Topsmoke said:
Be careful. I see alot of people over garden by thinking they need to do everything for their plants. Fertilizer isn't "food" to be fed to a plant every day, nor is it meant to be some kind of steroid that's going to turn your plant into a pod making beast. A plant synthesizes 98% of its make up from light, air, and water. That only leaves 2% that it draws from the soil and that eventually needs replacing. Water based ferts are just that, water so they easily leech from soils and create a fleeting effect which requires more fertilizer each time, eventually salinizing the soil because most of the nutrients haven't been used up. I suggest a granulated slow release fertilizer. I swear by espoma products, tomato-tone in particular for peppers. The time to fertilize is when you see a slow down in growth/production or notice a nutrient deficiency. I usually only apply fertilizer at transplant when the plants are about a foot high and right before fruiting (when growth stalls) like 2-3 months later. Providing the foundations; good light, airflow, soil and proper watering are way more crucial to the over all health of a plant than fertilization.
fertilizer is like engine oil or vitamines for humans. they facilitate the complex biochemical reactions that make up plant life.
plants simply cannot exist without the nutrients. no they are not the bulk of the plant tissue, but so what? give your plants what they need and no more.
if you are growing in an inert medium you need to give your plants everything. organic soil? you need to give them less.
a properly fertilized plant will outgrow a shitty underferted plant in heavy organic soil not because its roided up, but because its properly fertilized and well cared for.
pepper plants are not particularly sensitive to fertilizer contrary to popular belief.
"water based ferts", are not water based. thats like saying bleach is water based... just because its in solution with water.
they are aqueous solutions of salts. the rates at which they leach from the soil has little to do with the fact that they are soluble in water, and more to do with ionic interactions between the nutrients and the soil particles.
soils heavy with clay tend to hold anion ferts longer. sandy soils tend to hold ferts poorly.
soil salinity is harder to manage in field agriculture... not in a garden or container. this is simply not an issue what so ever.
soil salinity or conductivity is easy to monitor... simply excavate a wad of soil from around the rootzone and soil slurry test it with a conductivcity meter and ph meter.
if salinity exceedes 4ec or so then you have a problem... you are probably way way over feeding and need to leach your soil.
