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soil what to add to soil?

G

Guillo1

My parents always grow chilli plants in their backyard. I've noticed that the plants have been producing less fruit every year. It could be that the plants are older but I think the soil is bad and they don't add anything to it besides a little manure once in a while.

This year I am going to give them some super hot plants that I have growing. I want to prep the soil to get the best out of the plants. I was thinking of adding peat moss, vermiculite and some perlite to the soil. Is there anything else I should add? The grow area is about 6' x 6'.

Here is a picture I took a few days ago of some of their plants. My dad just put a plastic over the plants this winter and they still have a bunch of chilli's.
20120207_122242.jpg
 
if it is vermiculite, I would stay away from the Hoffman's (don't get me wrong, Hoffmans is great) but their vermiculite I noticed and found out is from a difference source now and is "fine" grade rather than course.. if you can get course, then go for it..

other than that I would add some more manure and what I am going to try and have been seeing a lot is shredded pine bark mulch.. and check the pH and make sure it's 5-6... .that's about all I can think of besides something like bone and blood meal for ferts.. but if you have fertilizer from something else, then that's fine, just get some fertilizer in there too

oh and I have heard (saw that AJ had mentioned that he read something about this) that peat moss if it is the Canadian sparganium peat moss is not good for flowers and might act as a contraceptive for pepper plants.. so I guess just something to watch.. if it were me, I would stick with the course vermiculite and a good amount of Perlite and shredded pine chips/mulch mixed into the soil, along with some more manure
 
Shredded leaves, dried kelp, alfalfa meal, compost, mycorrhizae, composted llama manure. I wouldn't put in any bark, but that's my choice.
 
I dono, I just found that Baker's Peppers used shredded pine bark among other things in their soil (it was potted soil, but I don't know why it wouldn't work well in garden soils.. not recommending a lot, but I guess its suppose to work.. who knows, can always leave that out, just figured I would throw that out there
 
Compost and worm castings could be added as well...+1 on checking ph. Adding organics like compost and manure will help lower the ph naturally but maybe not enough. If still too high add a sulfur based product to get it right.
 
Depending on the size of the bark, it doesn't break down as quickly and therefore won't be of much use to the plants until another year. I know the shredded leaves break down within the growing season, but need worm castings (like stc said) or compost, etc. added for better development.

Anyone ever heard of/used Azomite? It's supposed to help with root development and therefore boost fruit production and size.

Azomite is something on my list to look into.
 
nope but reading some of the descriptions of what it is made of, is that clay based.. and I always thought clay was really really bad, I have clay/soil about 2 or so feet below my topsoil or a little deeper in some areas but anyways, is there any benefit to the clay, or should that clay stay as low as possible.. just curious because I read someone else on here that they had good "loamy clay soil" or sandy loam or something like that... ?

and yeah I am not sure about how good the pine bark is.. and not sure why they would use it, but like I said it seems to work really well for them.. but the shredded leaves are interesting, it makes sense because the swamp/pond in my yard is basically layered with decomposed leaves, and the soil/mud in there is crazy crazy dark, and we've put it on plants here and there (it is kind of a pain to get out because of all the sticks and stuff, and we have to wait until it gets warm and dry enough for the swamp/pond to dry up mostly) but the flowers that we had it on last year were insanely big and bright.. I am going to try to get as much of that as possible into my garden soil this year, but I might just rake some of the leaves in the wooded area into the yard.. drive around in a circle with the lawn mower to shred them up, and till them into the soil this year lol.. figure it can't hurt
 
Maxsack331 said:
nope but reading some of the descriptions of what it is made of, is that clay based.. and I always thought clay was really really bad, I have clay/soil about 2 or so feet below my topsoil or a little deeper in some areas but anyways, is there any benefit to the clay, or should that clay stay as low as possible.. just curious because I read someone else on here that they had good "loamy clay soil" or sandy loam or something like that... ?

and yeah I am not sure about how good the pine bark is.. and not sure why they would use it, but like I said it seems to work really well for them.. but the shredded leaves are interesting, it makes sense because the swamp/pond in my yard is basically layered with decomposed leaves, and the soil/mud in there is crazy crazy dark, and we've put it on plants here and there (it is kind of a pain to get out because of all the sticks and stuff, and we have to wait until it gets warm and dry enough for the swamp/pond to dry up mostly) but the flowers that we had it on last year were insanely big and bright.. I am going to try to get as much of that as possible into my garden soil this year, but I might just rake some of the leaves in the wooded area into the yard.. drive around in a circle with the lawn mower to shred them up, and till them into the soil this year lol.. figure it can't hurt
Click to expand...
Tilling leaves into the soil works...but it would be better if you shredded them with your mower as mentioned, and piled them up. You don't need anything fancy just a big pile of lawn debris. I also add a few bags of manure to the mix, then I keep it moist and turn it with a cultivator every few weeks. This gets them to start decomposing which is what makes their nutrients available to your plants. If you just till them into the soil you won't get the same quality results (or as quickly) as composting them first. Also, I dig a deep hole for each plant and mix in a scoop or two of the compost with the soil from the hole. That way you don't use up all your compost on soil that isn't actually doing anything for you. This will also give you an opportunity to mix some sulfur in if you need to adjust ph. I do keep some larger debris and partially decompossed branches in there for improved drainage.

If you really get the composting going you'll be able to tell on cold mornings there will be steam rising from your pile and when you turn it, it'll be really warm in the middle.

Sorry for writing a book...and don't even get me started on my worm bins! lol
Shane
 
hmm, very cool, I have been meaning to get a composting pile going but just haven't gotten around to it, I think I am going to start it sometime soon

(and no problem, I write really long responses all the time, it is kind of a pain when some of the responses are not very detailed or leave you with even more questions that before, so I figure it's always good to be thorough lol)
 
if i were in your shoes i would dig up the plants prune them bac(and the roots) like you were going to over winter them. put in pots then till the hell hell out of the place they come out of adding all the stuff everyone above said let everything settle and get watered in for a month, then re-plant the plants into the new home.
 
spongey600 said:
if i were in your shoes i would dig up the plants prune them bac(and the roots) like you were going to over winter them. put in pots then till the hell hell out of the place they come out of adding all the stuff everyone above said let everything settle and get watered in for a month, then re-plant the plants into the new home.
Click to expand...

+1 I was trying to think of how he was going to add this stuff into it without digging up all those plants in there.. but didn't think to much into it lol
 
I'm not going to be planting the super hots in the area of the picture. They have another area about the same size that has nothing growing right now. So I guess I will be adding moss, perlite, vermiculite and manure to the soil. I started a worm farm but I don't think it will produce castings really soon. I has collected some worm juice which we have not tried yet.

Where can you buy shredded pine bark? You think some nurseries would sell it?
 
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