Nice looking peppers! I have four of these trying to spit out some fruits but mine looks like a sad joke compared to yours.

What type of soil are you using? What fertilizer?

Nice plant! Do you ever flush the roots out with water to avoid salt build-up? I am always scared of using chemical fertilizers like Miracle Grow in container plants. Do you use a low level of fert with every watering?

Yes Cole. I use a very low 1/3 strength of all purpose miracle grow. I use maxibloom here and there to get all needed nutrients in.

The peppers are really hot and taste great!!!

NO salt buld up. When I water sometimes i do not even let the water come out the bottum of the pot which could get slat build up but the plants use up the nutrients in the soil so quik.

Thanks for responding.

Aren't you ultimately relying on bacterial action in your medium to feed your plants the nutrients they consume?

What?

I use synthetic fertilizers. MG all purpose and maxibloom.

The medium is promis bx mixed with a little compost.

Yes, but MG contains fertilizer compounds that must be broken down by bacteria to make the nutrients available to the plant.
That is why I asked. There is nothing wrong with what you're doing. Your pepper plants looks very nice.

Thanks for posting grizzman,

O yea The urea in the mg?

Yea I would think so. I know that the mg is great though.

Next season I will be doing a soilless table top/bench grow. It will be all 100% jalapenos. After seeing how well the jalapeno grows, I want to grow about 100 next year ;)
my jalapeno really like the fertilizer program too I am using.

Here is an update on that cayenne. It is now in a 5 gal.
{{gwi:46010}}

Here is some cayenne and jalapeno.

{{gwi:50354}}

Here is more jalapeno, hot cherry, and two sun thai.

MOst of my harvest has come from the jalapeno, a sure winner.

Nice setup my man!

So do you mind schooling me on your drain to waste here?

What media are you using? How often do you water or fertilize?

How does this work?

Trying to expand my amateur knowledge

*** on second thought now I see that you already mentioned the growth medium. What exactly is it though, as far as its raw material makeup?

Yup Very true HomeHydro.

"Really??? Are you scared of your big toe also???

Hahaha!!!

In fact, you can get salt build up quiker using organics in containers.

ethnobotany,

I use promix bx mixed with a bit of very light forest compost. The idea is to have air porosity but also have a good buffer which is where the compost comes in.

I feed with every watering at 1 tsp per gal, so 1/3 strength.

I do not only use miracle gro all purpose. I also use maxibloom 5-15-14: 5%Ca 3.5%Mg 4% S.

I'm guessing this was directed at me and deleted by moderators:
HomeHydro.
"Really??? Are you scared of your big toe also???
Hahaha!!!

I can see how moderators would have to spend a lot of time deleting the junk that "homehydro" puts on this forum.

I'm not sure who this came from, probably 'homehydro' as well, because it is so far-fetched and unrealistic.

In fact, you can get salt build up quiker using organics in containers.

Maybe you can, as in it is theoretically possible, but no one does. That's part of the benefit of using organic fertilizers. I think Miracle Grow is complete garbage, and it surprises me that anyone can produce healthy container plants with it. Notice the OP said he is using it at 1/3rd strength. Following the package directions would probably kill everything.

"In fact, you can get salt build up quiker using organics in containers."

No I said that, And science ;)

Cole Robbie,

I do not know why homehydro's post got deleted.

It is clear you do not know much at all-"I think Miracle Grow is complete garbage, and it surprises me that anyone can produce healthy container plants with it."

I can clearly see you know very little about growing Cole Robbie.

Well what you THINK is just that ;)

Those that are new to growing, and do not understand science say things just like that against miracle gro. Until you have some EXPEREINCE then you may see.

Its funny. Homehydro is making it clear to viewers that some give information that is wrong like Cole Robbie.

"Notice the OP said he is using it at 1/3rd strength. Following the package directions would probably kill everything. "

Cole Robbie,

I would hate to think there are people that would actually listen to you and take you seriously. ;)

Awww o no I spelled "EXPERIENCE" wrong o no ;)

sorry- *EXPERIENCE

I must slow down when I type, sorry :)

This may explain things better:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0210213311349.html

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0416300720216.html?33

"Posted by Cole_Robbie none (My Page) on Sun, Jul 29, 12 at 12:44

Nice plant! Do you ever flush the roots out with water to avoid salt build-up? I am always scared of using chemical fertilizers like Miracle Grow in container plants. Do you use a low level of fert with every watering? "

You said nice plants, and thanks. You said you are scared of using chemical fertilizers in containers. Which I was going to let go and not get into the science of why organics are not reliable in container culture, and how plants can not tell the difference between synthetics or organics.
This may help-http://www.simplyhydro.com/do_organics_taste_better.htm

Then you made comments like:
"I think Miracle Grow is complete garbage, and it surprises me that anyone can produce healthy container plants with it."

