Fertilizing Peppers - All About Plant Nutrients - Pepper Geek

hey there welcome to pepper geek in today's video i'll share an overview on plant nutrients and how to properly fertilize peppers so i would like to be as thorough and objective as i can in this video there's a lot to cover in the world of plant nutrients so i'd like to try to give you a knowledge base that you can use to then go out and make your own informed decision when you're buying fertilizer i'll start by covering the three primary nutrients nitrogen phosphorus and potassium then we'll talk about some secondary nutrients calcium magnesium and sulfur and i'll briefly touch on some micronutrients as well towards the end of the video i'll talk more about how to actually fertilize pepper plants and what our specific methods are some of the products that we use and if you just like that sort of recommendation you're just here for a quick answer there will be time stamps available for you to skip around to the portion of the video that you're interested in now before i get started please hit that like button and subscribe to pepper geek for more videos like this so let's start with the three major nutrients nitrogen phosphorus and potassium on any fertilizer that you buy there will be three numbers prominently displayed somewhere on the packaging and those numbers correspond to the percentages of those nutrients contained in that fertilizer it's commonly referred to as npk and for nitrogen p for phosphorus and k for potassium k being potassium's letter on the periodic table so let's break down those three nutrients and talk about what each of them do for plant growth nitrogen is the most essential nutrient for plants because it's used to produce proteins proteins are used by all living things to carry out various functions of life from antibodies to repairing tissue and in a plant's case photosynthesis to make proteins plants require oxygen carbon hydrogen and nitrogen the first three of those things plants can acquire from the air and from water so you never really need to worry about an oxygen deficiency in your plants and if you do you probably have bigger problems than tending to your peppers but nitrogen even though it is abundant in our air plants can't actually use that gaseous form of nitrogen so they acquire nitrogen from the soil from decaying organic matter which is converted into nitrates and ammonium salts by microorganisms that's the natural way that nitrogen is provided to plants but of course there are inorganic fertilizers that are basically chemicals that can provide the nitrogen to plants as well if there's not enough nitrogen your plants can't produce proteins and thus the plants will slow down and stop growing and eventually die nitrogen is especially important for strong healthy leafy growth so a deficiency in nitrogen will often present itself with slow growth or no growth and yellowing leaves we've talked about yellowing leaves on pepper plants on the channel before nitrogen deficiency is one of the most common culprits some good natural sources of nitrogen are rotted manures and compost and the most common inorganic form of nitrogen is ammonium nitrate you have to be careful with inorganic fertilizers because the nitrogen is readily available to the plants and it's usually in a very high concentration making it very easy to burn your plants so you'll end up with these brown spots at the edges of your leaves that's basically nutrient burn organic fertilizers on the other hand take much longer to break down and become a usable form of nitrogen for your plants making them a lot safer okay nutrient number two phosphorus is used in the plant to convert light energy into atp this happens during photosynthesis and atp is the primary molecule for storing energy in the plants it's then used throughout the plant to power other functions like root growth and flower development so it's essential from day one all the way through to harvest a deficiency in phosphorus will present itself with slow growth and pale yellowing leaves similar to a nitrogen deficiency some common sources include rock phosphate bone meal and seabird guano finally the third major plant nutrient is potassium again potassium is needed for photosynthesis and it helps moderate water uptake from the roots on the flip side it helps to reduce water loss through transpiration through the leaves of your plants in addition it helps increase the overall health and strength of your plants and improves flower production and fruit setting potassium deficiencies will result in yellowing or purpling leaf coloration and poor flowering and fruit setting we can add potassium to the soil with minerals such as sulfate of potash or lambianite okay with the three major nutrients covered let's go over some secondary nutrients quickly calcium helps transport nutrients between cells and it activates certain enzymes and without enough of it you'll see blossom and rot common applications include limestone or bone meal magnesium is also important for photosynthesis and in moving phosphates throughout the plants a deficiency here will result in yellowing between the veins of your leaves making it easy to distinguish between this and a nitrogen deficiency epsom salts are a very cheap and easy way to provide magnesium finally sulfur is used by plants to create chloroplasts making it essential for photosynthesis however sulfur is rarely deficient especially in industrial countries where it basically rains from the skies as sulfur dioxide a few honorable mentions in the world of plant micronutrients include silicone which helps increase disease resistance and plant strength iron manganese copper boron zinc and many others okay so now let's switch gears and talk specifically about fertilizing peppers i'll break this section down into potted plants and in-ground planting but first i want to give a very general overview in the first half of a pepper plant's life from steedling stage all the way through to producing flowers outdoors we use a higher nitrogen fertilizer then we'll switch over to something with lower nitrogen and higher phosphorus and potassium for good healthy fruit set nitrogen will be the most important nutrient to control throughout the life cycle of your pepper plants and i'll explain why in just a minute so with that let's start with container gardening growing in pots is a