liquid fert application ish questions

sirhc76 · Jul 9, 2014

Multi part total noob questions here and I did search/read through posts before asking. Using Fox farm grow big and the directions state, for normal use 2-3 teaspoons per gallon every other watering or 4 teaspoons for heavy. I have 12 plants and basically divide the gallon between those 12, is this the correct way or should I be using more fertilizer/water per plant? Application method thus far has been, water plants until soil is damp then dose fert/water mix.

I also read that people stop dosing ferts when plants start to flower? I'm assuming my plants are a little small this far into the season due to the thrip issues I had early on. I potted up several times and they were never root bound, from 2in-4in-6in-1gal then 15gal from mid April to mid June. I'd prefer they grow larger but I haven't been pinching off flowers, should I be concerned about dosing ferts since they are blooming or just try to get them to grow? I just started dosing after they had been in the 15s for two weeks followed by a foliar compost tea application the next week. Pics below to address size and flowering questions and the reason my plants are off the ground.

I keep asking myself if I should have just bought peppers vs. plants but I know it will be worth it. Hopefully I can overwinter these in my sun room and get a better start next year.

Thanks again for your time,

Jamison · Jul 9, 2014

If I were you I wouldn't be using grow big. That's intended for early growth while plants are not setting blooms. Id be using strictly Big Bloom at this point. Measurements are on the bottle or jug. I use 4tbls per gallon which is a heavy feeding and only water in between feedings.

juanitos · Jul 9, 2014

there is no bloom / grow cycle in peppers, it is perpetual. They need nutrients to grow(they are always growing). I would not stop fertilizing ever.(unless you are making them go dormant for overwinter)

I give the plants about half gallon every 2 days, and use a half dose of fertilizer in every watering(called maintenance dose sometimes). I do this because my soil has about 0 nutrients and i'm more like running a hydro setup.

Soil: Does you soil have compost / nutrients already in it? Does it drain well or is waterlogged at the bottom?(stick your hand in it)

Water: I think you should probably water more than what you are doing. You should water until you see some starting to come out of the drainage holes, that means you watered all the soil. Then let it dry out and repeat.

Nutrients: You don't need to switch from that formula to a high phosphorus formula, plants absorb best a 3-1-2 rate. SOURCE READ ME

Transplant shock / new containers: Every time your transplant to a new container the plants take a while to get used to it(a couple weeks sometimes). They will start growing roots in different directions and be able to gather more of the nutrients / water in the soil once they spread out more.

sirhc76 · Jul 9, 2014

Jamison said:
If I were you I wouldn't be using grow big. That's intended for early growth while plants are not setting blooms. Id be using strictly Big Bloom at this point. Measurements are on the bottle or jug. I use 4tbls per gallon which is a heavy feeding and only water in between feedings.

Thanks, for the reply. Do I want to promote blooms/fruit with the plants being so small or am I already past that growth phase? In regard to the recommended dosage I've been doing the 2-3 tsp per gallon but is that gallon intended to be split between 1,3, 5 or 50 plants? Sorry I may be over complicating this, tend to do that, so I want to confirm.

Thanks,

OKGrowin said:
there is no bloom / grow cycle in peppers, it is perpetual. They need nutrients to grow(they are always growing). I would not stop fertilizing ever.(unless you are making them go dormant for overwinter)

I give the plants about half gallon every 2 days, and use a half dose of fertilizer in every watering(called maintenance dose sometimes). I do this because my soil has about 0 nutrients and i'm more like running a hydro setup.

Soil: Does you soil have compost / nutrients already in it? Does it drain well or is waterlogged at the bottom?(stick your hand in it)

Water: I think you should probably water more than what you are doing. You should water until you see some starting to come out of the drainage holes, that means you watered all the soil. Then let it dry out and repeat.

Nutrients: You don't need to switch from that formula to a high phosphorus formula, plants absorb best a 3-1-2 rate. SOURCE READ ME

Transplant shock / new containers: Every time your transplant to a new container the plants take a while to get used to it(a couple weeks sometimes). They will start growing roots in different directions and be able to gather more of the nutrients / water in the soil once they spread out more.

I watered these in well after the initial transplant which was 2 weeks ago. I do water until I see it start to trickle out the drain holes, normal process. When I add ferts I make sure the soil is moist then pour my water fert mix into the moist soil. Normally I let them dry out just to the point that the leaves start to show signs, its been hot here lately so they always droop until the house shades them from the sun at about 7pm. I added some perlite to this soil because I had it and it looked like it needed some.

http://www.naturalgardeneraustin.com/bulk-products-list.html

All Purpose Garden
Blend:consists of a blend of dairy manure compost, topsoil and granite sand. Other ingredients include composted rice hulls, shale for drainage, and greensand. Sulfur, TerraTonic, and compost tea help to round out this multi-purposegarden soil

This is about a 6 inch scope of soil from the outside edge of the pot, no roots out there yet. You can see the moist soil at the bottom of the hole. Its not wet or soggy, just damp.

Weed · Jul 9, 2014

The way I apply it is I can feed multiple plants that are in smaller than 1 gallon containers or 1 plant in 1+ gallon containers.

In big containers I water first and when all of the medium is saturated I put a whole gallon of fert into it.

That would be 12 gallons of fertilizer judging by your first picture.

Chewi · Jul 9, 2014

whereabouts in TX are you man?

nzchili · Jul 9, 2014

The mix ratio is just the ratio you should mix it with water at.
It does not take into account the amount you need to water into your plants.

