Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
americangardner

Pepper plants fruiting instead of growing

AmericanGardner
9 years ago

Hello,

We have dozens of bell, banana, and Jalepeno plants started from seed months ago and in the garden about 5 weeks ago (zone 6b-7a). They were outdoors on the patio a couple weeks prior to that. Weekly miracle grow (tomato formula) while they were on the porch.

Since moving to the garden, we fertilized one time a couple weeks ago via drip tape, with the mix described below.

The plants are setting flowers, and a few have 3" fruits. However, none of the plants are really growing much (maybe 2-3" growth over a month). They are mostly 6" or so, to maybe 10" tall.

We have meant to get a soil test on this new garden - we'll try to do that this week. I'm assuming by the lack of growth that it's safe to fertilize more this week. We're using a ~20-20-38 mix with magnesium sulfate added. We used about 1 lb. of fertilizer on 600' of row (applied in a thin strip via the drip tape) and will likely bump to 2 lbs. this time.

After the first fertilizing, the pepper leaves turned a little yellow. May have been due to general dry soil that week? (Aside from the actual fertigation).

Should we feel safe going ahead with a decent round of fertilizer on these guys before we get test results? I feel ok with it, but am curious about the yellow leaves.

Thanks!

Comments (4)

Sponsored
Peabody Landscape Group
Average rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars8 Reviews
Franklin County's Reliable Landscape Design & Contracting