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fertilizer What's the best fertilizer for peppers

CarvinGuitarist said:
My peppers look like crap compared to yours. Funny thing is I don't really care as I don't eat that many anyhow.
Mine look malnourished or something but I am in a I don't give a shit attitude this season. If they live, fine, if they die they go in the compost pile. :lol:
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What about using worm tea? :party:
 
HotPeppas said:
How long does it take a worm bin to get a decent amount of castings?

I do agree though organics is a lot of trouble for your daily worker with raising kids at home.
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If you have a few bins started at different times, you can schedule it where you can harvest worm castings every other week. It really depends on the type of bedding that you use and the type of feed stock that you feed to the worms. And it depends on the type and quantity of worms that you start with. My worms seem to do good even when I tend to neglect them. They get one feeding a week and watering about every other week if needed. If you want anymore info just PM me.
 
I've been using miracle gro for tomatoes, I mentioned in another post how my neighbor lived by it for his vegetable garden.... I've also been staying Epsom salt and have been adding a 3-4-4 fertilizer into the soil with each pot transplant, I dot remember what all it has in it, but I do know it has pasteurized poultry manure....
 
I had been using some of the Fox Farm nutes, just for experimentation, but they are way too expensive to continue. I got a bag of worm castings and bat guano and will top off the soil with that. Perhaps if I get adventurous I might make some tea.
 
I don't know if these are ideal, but got good results this year with:

Miracle Gro Tomato
Mater Magic

I used the Miracle Gro dissolving powder every 2-3 weeks in the beds and pots starting in June. The Mater Magic is a slow dissolving pellet. I used it early August and it took a few weeks to completely water in. Next year I'll mix some in at the bottom or the roots as well. I also watered in some epsom salts a few times.
 
I only fertilize/ammend my gardens based on what my soil test report indicates that I need.. The key to having an amazing garden in my opinion, is having a healthy balanced soil.
everyone’s soil is different and should be treated as such. Many times I have not had to fertilize at all throughout the season because I made the proper ammendments in the spring and fall based on my soil test.

I recommend getting a soil test at A&L Labs, or Western Labs, these labs perform the most complete tests that I've seen, it is really important to get a complete picture in order to balance your soil.
 
For those of you interested, I found a web site that lists the nitrogen/phosphorous/potassium values for over 150 organic items: http://www.thechileman.org/guide_fertilizer.php. As it turns out, wood ash is great for potassium. For a while my mom was growing tomato plants in an old fire pit and they did great. Looks like an easy way to get potassium as I always have ashes from a fire pit, fireplace or charcoal (natural lump). You could build your own mix based on which of these items were available in your area.
 
I don't know if I am using the best fertilizer or not, but I'm going with something that seems to be different from everyone. I'm using a polymer coated 18-6-8 360 day Nutricote with minors (about 6 minor elements). Even though it releases fertilizer right away, it takes about 2 months to start to release at full capacity but once it is at full swing, it lasts an entire year with just that one application in the soil. I incorporate it in the trays where I start my seeds, in the 4 inch pots and then in the larger pots that the plants will grow out in. When I first pot up the plants, I also use triple super phosphate (0-46-0) This makes the root system grow at least twice as fast as it would otherwise while I'm waiting for the full swing release of the Nutricote. TSP only lasts a month, so it works perfectly when I use it at the same time. I see people say that too much nitrogen will make plants grow well, but not flowering or pod production, and I know that is true, but with this formula I am not seeing a lot of growth without flowering. I am getting great growth, good color, and plenty of flowering and pod production, and I only have to us it once a year, or each time I step up a plant to another container. I am tempted to use the TSP more than once in the season to stimulate more flowers, but I'm getting flowers from most of the new nodes and I'm getting about 4 cycles, or crops each season, so that is a lot of back and forth fertilziing that apparently, I am not needing, because the Nutricote works great. It is not cheap fertilizer but It takes just over 1 bag to take care of the 300 pepper plants I have to fertilize for an entire year, which for me, is cheap compared to all the time it takes to fertilize more times during the year. Tom
 
This is just my two cents and I'm far from an expert, but whatever fertilizer(s) you choose to go with, I'd consider the addition of mycorrhizal spawn. If you wiki "mycorrhizae," you'll see what I mean.
 
Wicked Mike said:
This is just my two cents and I'm far from an expert, but whatever fertilizer(s) you choose to go with, I'd consider the addition of mycorrhizal spawn. If you wiki "mycorrhizae," you'll see what I mean.
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Only if they keep it organic! Adding mycorrhizae and then applying Miracle-Gro or other non-organic fertilizers will kill off the microherd so you have to chose one or the other.
 
Proud Marine Dad said:
Only if they keep it organic! Adding mycorrhizae and then applying Miracle-Gro or other non-organic fertilizers will kill off the microherd so you have to chose one or the other.
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You may have fewer microbes but unless the synthetics are over applied you won't kill them all off.  Organic fertilizers turn into the same salts as some synthetics, can't be absorbed by the plant until they are.
 
Hey Folks!
 
This is my 2nd season growing hot peppers. When you growers say "fish emulsion", is that the same thing as the bottle of Alaska Fish Fertilizer I see at HD, Lowes, etc.? I bought a bottle of it and I've been using it on the plants this year. As a newbie, there are so many fertilizer options that it can be confusing...at least for me anyways. I did have success producing a good compost pile for this year; hoping it makes a difference.
 
John
 
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