So to make things simple, just mix the ferts to the amount stated on the bottle. Then use the mixed water to water your plants untill it comes out the drain holes

Done

PS. that soil looks pretty dry to me

Trippa · Jul 9, 2014

Add some thick mulch to the top of your pots .. keeps the moisture levels more even and cools the root zones a little ... I think that will help boost your plants at this stage more then adding too many ferts

ColdSmoke · Jul 9, 2014

nzchili said:
The mix ratio is just the ratio you should mix it with water at.
It does not take into account the amount you need to water into your plants.

So to make things simple, just mix the ferts to the amount stated on the bottle. Then use the mixed water to water your plants untill it comes out the drain holes

Done

PS. that soil looks pretty dry to me

This^ The mix ratio is just telling you how much water to mix with the fertilizer for it to deliver the nutrients. For example...I use five different liquid organic fertilizers. the ratio for most of them are 5ml per gallon. I use a five gallon bucket so use 25ml of each fertilizer in the one bucket. Water with that...

filmost · Jul 9, 2014

My suggestion: get a hose end fertilizer sprayer. Not to water your plants with (because the pressure is quite strong), but instead to take the headache out of mixing your fertilizer.

My hose end fert sprayer has several settings for fertilizer:water ratio, and my fertilizer bottles (here in Japan) tell me to use 1:200-300 normal, 1:500 if also using slow release, 1:1000 for seedlings. Everything here is measured in milliliters.

Now here's the method behind the metric madness:

Your fertilizer calls for 2-3 tsp per gallon. Let's see what the ratio of fertilizer to water is.

1 tsp = 5 ml, therefore 3 tsp = 15 ml

1 gal = 4 qt = 3.8 liters. For simplicity sake let's assume 1 gal = 4 liters = 4000 ml. (1 qt = 0.94 liters)

Your fert:water ratio is 15 ml fertilizer : 4000 ml water, which is roughly 1:260.

To keep our math simple, let's instead make it 1:250, therefore half strength is 1:500. That pretty much falls in line with the instructions for my fertilizer.

If you had the same sprayer as I do, you would just pour your fertilizer into the tank, set the dial to 500, and water your plants until water trickles out the bottom of your pots. Myself, well I spray into a watering can, then use the watering can at the base of the plant b/c it is much much gentler.

Finally, let's consider what you have been doing. You have watered your soil until damp, THEN added your mixed fertilizer. Which basically means you watered down what you mixed if you think about. ;-)

Weed · Jul 9, 2014

mx5inpa said:
The way I apply it is I can feed multiple plants that are in smaller than 1 gallon containers or 1 plant in 1+ gallon containers.

In big containers I water first and when all of the medium is saturated I put a whole gallon of fert into it.

That would be 12 gallons of fertilizer judging by your first picture.

filmost said:
Finally, let's consider what you have been doing. You have watered your soil until damp, THEN added your mixed fertilizer. Which basically means you watered down what you

mixed if you think about. ;-)

What youre doing is preventing salt buildup by watering beforehand. And you arent watering anything down. Hydraulic pressure forces the plain water out and replaces it. This is easily observed when you add more to an already saturated pot when the fertilized water sits on top until an equal amount has been expelled from the bottom.

Theres no mixing going on. It works like a straw.

filmost · Jul 9, 2014

mx5inpa said:
What youre doing is preventing salt buildup by watering beforehand. And you arent watering anything down. Hydraulic pressure forces the plain water out and replaces it. This is easily observed when you add more to an already saturated pot when the fertilized water sits on top until an equal amount has been expelled from the bottom.

Theres no mixing going on. It works like a straw.

I stand corrected.

Salt build up is only a problem of inorganic chemical fertilizer no?

Weed · Jul 9, 2014

filmost said:
I stand corrected.

Salt build up is only a problem of inorganic chemical fertilizer no?

Technically even organics are converted to salts before the plant can uptake them. That conversion delay is probably a buffer and I think there are just more critters using them.

This is probably the best article on fertilizing and container watering I have ever seen.

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0416300720216.html
some organics like fresh chicken manure will burn the shit out of plant roots cuz salts, its why they have to be used sparingly or composted first

sirhc76 · Jul 9, 2014

Thanks everyone makes sense now, I've been adding a very small amount of fertilizer with the method I've used. The soil is fresh, only two weeks old so it may not matter for awhile now. nzchili, you are correct, the soil is dry because today was watering day and my reason for asking about the ferts

I'm North of Austin, technically north of Georgetown. Mulch was on my list of things to do, I'll get that added tomorrow. mx5inpa, that is a great article and I'm reading through it.

SacFly · Jul 10, 2014

I imagine it gets pretty hot there in the summer. Black plastic pots trap heat. If you're root zone temps get too hot your plants will sulk.

I ran into this problem on my roof in NYC. The first year I draped old, white bedsheets around the pots and the next year I switched to white plastic grow bags. Problem solved.

Definitely overwinter any plants that you like. It gives you a big head start. Happy growing!

sirhc76 · Jul 10, 2014

SacFly said:
I imagine it gets pretty hot there in the summer. Black plastic pots trap heat. If you're root zone temps get too hot your plants will sulk.

I ran into this problem on my roof in NYC. The first year I draped old, white bedsheets around the pots and the next year I switched to white plastic grow bags. Problem solved.

Definitely overwinter any plants that you like. It gives you a big head start. Happy growing!

I have noticed this lately and need to do something similar.