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Peppers on my Deck, My First attempt

Darkside

Darkside

Howdy, this is my first attempt at growing veggies and unfortunately I don't have that much room for them so they're restricted to my decks. My list of peppers comprises, Orange Habanero, Black Hungarian, Bulgarian Carrot, Hungarian Beaver Dam, Polish Cyklon, Joe E. Parker and Early Jalapeno peppers. They're potted in regular potting soil in clay pots and watered with hard alkaline water than I siphon from my aquariums. Here are some pictures.

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plants look great but be careful with using the alkaline water...remember, pepper plants need an acidic soil around 6.3 or so pH...

but, as I said, the plants look pretty healthy...highly suggest you give them a shot of epsom salt foliar feed ( 1 Tbsp per gallon of water) or just sprinkle 1 Tbsp on top of the soil so that when you water, they get a little magnesium....magnesium is very water soluable and washes out with each watering...
 
Thanks for the response! The plants should have lots of magnesium available to them as I dose my aquariums with Epsom salts. Last week, however, I noticed that some of my leaves were yellowing and I attributed it to a potassium deficiency. Could this have been the case? The leaves of the affected plants have since darkened. Most of my experience comes from maintaining aquatic plants. I should say as well that my plants aren't always watered with old fish water because I only change the water twice a week. Here's a picture of my planted setup.

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cool on dosing the aquariums...

from what I have read, and I don't mean to belabor the point, but if the pH gets too high, it will inhibit the plants ability for nutrient uptake....check your soil pH for plain knowledge about your grow media...I promise it will help in the long run...
 
I have a liquid test kit and some DI water here. I never thought about it, but I can probably test for some of the other nutrients as well this way.
The pH reading that I get is about 6.5 from my liquid test kit... I suppose that the peat in the soil buffers the pH of the water down more than the CaCO3 does in the aquarium water. I'll keep an eye on it as I had no idea this could be bad for my plants.
 
6.5 is cool for your soil....
 
yeah, I was going to say that - pull those initial pods off the plants to get the foliage growth going. Those plants are a little on the young/undeveloped side to be allowed to grow the 2-3 pods they have.
 
I've been wondering whether I should have done that. Its just that we have such a short growing season here and I really have no space to pot the plants up again.
 
Darkside said:
I've been wondering whether I should have done that. Its just that we have such a short growing season here and I really have no space to pot the plants up again.
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I hear ya about the short growing season. All in all I think your plants looks pretty healthy but I would definately heed the advice of AJ since he is a pepper growing guru! Best of luck to you this season ;)
 
Thanks! I figure that I have until the end of September and then its pretty hit or miss with the weather. I think I'll overwinter the habaneros in doors as I have lots of extra lighting available.
 
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