water New pepper plants / how much water?

[xantius]

I've got my first batch of pepper plants finally planted in pots out in my yard. I've spent the last few days letting them sit in partial shade, partial sun. They've lost their indoor leaves and have grown new sun friendly outdoor leaves. The temps have been between 90-100 degrees and the are planted in potting soil. I was wondering how often I should be watering them as fresh transplants in those temps in a well draining soil like potting soil?
 
Also, how early do you start fertilizing? Was thinking of using some fertilome as that's what I have around.
 
The plants are:
 
Red Habanero
Ghost Pepper
Scotch Bonnet
Cayenne
Jalapeno

 

[birdfather]

probably daily, but not necessarily. you need to check the soil to see if it is moist or not. if the soil is dry, then water. make sure to not over water. what kind of potting soil do you have them in? does it already contain nutrients? if yes, and they were freshly transplanted then no nutes. also how many sets of true leaves do they have? if the soil is void of nutrients, and they have at least 2 sets of true leaves, then you can give them a weak 1/4 to 1/2 strength feeding.
 
also, what is the NPK of your fertilizer? is it a fertilizer for grass or for vegetables?

 

[StAugieHotPeppers]

I agree--nothing like a pointing finger deep in ur potted soil to test for moisture......with more mature plants i always let them dry completely out before watering ... this encourages the fibrous roots to grow out and stronger.....some wilt is an obvious sign of dryness....so a slight wilt is good for more mature peppers cuz it causes stress on the plant which will signal it that it hasta send out blooms in order to carry on its species...hope this helps!

ed
staugiehotpappers.com
I use 1/3 cow manure--1/3 pine bark and 1/3 potting soil as my pepper media and i fertilize everytime I water with fish emulsion.

 

[xantius]

So I've been putting my finger in the tops of the pots down to the second nuckle and I'm not quite sure what I'm feeling for. It's definitely not wet, but I wouldn't say it's dry either. What level of dryness or wet does one look for? Each plant has put out its second set of sun adjusted leaves which is probably it's 4th or 5th set of real leaves. That said, the plants aren't more than 1.5" across so they are still quite small, but looking healthy. I'm definitely trying not to over water them.
 
The plants are in a regular bagged potting soil (NOT MiracleGro). I have some Fertilome 7-22-8 vegetable fertilizer that specifically mentioned tomatoes and peppers. It's a solid fertilizer, so would I just spread a tiny amount around the root area and water in?

 

[xantius]

I'm still having problems with my plants. They've been out in the sun for 2 or 3 weeks, the temperatures are 100 degrees outside, and I'm watering about every other day. The plants are still no more than 2 inches across and leaves seem to do ok and then the largest leaves (only 1" long) yellow and fall off and the next leaves that grow are slow to grow and smaller than before. A couple peppers are starting to grow more leaf clusters off the stem, but most have no more than 4 or 6 leaves on the plant (and as little as 2) at any given time.
 
The potting soil seems to drain really well and when I put my finger in the soil at night it seems cool and not bone dry, but not really moist either. Not sure how to help these things get going and I know I'm WAY behind in the growing season even though I started these things at least 6+ weeks ago.