne. These are the ones that are the tallest compared to the other varieties.
[font="Times New Roman""]#2: is one of my Poblano plants[/font][/font]
[font="Times New Roman""][font="Times New Roman""]#3 : is one of my Habanero plants, as you see ,compared to my hand it is so small.[/font][/font]

[font="Times New Roman""][font="Times New Roman""][font="Times New Roman""]#4 : Are the only chilies I planted in pots and there is one of each(Habanero,Poblano,and Cayenne). They seem soooo much healthier than the ones planted in the ground. It seems strange cause I transplanted these even later than the ones in the ground.I urgently planted them in big pots since I had no space in the garden and this is several days after having planted the ones in the ground (which are set in 2 different gardens on my property. They for sure seem to like the pots and this is why I think I should dig out the others and do the same dont you think? [/font][/font][/font]
 
Clearly you need to dig up those plants and put them in a container with some good soil. One of the first things I learned a few years back is the most important thing for growing chilis is good soil. My first year I had 100+ plants in a raised bed and only got about half the yield as I do now with just 20 plants in containers.
 
LGHT said:
Clearly you need to dig up those plants and put them in a container with some good soil. One of the first things I learned a few years back is the most important thing for growing chilis is good soil. My first year I had 100+ plants in a raised bed and only got about half the yield as I do now with just 20 plants in containers.
Click to expand...

amen to that brother


here is a soil thread i started and some of the answers.. the mix at the end they guy took pictures of is working great for me.

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/31724-ive-soiled-myself/
 
One thing I am noticing in the pics is that it isn't sunny. When I have overcast days the peppers do nothing, then with a few hot sunny days they reach for the sky. It's even worse for my okra.

Your habanero is short but it has a really nice shape. I'd guess it is expending a lot of energy growing a good root system without the limits of a pot, but that ultimately it will do best wherever it gets the most sun.

Please forgive if I overlooked it but are you fertilizing them? In the ground you need to use a lot more fertilizer unless you worked the soil for a few seasons with organic matter that's been composting.
 
I live in Ohio and am having similar problems. I believe the soil is too compact and might not be letting the roots grow. My potted plants with loose sandy soils I bought are doing great. My question is, what is the easiest way to break up clay garden soil in the ground? I guess Ill have to dig all my plants up and till in sand/perlite? I really don't want to pot anymore since they take up enough room already.
 
^ My garden soil is about the same. Till or shovel to break up the ground in a larger area than you need to get the plant started and mix in organic matter. Aged compost, coffee grounds, peat moss, sawdust (non-treated wood only), leaves, grass clippings (sparingly), etc. The key thing is that the plant starts growing roots that keep the soil loose before it re-compacts, meaning you may have better results if you keep plants in pots longer rather than transferring directly from something smaller than a 12 oz cup into the ground, so they are big enough to stretch the roots out before there's as much watering or rain (or just add even more organic matter).

You can also throw down some mulch with the idea that it may not help the soil this year but in the long term it's going to turn into topsoil.
 
Great advice,I am going to add some stuff to the ground after the harvest in fall when my garden is empty.I did get a lot of compost in the ground but I do need to add peat moss,grass...etc for a better garden in the years to come. I get about 9 hours of sunlight, not sure if that is enough but I do give my plants a dose of diluted fish emulsion. The bottle says to feed them every week but I read somewhere on the internet that they should be given fish emulsion every 2 weeks, so I decided to do in between and feed them every 10 days.
I have just bought 5 jalapeño peppers for 1$ each and they are soooo huge and healthy looking ,they have tons of flowers ! It is sad that the ones I planted myself from seed are not as nice as the bought ones but at the same time I tell myself that mine at least are organic and were not boosted with chemical crap.
 
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]My question is, what is the easiest way to break up clay garden soil in the ground? I guess Ill have to dig all my plants up and till in sand/perlite?[/background]
Click to expand...

Don't add sand. Sand+clay = concrete.
Clay is a fantastic base soil. Just drop 3-4 inches of quality mulch on top and wait a year. If the soil is severely compacted, you can break it up with a garden fork first. No need to till in the mulch, rain, worms, etc will do all the work for you.
 
^ depends on how much clay is in the soil. Around here, rain and worms don't mix it together much, at most there's an inch of penetration, maybe as much as two inches after several years of mulching but not tilling it in.
 
Not sure where in Canada u are but this is one real weird year for me. Some are busting at the seams but small while others are doing jack?
Ask around even non pepper growers and u may hear the same. This year is odd!
 
I am 3 hours north of Montreal. We have had crazy weather.At the end of march it went up to 30 degrees celcius and the begining of june the ground froze one night !
I planted my chilies a few days after the frost. The ground was warm cause we did have several very hot days .
 
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