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Newbie grower

B

Burnside

Hey guys,

New to the site and to growing my first batch of hot peppers, I live in Montreal Quebec and j live in a condo, I have 3 plants going, I purchased my plants from a nursery and have them on my balcony which gets about 3 hours of sunlight in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. They are progressing nicely with quite a few flowers, but our summer this far has been pretty crappy, I also noticed that some of my flowers are dropping, and some of the flowers are turning into pods. I'm giving them a good chunk of chicken manure once a month and spraying the plants with epsom salt and water every 2 weeks. From everybody's expertise is there anything else I can do to maximize my growth and potential for these bad boys ? I do plan on over wintering at least one of them. Thoughts ??
 
One key thing i see with new growers is that they tend over-water. I am not saying that you do or don't but I've seen new growers do it and i even did it myself 8 years back when i first started growing peppers. Only water when it is dry about a inch down into the soil and water them lightly, don't drench them. Peppers love semi dry and well drained soil. I add a mix of Perlite and Vermiculite to my soil mixes to help with the drainage as well.
 
Don't over fertilize - This is another error i made when i was a newbie grower. If you are fertilizing organically then you only need to do it once a month, when they start producing pods still fertilize once a month but just add a little more ferts. Don't over-do-it with nitrogen when they are producing pods. It might halt pod production and might even make your flowers not set any fruit and fall off. Flowers falling and not setting could also indicate a PH problem with the soil or you maybe adding to much Epsom salt to your foliage spray. I only do a spray with Epsom salt once a month measuring only 1 tbsp per gallon then putting it into a spray bottle.
 
Flower Setting - Not every flower sets on pepper plants and you are bound to find some dropping off but if to many are dropping off you can use a plant hormone called Kinetin. They sell it in garden stores by the name Tomato & Blossom Set brand name Bonide. It is rather pricey, where i'm from it costs around $8 a bottle. I used it on only two plants i was having problems with and it used almost half the bottle. Let me tell you though this stuff does work, they actually had scientific studies from universities on this stuff, kinda like what doctors do with medicine, and they said it worked. In the paper they said it produced more fruits and flowers on the plants as well. From what i can see with my plants it is doing just that. If you are worried about straying away from organics i wouldn't worry because it is a natural plant hormone that plants already produce.
 
Bone Meal - I swear by this stuff because I've been using it for years and my peppers love me for it. This stuff takes a while to break down so you only need to use it twice a year. I add it to my soil when i transplant my seedlings into their final pots and then again maybe two months later. It organically supplies phosphorus and calcium which plants need for strong roots, stem growth, and pod production. If you use this stuff you'll see your pod production go through the roof.
 
Hope some of this helps, i know i was just blabbering a little but i get excited helping people grow peppers. It is a true passion of mine and i just love watching them grow and others growing them. Good luck and could you maybe post some pictures of your plants??
 
hotpepperguy said:
One key thing i see with new growers is that they tend over-water. I am not saying that you do or don't but I've seen new growers do it and i even did it myself 8 years back when i first started growing peppers. Only water when it is dry about a inch down into the soil and water them lightly, don't drench them. Peppers love semi dry and well drained soil. I add a mix of Perlite and Vermiculite to my soil mixes to help with the drainage as well.
 
Don't over fertilize - This is another error i made when i was a newbie grower. If you are fertilizing organically then you only need to do it once a month, when they start producing pods still fertilize once a month but just add a little more ferts. Don't over-do-it with nitrogen when they are producing pods. It might halt pod production and might even make your flowers not set any fruit and fall off. Flowers falling and not setting could also indicate a PH problem with the soil or you maybe adding to much Epsom salt to your foliage spray. I only do a spray with Epsom salt once a month measuring only 1 tbsp per gallon then putting it into a spray bottle.
 
Flower Setting - Not every flower sets on pepper plants and you are bound to find some dropping off but if to many are dropping off you can use a plant hormone called Kinetin. They sell it in garden stores by the name Tomato & Blossom Set brand name Bonide. It is rather pricey, where i'm from it costs around $8 a bottle. I used it on only two plants i was having problems with and it used almost half the bottle. Let me tell you though this stuff does work, they actually had scientific studies from universities on this stuff, kinda like what doctors do with medicine, and they said it worked. In the paper they said it produced more fruits and flowers on the plants as well. From what i can see with my plants it is doing just that. If you are worried about straying away from organics i wouldn't worry because it is a natural plant hormone that plants already produce.
 
Bone Meal - I swear by this stuff because I've been using it for years and my peppers love me for it. This stuff takes a while to break down so you only need to use it twice a year. I add it to my soil when i transplant my seedlings into their final pots and then again maybe two months later. It organically supplies phosphorus and calcium which plants need for strong roots, stem growth, and pod production. If you use this stuff you'll see your pod production go through the roof.
 
