Plant Cycles - Food

R

RJC

Everything I've learned for the most part about growing peppers is through this great resource. So I’m sticking with it. :)

I'm about a month and half out, maybe a little more depending on how nice Mother Nature wants to be from the end of the outdoor growing season. All 40+ pepper plants are in 5 gallon pots. They received some organic nitrogen mix when they got transplanted into the pots, and another small dose about a month ago. Now that all the plants have flowers, pods, and peppers should they get an extra organic food boost?

It seems I’m watering the plants more often now and I know all their energy is going into making peppers. My rational say’s feed them…they are hungry! But I don’t want to throw in some nitro’s and have flower, or worse pepper drop. They all look very green for the most part. Two of them have lower leaves that are showing just a little yellow.

What’s the green rule of thumb for this stage in the growing process?

Thanks.
 
joeknowsjolokia said:
It depends on what you are giving them! Should be ferts specific for buds and flowers, if you got pods on now...
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On the rare occasion that I use a water soluble fert I use a triple 20 with micro nutes and dilute it as necessary to 5-5-5 or 10-10-10, for example. I don't put much faith in that marketing hype for bud specific formulas. In my garden I use a granular triple 13 and just vary the amount depending on the type of plant getting the treatment. JMO
 
Silver_Surfer said:
On the rare occasion that I use a water soluble fert I use a triple 20 with micro nutes and dilute it as necessary to 5-5-5 or 10-10-10, for example. I don't put much faith in that marketing hype for bud specific formulas. In my garden I use a granular triple 13 and just vary the amount depending on the type of plant getting the treatment. JMO
Click to expand...

Yeah good point! I wasn't sure if he was giving the a high H. nute or not...
 
My dad always told me to never add Nitrogen once the plant even got close to the blooming, let alone the fruiting stage. He always said fertilizer was good to give the plants a great start and grow a bunch of leaves, but after that it was a waste of money. We always had bountiful harvests of tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, cucumbers and tobacco. Doesn't prove he was right but does prove he wasn't wrong!

Mike
 
Roger that folks. Thanks for the insight and tips. I haven't gave any high nutes since I planted them in pots. Even that store purchased organic dusting was on the low side as I wasn't sure what I was playing with.

Thanks again.
 
Chiles really don't need much nutrients, I think a lot of people over-do it. I like to use compost and manure for the most part but also use a well balanced(20-20-20 or similar) until the end of the season when I'll often use higher phosphorous for the final flush or higher potassium if I plan to over-winter
Pepper plants still need nitrogen, even when they are flowering. They just need it in balance with other nutrients
 
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