Serrano pepper seemingly stalled

[Steve Magruder]

I transplanted a serrano pepper plant bought from an online nursery on May 11. The plant was healthy when it arrived, and it has appeared healthy since it's been planted, with a short period of time in the middle where the top leaves were wilted over. Nothing is wilting now. See the attached pic.

Today, June 8, there are no blossoms on the plant, and the plant doesn't seem to have grown out much at all. As you can see, it's a skinny plant.

I planted this the same way all my other tomato and pepper plants were planted, in individual mounds of soil, where the soil was amended with Miracle-Gro garden soil and used quality garden soil from another property. I've kept it watered the same as the other plants.

Is this plant just slower than other pepper plants at producing, or is there something wrong that I need to attend to? Or maybe it's the recently very mild weather until today, and the plant likes the very warm and hot temperatures?

I'm just trying to get my head around this one. Thanks for any thoughts you may have.

[ContainerTed]

My nephew-in-law loves serranos. I grow them for him every year. What I've found is that this pepper spends a lot of time developing roots and foliage and then puts on a somewhat astonishing fruit set - something I almost think is "determinate" in nature. You're looking good so far and my money says it will start growing sideways in short order. Look for additional branches to start forming above the mainstem leaves, and then, when they mature, you'll see lots of fruit-set in a short amount of time.

[Steve Magruder]

Thanks Ted for the info! Can't wait for these peppers... they help make perfect pico de gallo.

[bitterwort]

It looks underfertilized to me. If it were mine, I would pull the wood mulch away from directly around the plant and start feeding it with one of the tomato fertilizer formulations at the strength for regular watering.

[Steve Magruder]

It's possible that not enough of the Miracle-Gro Garden Soil got worked into this corner of the garden.

At any rate, I'm not sure how to reconcile the responses here. Would adding some fertilizer hurt if it's already well-fertilized and just spending its time developing its roots? I know some plants act this way, such as peonies.

[Steve Magruder]

I decided to split the difference between the responses.

I just spotted the first blossom on the plant, and I'm noticing new leaves/stems down the length of the plant. Good signs.

But to buttress the growth of the plant, I added a tablespoon of time-release fertilizer under the mulch. I have a feeling this will be enough with what I'm seeing right now.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

[Steve Magruder]

I just spotted the first serrano pepper growing today. Cool.

[ContainerTed]

Patience, Stevey Boy, Patience !!!!!

Easy on those ferts. The fruiting wave is under way now. That means the soil and nutrients balance is inside the fruiting window for the plants. Adding too much stuff right now might close that window and put the plant back into the adding foliage stage.

It is a time for Patience.

[Steve Magruder]

Oh I am. This pepper appeared roughly a week after I added some time-release fertilizer. The plant has a lot of blossoms on it.