peppers

Some thoughts

1. Temperatures: have the day temps been warm, 65-85 and nights 60-75? Hotter temps seem to slow them down.
2. Water needs are about 1 inch per week (maybe too much water?)
3. Any Black Walnut tree roots in the area at any time?
4. Pollinators present?
5. Too many flowers can decrease yield. Try thinning to 6 flowers per plant for awhile.
6. Fertilizer: probably the best is, of course, compost. Then I like to use fish emulsion also. Hope this helps some. Emilie NorCal

Peppers can be slow to take off, and they do like the heat. If you've had a cool spring, that may be it.

They can also be pretty greedy - are any of the leaves yellowing?

I've used fish emulsion for years. Not 100% organic, but close enough. Slow release and high in nitrogen.

Our peppers are a bit slow this year due to the drought. They're just developing flowers now. We have to water them bi-weekly.

Good organic fertilizers are blood meal for nitrogen. Bone meal for phosphate and wood ashes for potash. Fish emulsion can get expensive, smells really bad and can draw unwanted pests to the garden like coons and possums.

Cool Spring?

I like it except, if you have flowers , I'd stay away from the nitrogen and go with bone meal and wood ashes.

Temps have been anywhere from 80-105 the last 3 weeks. It's 9:50AM now and already 77. Night temps haven't been lower than 65-70 that I know of. No black walnut trees, no bees that I've seen, about 4 flowers each plant. Might try the fish emulsion. Got wait on pay-check though. Thanks! Rae

Ok made mental note to check on bone meal too.

Definitely not cool. We had a long spring and late frost. But the past 3-4 weeks have been 80+. Plants look good in color, just not growing.

Ok, thanks for the tips on the emulsion, leaning more towards the blood & bones meal now. Already have a possum that's fell in love with my van of all things. Look out there any time of night, and the little bugger is sitting up on top of it. Would be ironic if my van was the one to run over it one day.......

We are in drought also, at least 9 inch deficent. Been keeping them watered though.

Rae

Try hollytone.

Hollytone?? Not familiar with this.....what can you tell me about it? Application, price, etc.............did a search on the 'net, but couldn't find out much. Anyone have experience with this?

"Rachael Simpson" expounded:

Excellent fertilizer for rhodies and the like made by Espoma.

Hollytone is a mostly organic 4-6-4 fertilizer for acid loving plants. To help increase the acidity, it contains 5% sulfur. The ingredients are: manure, feather meal, crab meal, cocoa meal, corn gluten, cottonseed meal, dried blood, sunflower meal, kelp meal, alfalfa meal, greensand, rock phosphate, sulfate of potash, humates, ammonium sulfate, and triple super phosphate.

Check it out at

It is a great product. For rhododendrons and azaleas, I recommend using it once each spring at half the rate on the package.

Candidly, I can't see jalapenos producing anything at 2" tall... Must be a midget pepper. Dave

I don't have an answer Rachael but if I couldn't see a problem, I'd try some B1. If you can get the roots to grow, the rest will follow along. Good luck,

Ha, I didn't mean that the plants were only two inches tall now - i meant they had only grown an additional 2 inches since being placed out side. No jalopenos either. cayenne, tabasco, peter pepper, hot banana, green bell. Bought the plants at the nursery, didn't have time to start my own this year. In all, from root to top, they were about 6 inches before I planted them. I planted the tomatos the same day as the peppers. Now usually, the peppers and tomatos kinda keep up with each other a while, but this year the tomatos have already tripled their size (as of yesterday!) and peppers haven't done much. I don't know, maybe I just have exceptional tomato plants this year................did get some bone meal to try - haven't had a chance to get out there to put it out yet though. Gonna try to later this morning.

Area here has had less than usual direct sun. Mostly overcast. The jalapenoes have been lagging my tomatoes as well. Yet, where you live, in drought and sunny conditions, have the same dilemma with other pepper varieties. Jalapenoes are producing here, just short in stature. Grow all mine from seed. Try jalapenoes next year for reference for your other pepper varieties. Save one for seed the following year. Dave