wow

[2fishminimum]

this is the greatest forum ive found for hot pepper growing by far.. the only problem is that it has made me rethink my whole plan for this growing season, and future seasons!

so a few questions to you guys who know more than me about growing.. ( which is most of you lol)

1) For most hot peppers (cayenne, jalapeno, datil, thai hot, bhuts, finger hots) what size pot is ideal? my soil at my house is just pure gray sand.. so its nearly impossible to grow in the ground.. I dont want to waste soil by using too big a pot, but i want the root system to be as big as it needs to be to create a prolific plant..



2) how much space between fully mature plants is needed.. is 12 to 18 inches from outer leaves enough? too much?

3) is there a particular fertalizer that is a must have for most peppers? ive heard good things about milogranite..


thanks guys

 

[LGHT]

Welcome to the forum and glad you liked it. I was in the same boat a few years ago and the guys here really helped me learn a lot, but in all honesty tips and tricks won't give you the full understanding of what it takes to grow big and healthy plants that yield pound after pound of fruit weekly.

From my personal experience I found that it's better to have 20 huge plants instead of 100 small ones. Ironically I started off with over a hundred plants and a few years later after lots of learning my 20 plants produced more than double the yield of the 100+ plants.

Container size is important and my thoughts are the bigger the better, but you can still get a good yield from a standard 5 gallon planted pot. I just feel if you can get a good yield from a plant in a 5 gallon container that same plant will give you a LOT more fruit in a 15 gallon container. For that reason I actually migrated over to using 30 gallon homemade earthbox type of containers and putting 2 plants in each one. Since I have no dirt and grow on my patio only it's a great way to take advantaged of the limted space and allow me to water less frequently and save water at the same time.

Checkout this video. I made a few changes as my container is 30 gallon and I use PVC for the wicking tube and not cups.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bhW5hf09ak


As far as fertilizer I start with an inert soiless medium that gives me TOTAL control over what the plant gets when I fertilize. This works for me because I opt to foliar feed the plant it's fertilizer which is a lot more efficient and allows to plant to intake fertilizer much faster. Plus it's a lot easier to mix liquid ferts and just put them in a pump spray and drinch the plants especially if your patios are 2nd and 3rd floor and you don't want anything dripping down below. As far as what type of fertilizers I use I went with the GH flora base series liquid ferts and amend it with worm tea and macro nutes from nitrozyme. I also use other things like superthrive when the plants are young and a few times a year.

Good luck