Favorite liquid fertilizer for potted pepper plants?
 

I only grow a few pepper plants each season and tend to treat them poorly and feed them the Texas Tomato food that I give the tomatoes. I have 6 pepper plants in an EB that produced a lot earlier then looked like death warmed over. I almost pulled them but instead a few weeks ago I started dosing them with calcium nitrate and magnesium down the tube at a 2 to 1 ratio. They look so much better now and are loaded with blooms in time for another good flush of peppers.

I dont really want to use TTF on them again. Should I try a fish emulsion or something different?

I have 2 cups of 10 10 10 in the box from earlier in the season.

What is your favorite pepper fertilizer for potted pepper plants? I'm looking for liquid or liquid soluble options for quick results since there are so many blooms and baby peppers on the plants right now.

Ginny [IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180726/71929108db1cf420c93b2075a654d49e.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180726/0a852388a328099ee2c87028b63b5107.jpg[/IMG][IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180726/7ba50351c4029cf01f50d08fa405c7b3.jpg[/IMG]

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At this stage I would use lower nitrogen higher P and K liquid soluble plant food... the blue powdered stuff. But then I am not one to shy away from Miracle-gro or Schultz or those kinds of fertilizers. What I use is called "bloom booster" or some such. The formula is 8-20-15 or the equivalent.

I mix a "tea" using alfalfa pellets, epsom salts, blackstrap molasses. Let it steep outside for 48 hours or longer. Let the alfalfa settle to the bottom and then use the liquid to fertilize tomatoes and peppers. I mix all of this in 5 gallon bucket of rain water. I also top dress the peppers with the alfalfa leftover in the bucket. They love it and they bloom like crazy. :surprised:

For me, the Vegetable version of TTF works best. However, I have most of my pepper plants in Root Pouches.

With all the rain we are getting in the late afternoons, yesterday I just added a coffee scoop one of the tones (wasn't tomato tone or plant tone) to the top.

Your plants look good; I would keep doing what you are doing. When do you come back to FL? I bet your old neighbors at the RV Park miss getting all those tomatoes from you.

Lately I have just been using osmocote pellets, but all my peppers are in 3 or 7 gallon pots. It works surprisingly well.
I save my Earthboxes for the tomatoes, and 1 for cucumbers. In my Bed I use the calcium nitrate and Epsom salts at a one teaspoon calcinit to 1/3 teaspoon Epsom salts, because GeneralHydroponics says to do it that way,, but it looks like I really could add a bit more Epsom salts, sometimes a few still get a mag deficiency. Also sometimes the leaves start turning white, thats an iron deficiency. The osmocote has all the trace minerals too, very good stuff.

I use way more Epsom salts than you are using along with a good hand full of wood ashes then water it in with Urban Farms Vegetable formula which I find works much better than TTF on bell peppers. About every three feedings I will dose them with Miracle Grow. I also add a half teaspoon of chelated iron to my Vegetable formula when feeding. They seem to like the extra iron and the extra magnesium from the Epsom salts and the extra potash from the ashes.

My biggest problem right now with my peppers besides sun scald is all the pepper plants at the shady end of the garden are just covered with massive amounts of aphids and no matter how often I kill them back they return in a matter of days. Even my spray with Permethrin, Dawn and DE will only stop them for three or four days and as soon as new leaves form they are all over them.

Bill

I've never had trouble with aphids on peppers or tomato plants, BUT my roses use to be covered in them. Especially the new growth. Make a mixture of dish washing soap, water and cayenne pepper. It worked great on my rose bushes and didn't bother the beneficial insects that pollinate the garden. Also you can add any crushed tomato leaves in the mixture.

Wow what happened to the days? I appreciate everyones feedback and had stopped by to read them a while ago but didnt have time to post.. No better place to learn how to grow things than here... :-) i ended up going with a fertiluzer that was lower in nutrogen as some of you recommended. My concern was too many of the blossoms would drop so I wanted to try and prevent that. Well a lot did drop but still plenty left turning into peppers so thats good

The one bad thing is the epsom salt I used was scented and I didnt realize it and it definitely changed the taste of the tomatoes. Gave them an unpleasant perfumy twang. Took us a while to make the connection but they statted out tasting so good and changed a while after i dosed them with lots of epsom salts in the soil. Foliar and down the tube. So note to self... lol

Hope eveyone is doing well.

A couple of pictures below.

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These guys are from N Florida.I use the kelps a lot.Including clean harvest from some nice beaches here.They on Amazon.

[url]https://www.gsplantfoods.com/store/p2/Liquid_Kelp_Organic_Seaweed_Fertilizer.html[/url]

Over the years I've found my peppers do best when they get surplus cal nitrate, Osmocote (ground up and pellet form) and epsom salts.

They get weekly teas (worm castings, veg compost, alfalfa, guano) and it seems to help them through heatwave and in their battles with bugs.