Hope some of this helps, i know i was just blabbering a little but i get excited helping people grow peppers. It is a true passion of mine and i just love watching them grow and others growing them. Good luck and could you maybe post some pictures of your plants??
Click to expand...
 
If I use chicken pellets for ferilizing, should I spread it out in the soil every month? Even when the plant is flowering?
Thanks
 
vike22 said:
 
If I use chicken pellets for ferilizing, should I spread it out in the soil every month? Even when the plant is flowering?
Thanks
Click to expand...
 
Yes i would use it sparingly because any organic fertilize takes time to break down in the soil and you need the bacteria in the soil that helps to break it down. I'd get some Jeob's organic vegetable ferts. That stuff has some poultry manure in it as well but they also include the bacteria it needs to break down. Only thing is, you have to be careful with chicken pellets because it could lower your soil PH, one thing peppers don't like is a low PH. Chicken pellets are also a good source of magnesium and sulfur so if you use epsom salt you can take it easy on that as well. Hope this helps, have a great grow :) 
 
hotpepperguy said:
 
Yes i would use it sparingly because any organic fertilize takes time to break down in the soil and you need the bacteria in the soil that helps to break it down. I'd get some Jeob's organic vegetable ferts. That stuff has some poultry manure in it as well but they also include the bacteria it needs to break down. Only thing is, you have to be careful with chicken pellets because it could lower your soil PH, one thing peppers don't like is a low PH. Chicken pellets are also a good source of magnesium and sulfur so if you use epsom salt you can take it easy on that as well. Hope this helps, have a great grow :)
Click to expand...
 
Thanks! If i use liquid fertilizer such as urinewater etc. Do I still need to use chicken pellets?
 
vike22 said:
 
Thanks! If i use liquid fertilizer such as urinewater etc. Do I still need to use chicken pellets?
Click to expand...
 
Urine water will also lower your soil PH, it is very acidic and also heavily saturated with nitrogen which is good for growth but not so much for pod production. Chicken pellet ferts are high in nitrogen but also have adequate amounts of phosphorus and potassium so i would just stick with the chicken pellets. They are a lot cleaner too. If you want adequate break down of organics go out and buy Joeb's Vegetable instant organic fertilizer. It's not so high in Nute content but it supplies the bacteria needed for organic breakdown. 
 
hotpepperguy said:
 
Urine water will also lower your soil PH, it is very acidic and also heavily saturated with nitrogen which is good for growth but not so much for pod production. Chicken pellet ferts are high in nitrogen but also have adequate amounts of phosphorus and potassium so i would just stick with the chicken pellets. They are a lot cleaner too. If you want adequate break down of organics go out and buy Joeb's Vegetable instant organic fertilizer. It's not so high in Nute content but it supplies the bacteria needed for organic breakdown. 
Click to expand...
Thank you very much, how about the "Plant Magic Soil Bloom"? Have you tried that one?
 
vike22 said:
Thank you very much, how about the "Plant Magic Soil Bloom"? Have you tried that one?
Click to expand...
 
Never tried that stuff but i did some research and it looks promising. I don't think they sell that stuff here in the US. It has a very low NPK profile but it says it contains Humates. Humates are great for maintaining a natural soil PH. They are basically organic plant material like, kelp and other material. They are high in magnesium and calcium. Magnesium helps with Nute uptake and overall health, calcium helps with cell structure and healthy roots which could aid in the prevention of blossom/fruit end rot. I usually don't like applying Mag directly to the soil though and i usually apply it via a foliar spray with Epsom salt. Epsom salt contains sulfur as well which is a key macro-nute which helps the plants produce its own vitamins like b12, b6, vitamin C and others. It also help the plant to produce proteins, enzymes, and amino acids. Sulfur is also great as a natural pest control nute. This is why i like to use it as a foliar spray as it got rid of all my knats.
 
I would try that nute since it looks like it is a great PH elevator, but also do a lite spray of epsom salts every 3 to 4 weeks since it contains sulfur. You can even crush up a couple matches and mix in the the soil to give your plants for sulfur. A lot of experienced grows, as well as myself swear by sulfur. I didn't use the stuff the first 3 years i grew peppers but ever since i started using it i got more pod production.
 
One thing to consider is that you may not have have many pollinators (on a balcony), you can shake the plant to help improve pollination. Jump to 5:00 in this video, or watch the whole thing, this guy is pretty knowledgeable: 
 
 
 
 
 
Edit: To fix ugly formatting.
 
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here are the pics of my plants, sorry for the delay !



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Very healthy looking plants. They may end up being a little top heavy though once they start to set fruit. You might end up needing to stabilizing the branches at some point.
 
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