In my post. :)

Anyway ;)

Here is just some peppers I froze :) Grown with 100% synthetics ;) They taste so good!
{{gwi:46011}}

I can clearly see you know very little about growing Cole Robbie.

Pics don't lie. I posted them here:
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/hydro/msg071835028557.html?29

Everyone knows Miracle Grow is garbage, including me. But I still use it, because it's cheap. Just not in containers. An average person is going to kill a container plant by using Miracle Grow. It causes salt build-up, nutrient lock, and ph problems.

Well what would you use for container plants then?

Hydroponic fertilizer with NO urea? If so, ok.

If you are saying organics are better for use in container culture, your very wrong.

"It causes salt build-up, nutrient lock, and ph problems. "

Really? Where did you HEAR that? Are you saying it is the urea? that is converted quikly in potting media. I would never use miracle gro in a true hydroponic system. To say it is not good for container gadeing is just wrong info.

You have a nice harvest of tomatoes cole robbie. Are they organic container grown? I used to use organics in containers with great results. My results have increased now that I use synthetics.

If I had not used maxibloom which is a high calcium bloom fertilizer, I would not have such results. I use the miracle gro as a filler and it provides micronutrients. From a nutrtional stand point-miracle gro works very well and it full of nutrition.

Cole Robbie,

I said those things for the sake of argument, I can see you know a great deal.
I was just saying that because you said things against miracle gro which is what i use. I really am interested in what you use.

Thanks.

Thank you. I take no offense at all.

My opinions of miracle grow come from seeing so many people have poor results with it. When I sell someone a tomato plant, I try to discourage them from using it for container growing, not because it's impossible to use with good results, but because it's just too hard for the average person. It might be because of poor instructions on the box. You said yourself that you use a lower strength formula. And once again, I use the stuff myself on plants that are in the ground.

My container plants were in a combination of two different pro mixes. One of them contained a shrimp shell compost. I added osmocote time-release fertilizer to the mix. I used the regular osmocote; next year I might try the mini-prill plus minors. With every watering, the plants got a mix of a lot of different things, such as alaskan fish, bat guano, epson salts, molasses, and greensand. The water I used came from a tank of bluegill.

I did do two fertilizations using my chemical ferts that I bought for my soil tomatoes, but I was extremely judicious with the measuring of those. One was calcium nitrate and the other was similar to miracle grow, but the npk numbers are different. The last number is the highest. I don't even measure the organic ferts, but I am extremely careful with the chemical ones. I also use straight fish tank water on the next watering after using chemical ferts.

I don't expect anyone to do all of that, nor do I even know what part of the routine made it work. But they were good tomatoes. That's all I cared about.

You have quite the operation. And again, as you know, I was just joking about what I said. :)

Yea I would like to be able to find the osmacote plus. I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Do you use both promix bx and hp? I am looking into using promix hp next year.

How do you feel about just straight fine Coco Coir? The real fine stuff that is almost the consistency of soil? I mean just straight coco nothing else. Maybe a little pearlite if you are feeling you need better drainage. IMO coco drains just fine on its own.

jpeg667,

Lets talks about Coco Coir a little. Coco is at a ph of 6 which is perfect, right? Wrong. Peatmoss or bark for example have a ph of 4-5. They need lime to balance ph. The lime acts as a ph buffer for a long time in the mix so you do not have to ph your water. With coco, being there is no lime or ph buffer you have to ph your water to make sure it is 5.9 every time.

The reason I even use a little compost is because of the ph buffer. I add the compost to keep it a nice soilless potting mix that is easy to grow in.

If you make a potting mix with coco that whould work great. If you made a mix of coco,compost,and perlite then you would never need to ph your water. You could just use tap water all the way with no ph jump.

^^

So if you have a nutrient solution like the Maxi series which is already pH buffered then coco coir works very well?

Can coco coir be re-used or should it be thrown out after each plant grown in it? I am considering buying a couple buckets and some irrigation so that I can make a GH waterfarm type setup, not sure exactly what that system is classified as (DWC, recirculating, etc.) but it looks cool. Thinking about either using coco coir or just hydroton

It turns out most of the time when adding your nutrients; the water ph lowers to about a ph of 6, or I should say sometimes. That is not always the case though. If your watering with tap, even using nutrients with buffers, you will get a ph climb. Tap water is almost always a high ph.

When you have a mix that has compost in it, like a light potting mix, it is just very easy to grow in. You may not have the same air porosity as a soilless media with no compost, but the buffering of the mix makes it more forgiving to grow in. But again, even just lime acts as a ph buffer and can be applied every few months. With that said, the addition of compost to the mix makes the mix have an even stronger buffer.