im wondering about the ideal soil(less) mix. ive had limited success growing hot peppers (jalapeños, habaneros, serranos) in a mix of potting soil, sphagnum, top soil, and manure. in fact, i planted about 10 plants in my raised bed last year and only harvested about 5 peppers total! i did, however, plant a tabasco pepper plant that exploded in late summer, constituting my only pepper success story last year.

this year i'm growing different peppers from seed under a grow light. im planning on planting some in my raised bed, but i'd like to plant the majority in containers for mobility and to experiment with soil mixes. im guessing my peppers didn't do so hot in my raised bed due to the high water retention of the soil mix, so i was thinking of just mixing course sand with potting soil for the container peppers to create more drainage.

any suggestions as to a simple and effective medium for potting hot peppers (i'll be planting habaneros, scotch bonnets, and serranos)? also, what would be a good container size to allow for full maturation without restricting growth?

any tips would be greatly appreciated!

Check out the link below, it is an earlier GW posting. This is a popular topic.

Good Luck!

Secondly, a good size container would be about 5 gallons to start...however, I think most folks
will agree that you can grow larger, more productive plants in larger containers.

Now, for my recommendation on a soil-less mix.
In my opinion, bark is a far more suitable filler ingredient than potting soil, peat moss,
coco coir, or any other organic component. I start with fine-grade Orchid Bark (fir bark), and then
I add in ingredients that increase moisture retention while still maintaining excellent drainage -
gritty ingredients such as perlite, turface, or pumice.

To provide Calcium, and to slightly raise the low starting pH of the bark, I add Dolomitic Garden Lime -
1 tablespoon per gallon of soil mix. Garden Lime is inexpensive, and one bag will last many years.

A very cost efficient container mix uses this recipe:
5 parts bark, 1 part potting soil, and 1 part perlite. Add in 1 tablespoon Dolomitic Garden Lime
per gallon of soil. Mix well, plant, water, and fertilize as you would normally.

Josh

If you can find bags of mulch which have fine enough bark, that'll work, too. For the mix we're talking,
you want your bark to be 1/2 inch or less. Big, chunky bark will not work. Needs to be fairly fine.
Avoid Cedar and Redwood bark - and no artificially colored bark, either.

1 part potting soil, yep you got it. Anything you have on hand will work. The purpose of the
potting soil is to act as a binder to clog up drainage, thereby increasing moisture retention.
But you want to keep it to just 1 part, otherwise your mix starts holding too much moisture.
If you happen to have peat moss, or some other exotic brand of potting soil, you can use it
for the 1 part.

I'll contact you.

Josh

For the record, this mix was developed by Al (Tapla). More can be read in the Container Forum.

Plantslayer, this mix is best watered from above, yes.
However, Raybo uses a modified version of this mix in his self-watering containers.
For better wicking, I think they do something like 3 parts bark, 2 parts soil, 1 part perlite....
but don't take my word for it! Check over in Containers.

Once an appropriate bark is found, you can produce huge volumes of mix for far less money.
It does take some leg-work up front.

Josh

So in the long run they are way cheeper,all things considered.
Only reason I repot stuff is to go to a bigger pot,not to refresh the soil mix like you have to do with peat based stuff.
If you are growing Manzanos or Rocotos you'll see they really love the bark based soil mix.
I only grow non bell peppers and love bark based soil mixes.
Once you know how to use them.
To me the secret is keep everything as uniform in size as you can as far as bark and perlite goes.
Small perlite and big bark lets the mix compact down somewhat.Separate into layers in the pot.
Some people screen the bark and perlite but I don't.
I just eventually find out which pots are faster or slower draining and add more peat to make them all pretty much the same.
No soil mix is perfect.It boils down to what works for you in general.
Like a cooking recipe.You adjust it to what you like though it's basically the same ingrediants.

They had Orchid Bark and Perlite; I didn't find Pumice. The OB and Perlite were $3.97 for 8-dry quarts.

In addition, coconut coir holds as much moisture as peat moss, and yet it actually has less loft...
in other words, it compacts even more readily.

I'm sure that would be great for raised beds, but I wouldn't be so quick to use it for containers...
unless the containers are in direct contact with the earth, which is essentially a mini raised bed.

Josh

Rudy

any ideas where to find larger quantities of fine-grade fir bark? im very interested in a bark-heavy recipe, but all the bags im finding online are smaller and more money than i'd like to spend. i'll have around 25 3-gallon containers going this year, so economy-size bags would be ideal.

obviously the domestic orchid grower won't usually need so much potting medium, but orchid distributors must get it from somewhere...

Josh

Just to throw in my 2 cents, you might consider a landscaping supply for larger quantities of fir bark... a quick google search (or other search engine of you choice)should garner results in your area. I am fairly certain the cost per yd is much less than the cost per foot bagged, and if you have something to haul it in, it could be well worth the time to get it that way.

Just my opinion,
Mike

I'm also curious why you settled on the 3 gallon containers? Are those transitional or final places for your peppers?

Rudy

kosherbaker: i settled on 3-gallon pots because i plan on being around to water sufficiently throughout the summer. also, im on a pretty tight budget and the 5-gallon nursery pots were twice as much money ($1 vs. $2). i'm also going to be moving to a different region in august and i would like to take as many plants with me as possible. i figure the 3 gallon pots will keep the plants smaller. i don't want to limit pepper production, though. --- anyone had success growing hot peppers in 3-gallon pots? i know ideally they would be in 5-gallons, but i'm hoping they'll do fine in 3-gallons...

smokemaster: that's what i need! where did you pick that up?

Thanks,

Jon