The phosphorous you're using for rooting may also help encourage early flowers/fruit which you probably don't want. Personally I skip the root fertilizers and start young plants off with a bit higher nitrogen from manure, compost, worm castings and/or fish emulsion to give the plant plenty of growthand try to discourage flowering There is no one correct way to fertilize but thats what seems to work for me
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Bone meal, Blood Meal, Plant-tone, Fish Emulsion, Miracle grow.... AHHH Help?!!!?
- Thread starter halo_players_junkyard
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Aged, composted horse manure is very good to grow peppers with. I've used a mix of 1 part composted horse manure and 1 part Pro Mix before with good results. The compost will supply pretty much all the trace minerals the plant needs for the season and the macro & minor nutrients for about 1/2 the season. If you use compost/worm tea when you water you can probably make it through the season with out using any chemical fertilizer at all. If you should need to fertilize you can always side dress your plants with some more compost.
An easy way to make compost tea is to fill a bucket about 1/8-1/4 full with compost and then finish filling the bucket with water and stir it well. Let it sit for about 24 hours and use the tea to water your plants with. The finished product should look like a weak tea so feel free to water it down if it's too dark. The compost left from the bucket can be spread around the plants or put back in the compost pile.
My favorite fertilizer is rabbit manure. If you can get some you should try it on a couple of your plants and see how it does for you.
Alan
An easy way to make compost tea is to fill a bucket about 1/8-1/4 full with compost and then finish filling the bucket with water and stir it well. Let it sit for about 24 hours and use the tea to water your plants with. The finished product should look like a weak tea so feel free to water it down if it's too dark. The compost left from the bucket can be spread around the plants or put back in the compost pile.
My favorite fertilizer is rabbit manure. If you can get some you should try it on a couple of your plants and see how it does for you.
Alan
I make tea in a 5 gallon bucket as you describe, but aerate it and let it brew for 2 days. The aeration discourages the production of anaerobic bacteria.
Another good tip when your ready to transplant your seedlings into pots is to mix up a few drops of superthrive (hormones) into their first watering. Make sure you only use a few drops per gallon cause that stuff is strong. I've noticed a big improvement in the roots, and as mentioned it doesn't encourage flowering so no wasted energy all the focus goes into the roots.
LGHT said:
Ok, my superthrive is still in the mail. And since ordering I have read a lot about it both ways. The are a lot of sites that refer to it as "snake oil" and others that swear its the best thing since sliced bread. What I have not found is a objective list of facts about what it helps with and when it can hurt. Has anyone on here done a side by side test or anything along those line where there was a clear difference? Even on here I saw a couple people praise it in one post and discourage it in the next.
Thanks again everyone for the tons of information.
I now avoid superthrive, I've just never seen any beneficial differences and don't need the auxins/hormones(1-Naphthylacetic acid) although I do use B1 supplements which are also included in superthrive and all the other thrive products. I often use the organic thrive alive with the green label mostly for sick plants
Check this thread
http://www.thehotpepper.com/showthread.php?9818-Do-you-SuperThrive
Check this thread
http://www.thehotpepper.com/showthread.php?9818-Do-you-SuperThrive
For pictures of Deficiency In essential Minerals go to Http://4e.plantphys.net/article.php?ch=3&id=289 should have what you want.
OK, i'm using a similar set up as you right now (i think, are you using the MG potting mix or garden soil?), if you arn't using MG potting mix with the 6 month feeding blah, blah, then disregard this post 
(and by the way, MG gets a pretty bad rap around here but i have ZERO complaints and have been using it for years...just stay away from the organic potting mix). anyway, the only extra ferts my plants get is a foliar spray of dilute fish emuslion and epsom every two weeks or so. remember you can easily add more fert, its very hard to reduce damage after you have too much fert. LESS IS BETTER.
(and by the way, MG gets a pretty bad rap around here but i have ZERO complaints and have been using it for years...just stay away from the organic potting mix). anyway, the only extra ferts my plants get is a foliar spray of dilute fish emuslion and epsom every two weeks or so. remember you can easily add more fert, its very hard to reduce damage after you have too much fert. LESS IS BETTER.
Halo, if you're using MG potting soil, I wouldn't add any nutes at all. What's already in the soil is plenty. At most, some 1/4 strength 15-30-15 in the fall to encourage a 2nd wave of pods.
From Gardening w Skip - "You may have noticed that when you go and purchase fertilizer, there's three numbers on the fertilizer bag.
Actually, the three numbers represent the three primary nutrients that plants need: nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. They're listed as a percentage of those nutrients and always in that order.
For example, an 8- 2- 4 fertilizer contains 8 percent, by weight, nitrogen, 2 percent phosphorous and 4 percent potassium. A fertilizer that's 9-1-1 would contain 9 percent nitrogen, 1 percent phosphorous and 1 percent potassium.
These can occur in different combinations and different ratios, but they all represent how strong or how concentrated a fertilizer is. So a 16-4-8 would be twice as concentrated as an 8-2-4, for example.
What do these numbers mean and what do the nutrients do? Well, nitrogen is very important in plants having good vigor and a good dark green color. The middle number phosphorous is important for rooting and also for blooming. But in most of our Texas soils, we already have enough phosphorous. The third number, potassium, on the other hand, is important with cold hardiness and also plays a role in fruiting and blooming for our plants.
From Gardening w Skip - "You may have noticed that when you go and purchase fertilizer, there's three numbers on the fertilizer bag.
Actually, the three numbers represent the three primary nutrients that plants need: nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. They're listed as a percentage of those nutrients and always in that order.
For example, an 8- 2- 4 fertilizer contains 8 percent, by weight, nitrogen, 2 percent phosphorous and 4 percent potassium. A fertilizer that's 9-1-1 would contain 9 percent nitrogen, 1 percent phosphorous and 1 percent potassium.
These can occur in different combinations and different ratios, but they all represent how strong or how concentrated a fertilizer is. So a 16-4-8 would be twice as concentrated as an 8-2-4, for example.
What do these numbers mean and what do the nutrients do? Well, nitrogen is very important in plants having good vigor and a good dark green color. The middle number phosphorous is important for rooting and also for blooming. But in most of our Texas soils, we already have enough phosphorous. The third number, potassium, on the other hand, is important with cold hardiness and also plays a role in fruiting and blooming for our plants.