We had a lot of strong winds at the beginning of the season, and initially the plants in the ground, both here and at the community garden lost a lot of their leaves, and just looked horrible. Meanwhile the peppers I put in the Earthboxes and in pots were doing great, put on new growth, started blooming and developing pods. Well, now there seems to be a role reversal going on. The plants in the ground are taking off, getting huge, looking great with lots of pods developing. The container plants look horrible.
This is my fourth year to use Earthboxes, and I've never had any problems before, but I didn't buy their growing medium this year, and even though I though I added a good bit of perlite to the potting mix I purchased, the soil is retaining too much water. In previous years, the reservoir would go completely dry every couple days in the summer, and had to be watered almost daily towards the end of the season. This year, I've had to quit watering it at all, because the soil is staying so wet. I'm wondering if I should just remove the black plastic covers.
I also have quite a few peppers in various types of pots, with no plastic cover on them. They aren't fairing any better though. One minute the soil is so wet the leaves are turning yellow and falling off, the next the soil is so dry the plant is wilting. I've heard lots of people on this forum talk about how much they like growing in containers, but my in ground plants are pretty much maintenance free. The veggie garden is irrigated and on a timer. I do have to water at the community garden when we don't have any rain, but even with the other tenants sometimes watering my area when they water theirs, I haven't seen any signs of the plants getting too much water.
Up to now, I've just stuck the container plants in whatever potting mix I had on hand, and maybe gave it some organic liquid fertilizer 2 or 3 times throughout the season, and things grew just fine. I've never had peppers plants dropping leaves, and buds left and right like I am this year. Can't help but wonder why this year is different, and what I'm going wrong? Container growing isn't supposed to be complicated and high maintenance is it?
This is my fourth year to use Earthboxes, and I've never had any problems before, but I didn't buy their growing medium this year, and even though I though I added a good bit of perlite to the potting mix I purchased, the soil is retaining too much water. In previous years, the reservoir would go completely dry every couple days in the summer, and had to be watered almost daily towards the end of the season. This year, I've had to quit watering it at all, because the soil is staying so wet. I'm wondering if I should just remove the black plastic covers.
I also have quite a few peppers in various types of pots, with no plastic cover on them. They aren't fairing any better though. One minute the soil is so wet the leaves are turning yellow and falling off, the next the soil is so dry the plant is wilting. I've heard lots of people on this forum talk about how much they like growing in containers, but my in ground plants are pretty much maintenance free. The veggie garden is irrigated and on a timer. I do have to water at the community garden when we don't have any rain, but even with the other tenants sometimes watering my area when they water theirs, I haven't seen any signs of the plants getting too much water.
Up to now, I've just stuck the container plants in whatever potting mix I had on hand, and maybe gave it some organic liquid fertilizer 2 or 3 times throughout the season, and things grew just fine. I've never had peppers plants dropping leaves, and buds left and right like I am this year. Can't help but wonder why this year is different, and what I'm going wrong? Container growing isn't supposed to be complicated and high maintenance is it?
There seems to be a lot of mis informed growers out there...but I'll get to the bottom of it soon 
