Hey gang,
I achieved mighty noob status already in my first season of growing peppers from seeds. I germinated and grew a bunch of seedlings until they had 5 or 6 sets of leaves and then transplanted them after hardening off into 4-gallon pots outside. The mix I put in the pots was just straight Pro Mix HP with no bonemeal, epsom salt, compost... no nothing. The bag said to fertilize within 7 days which I have been doing with a two week rotation of 5-1-1 fish emulsion watered in (1 tbsp per gallon of water) and epsom salt (1 tbsp per gallon) as a foliar spray. In other words, one Friday I will water in fish emulsion and then the next Friday is the foliar epsom salt spray. The plants took off well for a few weeks, but now I am running into nutrient deficiencies. It started with interveinal yellowing of newer leaves while older leaves remained green, and now the newest young leaves are completely yellow. Not dried-out crinkly yellow, but still alarming. I water at most twice per week with a slow deep drenching until water runs out the bottom of the pots; about 1.5 gallons per pot. Usually though I wait until the pots feel rather light and a finger stuck deep in the soil comes out almost dry. Does this sound like iron deficiency? Would you suggest amending the soil with a few inches of compost and watering it in?
Thanks for your help!
I achieved mighty noob status already in my first season of growing peppers from seeds. I germinated and grew a bunch of seedlings until they had 5 or 6 sets of leaves and then transplanted them after hardening off into 4-gallon pots outside. The mix I put in the pots was just straight Pro Mix HP with no bonemeal, epsom salt, compost... no nothing. The bag said to fertilize within 7 days which I have been doing with a two week rotation of 5-1-1 fish emulsion watered in (1 tbsp per gallon of water) and epsom salt (1 tbsp per gallon) as a foliar spray. In other words, one Friday I will water in fish emulsion and then the next Friday is the foliar epsom salt spray. The plants took off well for a few weeks, but now I am running into nutrient deficiencies. It started with interveinal yellowing of newer leaves while older leaves remained green, and now the newest young leaves are completely yellow. Not dried-out crinkly yellow, but still alarming. I water at most twice per week with a slow deep drenching until water runs out the bottom of the pots; about 1.5 gallons per pot. Usually though I wait until the pots feel rather light and a finger stuck deep in the soil comes out almost dry. Does this sound like iron deficiency? Would you suggest amending the soil with a few inches of compost and watering it in?
Thanks for your help!
I got very similar advice at the local hydroponics shop. Plan is to yank the plants late this evening and mix the soil with some compost and water in some tomato tone. Then in two or three weeks I will start feeding with Cal-Mag and Botanicare Pro Bloom. Thanks for the help everyone!
