a tale of 2 fatalii peppers

[tjg911]

i'm really surprised at what i saw today.

on 9/25/11 i germinated 10 fatalii seeds to see if they'd germinate. i ended up keeping 4 plants over the winter. i gave 2 away and kept 2. on 5/24 the biggest fatalii went into a 5 gallon pail sitting on asphalt and the other was a little smaller and went into the garden.

the container plant got 2 tablespoons of osmocote 14-14-14 or 17-17-17 in the soil (from the garden) mixed with compost and some lime and i sprinkled 1 tablespoon of osmocote on the top of the soil in the container. the garden plant got compost but no fertilizer or lime when planted. i fertilize both plants every 2 weeks with neptune's harvest fish and seaweed emulsion.

today the container pepper plant is very bushy and about 25% taller than the garden pepper plant, it has no peppers. the garden plant has 6 nearly full sized, green peppers!

i'd have thought the larger plant sitting on warm asphalt would produce fruit first. both had flowers when they went out. the container plant gets about 1 hour more sun each day.

any idea why the one that seems likely (to me) to produce fruits first has none and the other 6? is the osmocote growing too much green growth at the expense of flowers?

tom

[sprtsguy76]

I dont know what the deal is but I have got one Fatalii thats a dud! Started growing poorly as a seedling then start grwoing well and then pooped out on me again, I think I will be pulling it tomorrow. Bummer too I was really looking forward to trying it!

Damon

[FILMNET]

I have one in my garden still alive after a ton of rain/cold day for weeks, starting tomorrow we get some second set of hot days here by the ocean. My garden has small plants waiting for hot days, my peppers are still alive!!!!!!!!Nice I started them Feb 15 inside here.

[rockhound]

It could be the soil temp and thus the roots are too warm in the container.

[tjg911]

Originally Posted by rockhound

It could be the soil temp and thus the roots are too warm in the container.

i thought peppers liked having warm roots? especially a tropical pepper like fatalii which is from the central african republic... it's hot there!

i think it's too much fertilizer. 2 tablespoons in the soil mix and 1 on top then i fert with a gallon of water and neptune's harvest one or 2 times 2 weeks apart. NO more fertilizing until i see fruits appear.

tom

[roper2008]

I don't think it is the osmocote. I think it may have to do with putting
the garden soil in the 5 gallon bucket. It's best to use a potting mix. I
used osmocote 14-14-14 last year on some of my 5 gallon containers,
and my peppers produced well. The soil in containers needs to be lightweight.
This is just a guess!!

Opps, I didn't see the part about Neptune's. Once or twice a week of Neptune's
could be it. I also have Neptune's fish and seaweed, but use it about every 3 weeks.
I also wanted to say 3T of osmocote in a 5 gallon container is not too much.

[tjg911]

the garden soil is sandy loam and i cut it with 1/3 compost. the garden soil is, well the same thing, with less compost.

the nh usage is 1 time every 2 weeks. so there was at least one fertilization with nh maybe 2 with nh not 3 times.

i think the NH (1 or 2 times) + the 2 tablespoons of osmocote in the pail + 1 tablespoon on the top of the soil = too much fertilizer! too much lush green growth denotes too much N. the plant looks great just no fruits. commonly this is attributed to over N with tomatoes (and i suspect any plant), lush growth at the expense of producing fruits.

tom

[FILMNET]

Finally we have some heat days and night, these have taken off growing nice now soo to have fruit soon i hope. My Thai bird has fruit already the flowers are there for 1-2 day only, very small white flowers. So at top is the Fatilii and the 2 on bottom are the Coro Di Karpi