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soil Switching soil midseason

W

WalkingStickMan

Hi all,

Earlier in the summer, I hadn't access to any better soil than the generic drug store variety. My pepper plants seem to be suffering from the low quality soil, exhibiting stunted growth and few pods.

I recently found a shop relatively close where I could pick up some Fox Farms soil. Is it too late in the season to repot using different soil? Would removing the plants and repotting now have an even greater detrimental effect on their growth than if I just ride out the rest of the season with the low quality stuff that I've been using? The plants have been in their 3 gallon containers for about 2 months.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
 
RouteBound said:
Up pot to a 5gal is you can.
How much longer do you have in your season up there?
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I'd say around 2 months left, guessing that the growing season in NYC ends around late-September.

I've got two Fatali plants and two Bhut Jolokia plants. They all have some flowers, but only one of the plants seem to be producing pods (a Bhut). The others look like some of the flowers will set as well, however the plants themselves appear to be smaller in height and producing less leaves, etc. than I've seen elsewhere.

I just wanted to make sure that removing them from their current soil and repotting wouldn't be too traumatic for the plant. They've been in their current pots for about 2 months at this point.
 
Removing all the soil may be to much stress but if you just up pot the roots will seek out the new soil.
Thats a tuff call. but i would try to up pot and just improve the current soil some way.
 
RouteBound said:
Removing all the soil may be to much stress but if you just up pot the roots will seek out the new soil.
Thats a tuff call. but i would try to up pot and just improve the current soil some way.
Click to expand...

So you're saying that when I dig around the plant and remove it from the pot, the roots will hang on to much of the soil that they were previously planted in? I figured that once I removed the plant, most of the soil would fall off of the roots and I'd be able to repot into a full pot of new soil.

I was really hoping to give these plants a second chance with completely new, higher quality soil, but if you think that all new soild would be detrimental, I'll take your advice and simply add a bottom layer of new soil under the old, lower quality stuff.
 
Howdy WSM,

yup what RB said..

"pot up" to 5 or even 7 gallon this would allow you to take old root ball and slighty losen the bottom and then set in larger pot which would give you yes new soil at the bottom 2-3 inches as well as a new soil ring all the way around the old root ball up the sides an inch or 2 thick and then you can carefully work in an inch or 2 layer on top of the old soil and with it a lil bit even and bring up to your 5/7 gallon

before you set in the new root ball i would make a fish emu/H2O mix and pour about a cup or 2 in the hole where the root ball will fit so that those slighty loosened roots at the bottom will have quik access to it and give them a lil adrenaline shot so to speak to get them through the transpant and then when all transplanted and filled up give a decent soak but not too much to rinse the emu out this will settle the soil for you a bit(that is dont pack the soil down when u fill to transplant) and then let them sit in the shade for the rest of the day then back to normal sun the following.

Best of luck on your grow

:cheers:
 
I would have to agree with the consensus. If something is broke, fix it. I pulled my peppers from a raised bed that had horrible drainage and sub standard soil. Potted them up with promix and the few I left in the beds are far inferior to the potted ones. Go for it.
 
I had trouble with bad batch of potting mix last season that stunted my Maraba Yellow plants, Trinidad Scorpion plants, a Seven Pot plant and a Chocolate Bhut. They did much better after I potted them in the first month of summer using a better medium. In hindsight I wish I had changed the mix earlier.

I removed as much of the original potting mix as possible without disturbing the roots. I would guess that I removed at least a quarter of the old mix without disturbing the roots much as the root system was underdeveloped. I did aim to expose some of the roots to the new mix.
 
i know this is an old post but i have a similar problem except mines in hard compacted soil. whats the best way to transplant from ground back to a container? Some were transplanted about 2 months ago in the ground that are the still same size today and have tons of bug holes. while the ones in large containers tripled in size and starting to produce tons of buds. the reason i think the grounds one arent growing is that the soil is too compactedhttp://images.fxcamera.com/…/555951eda83c4937260004fb_origi… this was taken before transplanting in ground
 
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