Hi NewGardenerNina,

I have not grown any Jalapenos so I do not know much about this variety.

You mentioned "I would like to stay away from fertilizers if possible." - you would like to use only the organic fertilizer or you do not like to use any fertilizer. I cannot get your point because container gardening needs fertilizer organic or non organic. Without fertilizer the plants may have a lot of problems of nutrient deficiency. If you used a very big container with very fertile soil then may be possible to grow without fertilizer regularly for a period of time.

Other forum members may answer your question more better than me, just wait.

Sorry for my poor English.

Caelian

Thank you for your answer, Caelian.

I use natural ingredients as helpers: banana peels, egg shells and other "quack remedies" that I learned from my grandma.

I'm not sure what organic fertilizer contains, but I would much rather grow the peppers naturally. Is this impossible for containers?

I appreciate the feedback.

NewGardenerNina, fertilizer made from natural ingredients are organic fertilizer. It is 100% possible to grow naturally. The link may have a lot of useful information about organic gardening:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/organic/

I do not have much experiences of gardening, I have been learning about container gardening here, this forum is very resourceful for me.

One of the most important factors to success container gardening is the medium/soil we use, just my opinion. The following link is all about fertilizer. It would be helpful to you too.

Caelian

Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizer Program for Containerized Plants II

As pointed out you will need to fertilize whether that's synthetic or organic. Banana peels have an NPK of 0-3.25-41.76 (when cooked to ash) and egg shells 1.19-0.38-0.14 looks like you will need more nitrogen unless you added something not listed that has more nitrogen. What type of soil are you using and does it have any nutrients already in it?

If I were you going the organic route I would start a compost pile and get the soil from there and use bigger pots to keep the micros happy and alive.

Good luck keep us updated on your season.

Mark

Patience is a virtue growing chiles........

Maybe it's just me, but that plant looks very "leggy". Is your light source far away? Do you have it in a window? You might want to consider potting up to a larger pot, and while doing so, bury that plant about 3 inches deeper. If it continues to grow like that, it could become very top heavy. This is especially true once it starts setting pods. Good Luck!

Tim

I agree with peppernovice. The fact that you have to have it tied up at this young age should be a red flag.