lot different than growing in the ground because you're essentially creating an entire soil ecosystem from scratch each year you have to make sure that your pepper plants are going to get everything that they need from that soil so it's much more common to see nutrient deficiencies and to have to correct for them in potted plants than in the ground when we're growing peppers in pots we start them in a seed starter mix like this one right here it does not contain any nutrients and after about a week or so we start fertilizing with half strength fish and seaweed fertilizer this just provides just what the plants need to get off to a strong start once they're two or three weeks old they're about two or three inches tall they're ready to be transplanted into slightly larger pots at that point we switch over to a proper potting mix something that has nutrients built in and we begin fertilizing at full strength now thankfully you don't have to think too hard about picking a potting mix find something organic if you can something that is made for potted vegetable plants when we move the plants into their final growing containers a large pot in most cases will usually amend with either bone meal or seabird guano for phosphorus and calcium and a bit of epsom salt for magnesium and this is usually enough to provide for the plant throughout the year here's one example of an organic fertilizer that contains high levels of nitrogen you'll see it has an 11 nitrogen rate 3 phosphorus and 8 potassium it also contains calcium copper iron manganese zinc this has been great because for one it's cheap but it's also water soluble which makes it very easy to apply when you're watering we'll continue using that high nitrogen fertilizer until the plant has been outside for two to four weeks until the plants have reached a relatively mature size at that point we will reduce nitrogen significantly since we've been feeding regularly we know the plant has plenty of nitrogen but now we want it to switch gears and start to produce flowers and fruits so unless you live in the tropics where you don't have to worry about the approaching winter you definitely want to reduce nitrogen about halfway through the season and this applies to potted plants and in-ground plants as well however you don't want to stop providing nutrients the plants still need potassium and phosphorus to get good fruit sets so you can either continue using the fertilizer that you're using just at a reduced rate or you can try to find something that has a higher phosphorus and potassium level and a lower nitrogen level and that's basically it for potted plants we just continue that regimen throughout the season and of course we are watchful for any signs of deficiencies and then you can side dress with the appropriate amendment as needed now for in-ground plants things are a little bit different and i want to talk more about living soil i mentioned earlier that the usable nitrates are produced when microorganisms break down organic material in the soil making it available to plants through their root system now this doesn't just happen overnight unfortunately it comes from years of nurturing your soil and adding new organic material year after year it's well worth your effort though because in most cases ground soil will contain all of the nutrients that your plants need and then some and the plants and the microorganisms will work in a symbiotic relationship together to produce a really strong healthy plant i recommend if you have a raised bed or a garden bed too send away a soil sample and just see what's in your soil as it is if you're starting from scratch you might have to do a lot of work but if you have an older bed and you've been adding compost to it you might not need to fertilize at all but the same principles are true too much nitrogen can be a bad thing and can lead to a pepper bush rather than actually growing peppers so make sure you're not adding too much nitrogen later in the season when the plants are trying to produce fruits so now i'll give a few recommendations of fertilizers that we have used with success check the links in the description for where you can buy any of these products and for an updated list of our current fertilizer recommendations fox farm makes a great trio of fertilizers they're great for beginners because you start with the grow big formula for vegetative growth and then you switch over to big bloom and tiger bloom when your plants are producing flowers the only drawback here is that these are not organic but they are water soluble so they're very easy to apply espoma's garden tone is a great organic option the drawback here is that this is not a water-soluble formula so it's a slow-release granular fertilizer best when worked into soil before transplanting it also contains beneficial bacteria species which will help enrich the soil i like using this one in conjunction with other fertilizers and amendments if you're looking for an all-natural fertilizer bakwano is high in nitrogen seabird guano is great for calcium and phosphorus the only thing that's missing from this formula is potassium but you can add that through another amendment with both of them you can apply it as a side dress work it into the soil or steep it into water and apply it through watering neptune's harvest is a fission seaweed fertilizer it is a very low percentage formula but it's great for early growth and just as an amendment throughout the season it's water soluble it's very easy to apply and it's very hard to over feed with this and performance organics from miracle grow is a great all-purpose fertilizer they also make a tomato-based formula which is supposed to be great as well but this formula has worked great for us it's easy it's cheap you apply it through the water and it's pretty hard to go wrong and that's gonna be it for this video i hope it was helpful to you if you have any questions or suggestions when it comes to feeding peppers let us know in the comments below we'd love to see your suggestions and we're always learning thanks for liking and subscribing to pepper geek and i'll see you next time

Channel: Pepper Geek

Views: 116,264

Keywords: pepper fertilizer, how to fertilize peppers, fertilizing plants, growing peppers, best fertilizer

Id: DgWqq3kM67o

Length: 10min 45sec (645 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 28 2021