I normally mix in a bunch of Rosetone with the soil, but that's only because I have a lot of that laying around from my rose growing. Otherwise, it's Miracle Gro. If you think 15-30-15 is too hot, you can always dilute it to whatever ratio you like by adding more water.

I use half strength fish emulsion / seaweed emulsion mix.

Chris

I usually mix 1 teaspoon of Miracle-Gro (15-30-15) in a Gallon of water and use it each time my plants need watering. Or, sometimes I may mix a rounded Tablespoon of Miracle-Gro in a five gallon bucket of water. This works out to about 4 teaspoons of plant food for five gallons of water.

Alan

Hi, I recently moved into a mobile home park and am growing in containers for the first time. I am using a liquid concentrate made by Shultz. (10-15-10 Plus micro nutrients) I use a very weak mix for foliar feeding. I just mix up a full dripper full of this with a gallon of water. (aprox 12 drops) Add several drops of dish soap to help the solution stick to the leaves. I also add about a TBS of epsom salts as well. I just use a sprayer set for a fine mist directly to the leaves several times a day. I mix 3 dropper full of concentrate per gal for feeding the roots. After the plants were put into plastic pails, I switched the plant food to a dry bloom mix made by MG. I use one spoon full per gal. I give them this once a week now as the container mix has time release nutrients. I also am trying some Shultz cactus plant food, (2-7-7) on a number of plants. I do put my egg shells around the base of the plants. My plants are now 7 weeks old. They are 18" tall and are flowering. They are Thai mostly with some cayenne. I am still looking for my mini usb cable to my camera. So, no pix. I'd like to hear how it goes with you, and what you end up doing.

err, if this is the first time your using the soil, why would you neet ferts at all?

your more likely to ruin a crop by over fertilizing than under fertilizing

Good point. The exercise was to try foliar feeding mostly. My plants are doing very well. My previous growing involved hydroponics. I suspect that the mix I am using for the roots would need to be used more frequently in a growing medium without added nutrients. err, so far, the process seems to be that the bloom booster mix for the roots has certainly produced flowering. One plant has small peppers already. I have a tabasco plant covered with peppers. It is planted in the ground, but gets the same treatment as the potted plants. However, I think that the robust growth is due to the foliar feeding. Several postings on another forum convinced me that it was worth trying.

I fertilize mine with the Miracle grow formula diluted to half strength but only a couple of times during the season.

John

Well, I found my missing usb cable for the camera, so I have a few pictures of my foliar fed plants. I don't know how well the methods I am using will work in other areas, but here near Tampa, the plants grew fast in full sunlight. Now, I keep them under the car port all the time with some direct sun in the late afternoon. I may need to stake them soon.

Here is a link that might be useful: pepper pots

they look beautiful and very healthy, just keep in mind though that too much N will hurt your pepper production.

when i fertilize, i do it as a means of boosting plant size, as soon as i think the plant is big enough i lay off the additives and the plant puts out buds.

Thanks sndk, I have heard that it's better to use lower nitrogen levels during pepper production. I was surprised to see that the bloom mix was 15-10-15. I applied it once before there was any flowering. From this point on, however, I am just going to give them water and see how they do for a while. I will also discontinue the foliar feeding. Thanks for the tips.

I do what cmpman1974 does. I use half strength too but alternate them, and fertilize infrequently. I also spray the leaves with a very weak fish emulsion, seaweed extract and epsom salt mix once in a while. I find foliar feeding works well.

I use some stuff called dynamtie its 15-15-15... after the first application they immediately greened up better than any pepper plants i have ever had. THey seem to have made the plants alot more full as well... got it at home depot.

Thanks to all of you for your comments & suggestions. It looks like half strength Miricle Grow has more votes.
John