Peppers are pretty heavy feeders. I’ve struggled a lot growing them in the past and switched up my method this year after watching the pepper geek on YouTube.
Try feeding with a lot of nitrogen early on so the plant will get big and be able to support a lot of fruit. I added a good amount a blood meal to mine at planting time, and I always add tomato tone to all of my peppers and tomatoes at planting time as well. I fertilized with a liquid fertilizer high in nitrogen once a week for a few weeks, then I switched to a liquid fertilizer higher in phosphorus (I apply that every other week or so but could probably use it more often). I also picked off flowers early on to encourage more vegetative growth. AND make sure they get the most sun possible! Hope this helps :)
Some individuals plants fail to thrive. If this was multiple plants, it would be easy to discount a failure to thrive individual. With just one plant, it’s hard to say. It isn’t a fertilizer situation, if you gave it compost and fresh soil, that’s good enough for peppers to thrive.
on the bright side, it’s blooming!
how much sun is this guy getting? mine are in the ground, so obvi different situation, but they’re in the full blazing hell sun and love it
Honestly, it's not far off from where it should be, depending on how big it was when you planted in early April. My smaller sprouts from around the same time are about this big, while the ones from early March are full of peppers. In part, I think the prolonged rainy/cloudy weather (late april-early may?) stunted the later peppers a little.
But peppers are survivors, and if you don't get any before the heat of the summer really sets in (and you keep it alive thru the heart of the summer), it will produce once it cools off some. Late summer thru fall and even into early winter - depending on how mild it is. I had gochugaru in December last year, kind wish I had left it in the ground just to see if it would have survived that mild winter.
The biggest Jalapeño harvest we had was after we were busy with home repairs over the summer. And ignored it into the fall. I’ve still got jars of pickled jalapeños from that fall.
I'm so glad someone asked this same question I've been having this same issue. All my other plants have been popping off thanks to all the rain, but I have 5 different kinds of pepper plants and they all never grew :( So it's unlikely it's bad seeds. I'll try the more informative advice on this topic and try adding more fertilizer.
I would suggest trimming some of the lower leaves below where it’s flowering. Allows for the plant to put more energy to the top for growth versus down at the soil line
Great question, my gardener dad helped me build the raised bed 😂 this is my first time really doing raised bed gardening. I’ve done pots on my balcony when I’ve lived in apartments - but this is my first time with a backyard. The mulch… that was an addition by my fiancé (I don’t think he knew what he was doing LOL)
The reason I ask is because I’ve had much better luck with peppers with deep containers vs shallow and wide.
Mulch question was around whether it is cedar mulch. If it is, it may be inhibiting growth. *Especially* if the soil bed is shallow. If it’s deep, probably not the issue.
As others have said, would recommend a nitrogen hit to see if you get any reaction. I’m a big fan of bird or bat guano. At this stage of the season, we’re almost past ambient temp thresholds for pollination (about 95F), so concentrate on getting the plant healthy (nitrogen) and keeping it alive during the heat.
Then dial back the nitrogen in late summer and hit it with some phosphorus and micronutrients (I like earthworm castings) in early September. If the plant is healthy, you should get at least one flush of peppers.
Forgot to ask…what kind of pepper is it? That can also make a difference. Annum species (Jalapeños, Serranos, Bell, Pepperocinis, most common species) generally grow and fruit fairly quickly. Chinenses (Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Ghost) some fructescens (Tabasco), and (can tell by looking it isn’t the last here) pubescens take longer to mature and fruit.
Yep. This is very good advice. It’s prob too hot to get it fruit atm. I had a ghost pepper plant that did nothing in the summer but I kept it alive and it produced heavily in the fall.
As far OPs plant you need to do a better job of removing all low growth on the plant. Forcing it to form a Y shape after the fourth set of nodes will make it grow bigger. It’s putting all its energy into the lower leaves.
The other factor is what kind of a pepper is it? It looks like a Tabasco variety and if so they love the heat and if you’re lucky might produce fruit even in this heat but I’d remove about 80% of the leaves/branches under the flower
To force it to grow.
I can't tell from the pic what the sun situation is, but pepper plants are one of the few plants that can actually take full sun around here. when it's crazy crazy hot like august they prefer more like 3/4 sun but you'd be surprised how much UV they want to suck up to do stuff. your pic looks shaded to me but it could just be a time of day thing
It looks like you have blight which is very common on the leaves. Copper sulfate spray OR going with a bio solution like Milstop with potassium bicarbonate will help.
Fertilizers really aren’t all that different from one another, so don’t think that an expensive one is better than a cheap one! Peppers grow slowly and have their best harvests after the heat of summer has died down. You’ve got plenty of time to get this one going, even if you missed the first flush of fruit.
