sweet pepper growing advice desperately needed. HELP!

I'm hoping someone could help me figure out what i"m doing wrong with growing peppers. Every year I plant pepper plants and get maybe one from every plant. There's got to be a secret that I don't know about...HELP! Please share your helpful advice on growing peppers I'm at my wits end. ;(

No secrets. If planting in the ground, make sure you have a loose seed bed 8-10 inches deep. If you are using containers use a large one at least several gallons, 5 gallons is good. Use a good quality grow mix. Peppers are not very demanding but are subject to diseases especially bells. But in fertile soil and no diseases just tranplant when all danger of frost is well past, keep them weed free, and wait for the harvest. If you iirigate, be careful too little is better than too much. Non bells like Giant Marconi, Carmen etc are easier than bells.

And they like HEAT. this year I am using 20 gallon containers on top of my blacktop driveway. We had a very hot summer, for here, last year, and the peppers did well not on blacktop, so this is my first year trying the driveway thing and I can't tell you how it worked, but maybe food for thought. Black pots, black mulch, south wall...anything you can do to increase heat.

I have noticed that they don't bloom or set fruit if the Nitrogen level is too high. The plants will be beautiful but not very productive. Just a thought...I've never mastered the weed free part.

Tuesday, I threw alfalfa pellets all over my pepper bed, cause I thought it was nutrient deprived, and the plants were looking puny and yellow.

It was as I finished watering them all in that I realized how much nitrogen I had just introduced. Now, all I can do is pray for ONE sweet bell pepper....shoot...

This message was edited May 7, 2015 12:48 PM

I also am a complete failure with growing bell peppers. This year, on the advice of a friend, I'm trying Gypsy peppers. I have about 6 plants that I grew from seed, and they're about 18" tall. Every one of them is loaded with peppers. The peppers are about 4 1/2" long and almost 2" across. Right now, they're a pale golden green color; they're supposed to turn orange, then red. I have none that have started to turn colors yet. Raw they taste just like bell peppers, only a little milder and more tender. I have tried them in cooking, in a jambalaya, and they disappeared to nothing, but the taste was still there. Tonight, I'm going to try them in potato salad.

Sorry about the sideways picture.

Jo-Ann

In a year when humidity was low, i set stakes 2' away from the plants I had grouped in a circle around my watering hole in the middle, then wrapped plastic 2' high around them. It helped with the wind, the humidity and the heat. Alfalfa pellets are slo release nitrogen- just like a compost addition, should do fine.

Kitt,
You're right! I forgot about the alfalfa pellets being slow release! They've swelled up like little poo turds all over the top of the bed.

I watered the veggies this morning, and noticed new growth all over the pepper plants. Also, there are TONS of pepper blooms over all the plants now.

Guess the intuition was right!

Thanks!

So, you can just throw the pellets on the beds and water? I thought you had to steep them in water for a few weeks, causing a horrendous foul smell, and then water the plants with it. I like your method so much better. LOL

LOL!

You can soak the pellets, but I'd not wait for the horrendous smell before using it!

I wouldn't soak the rabbit food I would just toss them, dry. That smell is from bacteria that you may not want in your soil.

I may have to go to the farm store to get rabbit food. Dry rabbit food.

You are better off to find alfalfa pellets- rabbit alfalfa comes in different percents of protein, just depends on what you can find

Jomoncon your peppers are gorgeous, they even >look< tender.

Oh...okay. Alfalfa pellets. I will look for them. Has anyone else used alfalfa pellets on their peppers?

Tractor Supply if you have one, carries several grades of alfalfa pellets.

I have found TS to be much more expensive then local feed store or hardware store.

Kitt- I'm just wondering what difference it would make regarding the amount of protein in rabbit food and plants? Just wondering....

Protein in this case is prob the percent of alfalfa to filler-

I got my alfalfa pellets at a local feed store. Cheap...

13Turtles...I just saw that you are from Springfield, OR. I bet your blacktop driveway will generate lots of heat for your peppers. Here in Coos Bay I get the best production from North Star, a small bell pepper that is early. I grow my peppers on the south side, on the patio, in a huge black planter that used to be a cattle watering trough. I haven't planted my seedlings out yet because it has been a bit cold here, especially at night. And, of course, windy.

Yeah, beebonnet, mine are no way going to go out yet either, nor my eggplants. Thanks for the vote of confidence.