Known tricks to growing peppers

[Starlight]

Originally Posted by heirloomtomaguy

I grew 32 Carolina Reaper plants last year along with another 24 misc. super hots. All of these went in the ground for the first time. I usually grow in containers so here is what works best for me. In a container i like to prune all of the lower leaves that form on the main stem leaving only about the top 1/3 of the plant. When you notice the main stem starting to "Y" do not prune anymore. This will give your plant a nice tree style growth habit. When the plant starts to flower always pick the flower that is in the "Y" of the plant. Doing this will make the plant go into hyper drive. If that flower in the "Y" or split develops it will slow down production of your plants. I have no scientific evidence or explanation to why this works but i was told by a fellow chile head to do so and since i started doing it ive seen results. I also like to give them a foliar feeding of compost tea once a week when they start to flower and if you want even more flowers and potential chiles foliar spray them with earth juice bloom master. Believe me it works awesome. I usually grow my peppers in 5 gallon containers but for more production double the size. Now as far as making the peppers hotter i have not noticed a big difference when i let the plant wilt. However if you are looking for the hottest peppers on the plant i have noticed that the lower on the plant the pepper grows the hotter it is. So if you are trying to really burn someone who thinks they know chiles just give them the first peppers lowest to the ground off of the main stem. Also my Super hot plants usually reach 5-6 feet tall with the proper nutrients in the soil and with my pruning method. Good luck with your Carolina reaper plants!

I haven't heard of this method before. Thanks for sharing. I think I will give it a try and see what happens. What is your compost tea consist of, please? So many folks have different recipes they make and use.

You also mentioned earth juice bloom master. Is that something folks can buy locally?

[heirloomtomaguy]

I buy the pre made pouches of compost tea from Xtreme Gardening. These work for me far better than my home brew attempts. As far as the Earth Juice Bloom Master goes i buy it from my local hydroponic store as well as the Xtreme Tea. I have seen both on amazon though if you do not have a hydro store near you.

[drew51]

I find a lot of these products to be very expensive. I stick with simple organic and soluble fertilizers. I'm pretty happy with the results. If you're having problems you should try a different method. I agree on that. Also do not over do it! I heard this story about a new professor of horticulture whom was hired at a university. She looked over the university plants, and many had deficiencies. She stopped all fertilization for awhile as she explained that the plants can absorb only so much and the excessive NPK was blocking the absorption of micro nutrients. I'm not sure she was exactly right, but can say that more is not better. Understanding requirements of your plants, letting the soil feed them, and you not feeding them always worked better for me. I do use foliar sprays from time to time, but mostly to introduce micronutrients, not your main NPK nutrients, which plenty is in the soil. In my case it's not broke, so I'm not fixing it.

[Cole_Robbie]

The tea I made from the black topsoil in my cow field was really good. Then I tried a few more batches after the winter set in, and it was not the same at all. The smell and look were very different. I can only guess it was not very biologically active due to the cold winter weather.

[AlittleSalt]

This might help http://www.saltworks.us/gardening-wi...lt.asp#peppers

I've used Epsom Salt for years now.

[drew51]

I saw a study where it worked better if Epsom salts were used as a foliar spray. More is not always better. Luckily magnesium in this form is highly water soluble and soon leaves the local soil. Magnesium levels have important interactions with calcium, sulfur, and nitrogen. The ratio of magnesium to calcium should be around one to six. Excess magnesium will reduce potassium availability. Having a soil with too much magnesium will take more nitrogen because the excess magnesium makes the soil too tight. Excess magnesium is what makes clay soils “tight”, restricting air and water availability, water drainage, root development and restricting microbial activity and organic matter decay.

[slugworth]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

There are no tricks, me thinks. Growing pepper is very similar to tomatoes, as far as feeding and watering is concerned. Actually peppers re quire less efforts and they don't fall victims to diseases like tomatoes (except pests like aphids and mites)..

earwigs bore holes in the peppers and ruin them,I lose many every year.
They attack at night and on one rare occasion I saw one crawling out of the hole.
Junebugs chew the leaves down to the stems,again only at night.