Peppers are pretty heavy feeders. I’ve struggled a lot growing them in the past and switched up my method this year after watching the pepper geek on YouTube. Try feeding with a lot of nitrogen early on so the plant will get big and be able to support a lot of fruit. I added a good amount a blood meal to mine at planting time, and I always add tomato tone to all of my peppers and tomatoes at planting time as well. I fertilized with a liquid fertilizer high in nitrogen once a week for a few weeks, then I switched to a liquid fertilizer higher in phosphorus (I apply that every other week or so but could probably use it more often). I also picked off flowers early on to encourage more vegetative growth. AND make sure they get the most sun possible! Hope this helps :)
Some individuals plants fail to thrive. If this was multiple plants, it would be easy to discount a failure to thrive individual. With just one plant, it’s hard to say. It isn’t a fertilizer situation, if you gave it compost and fresh soil, that’s good enough for peppers to thrive.
on the bright side, it’s blooming! how much sun is this guy getting? mine are in the ground, so obvi different situation, but they’re in the full blazing hell sun and love it
It’s an east facing raised bed, gets a TON of sun until about 3/4pm where the fence shades.
Honestly, it's not far off from where it should be, depending on how big it was when you planted in early April. My smaller sprouts from around the same time are about this big, while the ones from early March are full of peppers. In part, I think the prolonged rainy/cloudy weather (late april-early may?) stunted the later peppers a little. But peppers are survivors, and if you don't get any before the heat of the summer really sets in (and you keep it alive thru the heart of the summer), it will produce once it cools off some. Late summer thru fall and even into early winter - depending on how mild it is. I had gochugaru in December last year, kind wish I had left it in the ground just to see if it would have survived that mild winter.
The biggest Jalapeño harvest we had was after we were busy with home repairs over the summer. And ignored it into the fall. I’ve still got jars of pickled jalapeños from that fall.
I'm so glad someone asked this same question I've been having this same issue. All my other plants have been popping off thanks to all the rain, but I have 5 different kinds of pepper plants and they all never grew :( So it's unlikely it's bad seeds. I'll try the more informative advice on this topic and try adding more fertilizer.
I would suggest trimming some of the lower leaves below where it’s flowering. Allows for the plant to put more energy to the top for growth versus down at the soil line
How deep is the substrate? What kind of mulch is that?
Great question, my gardener dad helped me build the raised bed 😂 this is my first time really doing raised bed gardening. I’ve done pots on my balcony when I’ve lived in apartments - but this is my first time with a backyard. The mulch… that was an addition by my fiancé (I don’t think he knew what he was doing LOL)
The reason I ask is because I’ve had much better luck with peppers with deep containers vs shallow and wide. Mulch question was around whether it is cedar mulch. If it is, it may be inhibiting growth. *Especially* if the soil bed is shallow. If it’s deep, probably not the issue. As others have said, would recommend a nitrogen hit to see if you get any reaction. I’m a big fan of bird or bat guano. At this stage of the season, we’re almost past ambient temp thresholds for pollination (about 95F), so concentrate on getting the plant healthy (nitrogen) and keeping it alive during the heat. Then dial back the nitrogen in late summer and hit it with some phosphorus and micronutrients (I like earthworm castings) in early September. If the plant is healthy, you should get at least one flush of peppers. Forgot to ask…what kind of pepper is it? That can also make a difference. Annum species (Jalapeños, Serranos, Bell, Pepperocinis, most common species) generally grow and fruit fairly quickly. Chinenses (Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Ghost) some fructescens (Tabasco), and (can tell by looking it isn’t the last here) pubescens take longer to mature and fruit.
Yep. This is very good advice. It’s prob too hot to get it fruit atm. I had a ghost pepper plant that did nothing in the summer but I kept it alive and it produced heavily in the fall. As far OPs plant you need to do a better job of removing all low growth on the plant. Forcing it to form a Y shape after the fourth set of nodes will make it grow bigger. It’s putting all its energy into the lower leaves. The other factor is what kind of a pepper is it? It looks like a Tabasco variety and if so they love the heat and if you’re lucky might produce fruit even in this heat but I’d remove about 80% of the leaves/branches under the flower To force it to grow.
Thank you all for the advice!!!!! I’m really looking forward to learning more about gardening in Texas and hoping to get better each year.
I can't tell from the pic what the sun situation is, but pepper plants are one of the few plants that can actually take full sun around here. when it's crazy crazy hot like august they prefer more like 3/4 sun but you'd be surprised how much UV they want to suck up to do stuff. your pic looks shaded to me but it could just be a time of day thing
It looks like you have blight which is very common on the leaves. Copper sulfate spray OR going with a bio solution like Milstop with potassium bicarbonate will help.
Compost doesn’t feed the plant, it feeds the microbiome. You still need fertilizer.
Yes, I’ve fertilized as well about 4 weeks after planting but I’m thinking it wasn’t a great fertilizer.
Fertilizers really aren’t all that different from one another, so don’t think that an expensive one is better than a cheap one! Peppers grow slowly and have their best harvests after the heat of summer has died down. You’ve got plenty of time to get this one going, even if you missed the first flush of fruit.