Fertilizing peppers

[mvona]

Hello wherever you are,
It is the end of May in Western New York State, the height of planting season for vegetable gardeners. I grow several variety of hot peppers from seed, starting them indoors at the end of February. I just put the plants out in the garden this week. Not my first year doing this, my plants are usually slow growing but do pretty well, but they never produce the way I think they should. Before planting I always work in some well rotted manure and then I add compost during the growing season but I've heard that placing sulfur (matchstick heads) around each plant is a good thing as peppers plants like the sulfur.. Does this ring a bell with anyone out there? Yours truly, Mark

 

[Chuck]

I have been growing peppers for a long time and have tried the matchhead trick in both alkaline soils and in acidic soils. I think that "probably" the matchhead sulfur helped in the alkaline soils but not in acidic soils. Living in rural Texas chiggers are a big problem and Dusting Sulfur elimanates that problem while at the same time while added to the soil lowers the Ph and enhanses the production of peppers. If your soil is alkaline add sulfur to your peppers but IMO using matchheads is not the way to go. Or maybe I didn't use enough matchheads

 

[Jersey Devil]

I am stingy on watering my hot peppers. They don't mind some hot dry soil for a short amount of time. I usually skip watering the peppers every so often while watering other garden plants and I get lots of peppers every Summer and Fall. Kinda like Aloe care, lots of water, but then let it dry out somewhat

 

[mvona]

Thanks for the tip on watering. The spring has been pretty wet here in Western New York State but my soil is very light and drains quickly. I'm less than 1/2 mile from southeastern shore of Lake Erie so the geology of this region is mostly shale - I'm constantly amending the soil.
I do buy some peppers from the local nurseries as plants and them I also plant some from seed. Currently the hot peppers I started indoors from seed back at beginning of March are outside (2 weeks) and still struggling to take hold and remain vital. Hardening them off always seems to take more care than I imagine. I planted Padron, Poblano, Thai Hot, and Habanero. So far 6 of the 24 have bit the dust. The others might yet make it. I should send a picture.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Last year was terrible with peppers for me but this year it's a different story .
My parents would always put epsion salts in the hole when they planted their peppers so I tried that this year and every single pepper is beautiful.

 

[mvona]

Last year was terrible with peppers for me but this year it's a different story .
My parents would always put epsion salts in the hole when they planted their peppers so I tried that this year and every single pepper is beautiful.

TY for this reply. It is the middle of June and here in upstate NY It has been mostly cool and damp for some time. Not great for Peppers or tomatoes. I'm out of town for the next couple of weeks and will be anxious to see how they are doing then. At that point I think I may try working in the epsom salts around each plant.