Fertilizer for pepper plants

17 years ago

I've been trying to figure out if there is a mix of household items I can dissolve in water to make some liquid fertilizer for my pepper plants (a couple bhut jolokia, naga morich, habanero, and a generic Korean pepper I got from the local market). From the voracious reading I've done in the last few days (virtually exclusively during all waking hours) I have come up with this mix.

1 tsp yeast, bakers, active dry

1/8 tsp Morton's salt substitute

1/3 tablet calcium supplement

1/8 tsp epsom salt

1/2 liter water

The above is based on the following assumptions.

The optimal fertilizer mix for a pepper plant goes something like:

N - 200ppm

P - 50ppm

K - 320ppm

Ca - 200ppm

Mg - 50ppm

epsom salt is magnesium sulfate or MgSO4 which contains 495mg/tsp or 62mg/1/8 tsp Mg

calcium vitamins are calcium 600mg/tablet or 200mg/1/3 tablet Ca

Morton's salt substitute is potassium chloride or KCl which contains 610mg/1/4tsp or 305/1/8 tsp K

yeast, bakers, active dry contains the following minerals

K 240mg/tbsp or 80mg/tsp

P 155mg/tbsp or 52mg/tsp

N (protien)5g/tbsp or 1.666g/tsp

1 million mg = 1kg

1 liter of water = 1 kg of water

Please, any thoughts/comments/suggestions/concerns?

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Comments (5)

buzzsaw8
17 years ago
Hmm, seems like a lot of work. And it's still going to be missing some of the minors. Why not something like fish emulsion and/or Miracle Gro?
buzzsaw8
17 years ago
^

Sorry, missed the part you posted about wanting to use household items. If you're not too squeamish, try urine, diluted to a 9:1 water/urine ratio. It's a terrific fertilizer and the price is right :-)
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thepaan
Original Author
17 years ago
Yeah, I dunno about urine.... lol.

The deal is I live in Korea currently. I have access to a grocery store and something like a WallMart but they don't have a gardening section - just some small local houseplants near the fishtank area. Too, I don't want to pay a lot.

Speaking to the micronutrients - there is a lot of other random junk in the yeast which I think will cover those and if not I figured I can just smash up a multivitamin once-in-a-while and throw that in there.

I'm totally guessing on the nitrogen but, from what I understand, protiens put in the soil (like fish emulsion) will break down to nitrogen. How much nitrogen will 1666mg of protien break down into? I'm assuming it is at least 200mg but who knows? Which leads me to another something I didn't mention before. Is the pH of this balanced? Can I find out without buying a testing kit?

Yeast details:
http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/baked-products/5130/2

Minerals
Amounts Per Selected Serving (1 tbsp)
Calcium 7.7mg
Iron 2.0mg
Magnesium 11.8mg
Phosphorus 155.0mg
Potassium 240.0mg
Sodium 6.0mg
Zinc 0.8mg
Copper 0.1mg
Manganese 0.1mg
Selenium 2.9mcg
rj_hythloday
17 years ago
Yeah, I dunno about urine.... lol.
The deal is I live in Korea
_________________________

I'm surprised at your response, I lived in Korea 20 years ago, Seoul cleaned up for the olympics but it used to be that people peed in the streets of Seoul, and all of the rice paddies were fertilized w/ honey buckets.

If you buy any local produce, chances are it was fertilized w/ humanure and urine - uncomposted. We had to rinse all of our veggies w/ a bleach rinse. This is probably the reason you can't find a source for commercial fertilizer like we're used to here in the States.
thepaan
Original Author
17 years ago
How does the saying go "When in Rome..."? Anyway, I've never subscribed to that line of thinking.

On a side note, one of my mint plants was sending off a runner so I made some cuttings out of it and placed it in a plate of water with a little of this fertilizer added. Hopefully the cuttings take root....

But, back to the topic, I checked my math again and my water should be closer to 1 liter instead of half. Last night I doubled the recipie, mixed it inside a 2 liter bottle, and topped it off with water. Too bad my wife watered everything while I was at work :/ though. I'll use it this weekend sometime.