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Is it possible to grow peppers in compost?

I recently planted 45 peppers in very high quality compost and they are looking about average but do I need to move them to something more like miracle grow?
 
     As long as it has enough water holding capacity and pore space for air it should be fine. The nutrients in it will feed your plants for a little while, but you'll need to supplement it later. The good thing is, compost has lots of humid acid which is great for holding nutrients.
 
Yep, adding nutrients will be critical.  If you have the ability to catch the leachate from your compost container plants, you can use it again. (so long as you aren't using synthetic fertilizers)  I've become a huge fan of Dr Earth Tomato and Vegetable fertilizer.
 
I'm not a fan of 100% pure compost - I like to cut it 60/40 with pine bark fines.  Last season, one of my best plants was grown in compost and bark.

Good luck with your grow.
 
I am lucky to be able to pick up all of the out of date fresh produce from a local supermarket daily that I add to several large compost piles I have started several months ago. I add each days produce in layers on the pile then cover it with topsoil we have piled up from when we had our pond dug a few years ago. Each daily addition of produce also gets a pile of egg shells I have a couple of mexican restaurants save for me each day.  The compost piles are turned with the front end loader once a week.
 I grow my peppers in a mixture of the above mentioned compost, broken down cow manure, and more topsoil ad needed for consistency. They seem to love the stuff as when transplanting from small 4in starting containers to the bigger 7gal pots I will have at least four or five earthworms in each small pot, so I know this stuff has to be some good soil for growing the plants in.
 
Galveston340 said:
They seem to love the stuff as when transplanting from small 4in starting containers to the bigger 7gal pots I will have at least four or five earthworms in each small pot, so I know this stuff has to be some good soil for growing the plants in.
 
It's not about whether it's good stuff, it's about whether pure compost is a good growing medium.  7 gallons isn't a very big pot, and apparently, some people's homes defy the traditional rules of making a good planting medium.  If you put compost in a 7 gallon pot here in my backyard, it will be a brick in 2 months time.  I tried several kinds of compost, and pure compost was definitely NOT the trick for me.  You are saying that you've mixed soil in with the compost, so I have a hard time understanding how you can get this to work without any other amendments. (like bark, perlite, etc)  But what do I know, other than my own experience?
 
solid7 said:
 
It's not about whether it's good stuff, it's about whether pure compost is a good growing medium.  7 gallons isn't a very big pot, and apparently, some people's homes defy the traditional rules of making a good planting medium.  If you put compost in a 7 gallon pot here in my backyard, it will be a brick in 2 months time.  I tried several kinds of compost, and pure compost was definitely NOT the trick for me.  You are saying that you've mixed soil in with the compost, so I have a hard time understanding how you can get this to work without any other amendments. (like bark, perlite, etc)  But what do I know, other than my own experience?
solid7, there is plenty of organic material other than just plain veggies in the mix to keep it breathable. I has to be just as you mentioned otherwise as you said it will compact after a period of time. I'll post up a pic or two later showing the consistency of the mix I work with.
The 7gal pots I grow in are plenty big for one plant. more than one and I go with bigger pots. I also make sure that they can get the roots that come out of the pot into the ground during the season. Once it starts getting close to Winter I pop them up and move them. This year I have a 50x100 greenhouse that they will be inside when it gets cold down here with heating and LED supplemental lighting.
 
Here are a couple of pics I have here on the PC of what I use for making up the compost for addition to my soil mix. The veggies go onto the big piles i have down at our Pecan orchard where I have started moving some of my pepper plants to. The two smaller barrel containers are what I mix up my starting mix in as they are full of earthworms. They get the mushrooms and other veggies I puree before addition to the mix.
 
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queequeg152 said:
im not going to lie... i would not hesitate to eat like 2/3rds of whats in that pile.
 
is all that just trash from a grocery store or something?
 
nm, i just scrolled up and read your post.
 
Yep, its all from the store sadly. Since there were lawsuits when they were giving it away to food pantries it now goes into the dumpster at most places. I had some of my FB friends on the various pepper forums try to do the same thing and to a person they were told it had to be thrown out.
 
Galveston340 said:
 
Yep, its all from the store sadly. Since there were lawsuits when they were giving it away to food pantries it now goes into the dumpster at most places. I had some of my FB friends on the various pepper forums try to do the same thing and to a person they were told it had to be thrown out.
 
There is a guy in my neighborhood who does all of his shopping in the dumpster behind the grocery store.  Not going to lie...  I've eaten at his place before. :)
 
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