jimster,

lots of questions, but not settled in my mind either.

regards,
wildlifeman

I planted the seeds May 1st, used miricle gro 24-8-14 almost every week at full strength from a seedling up until mid august and these are the results.

Red Savina

Naga Morich

If you feed high nitrogen when the chile is flowering, the plant will drop its flowers.

Good answers so far, but only a few. Those pics from chillilover speak loudly, don't they?

These question are seriously bugging me. I hope many growers will chime in.

Jim

Ya I heard too much nitrogen is bad but used miricle gro in the past so continued to do so. Those plants are in a 1.5 gallon container also, and the seeds were planted april 30th so It can't be that bad.

Too much Nitrogen will push the plant in vegetative growth.Plant will grow in large size.
Yes,it does result in sparse blossoming.This is my observation whenever I forgot to rotate and planted legumes at the same area next year.Fertilising was done as usual by using 10-10-10.I have the same problem for two bean plants this year too.I will post the pic. as soon as the camera is available.
If the plants are large and have blossoms then there is no need of feeding Nitrogen.Instead feeding Phosphorous will help the plant in producing flowering and fruits.
willrd3 has answered about feeding excessive Nitrogen.Excessive fertiliser will remain in the garden soil is not good.
Since your plants have plenty of blossoms there is nothing to be worried about except pollination.You may hand pollinate using cotton swabs.
If you had fed enough Nitrogen in the growth period of the plants they will certainly develop large pods.

I was recently told my my ag agent to sidedress with nitrogen alone as soon as the plants set little peppers. It takes a lot of nitrogen for them to mature the peppers and seeds.

Bhut Jolokia from seed last year. Regular Miracle Grow.
{{gwi:1225036}}

Bhut Jolokia from seed this year. No fertilizer. Semi-regular Epsom Salts. LESS sun than the previous year. About the same age as the previous pic. Same pot size (just changed to this larger pot when pic taken). Many more fruit, much denser fruit distribution. This plant is falling over with peppers.

{{gwi:1207615}}

Hot (Ca.) Salsa.
2 Times 10-10-10 Granular.
2 Times Epsom.
1 Time Miracle grow.

Pic. of Hot (Ca.) Salsa.

{{gwi:106082}}

Banana peppers grow like weeds. Just try to stop a weed from reproducing with high N.

In my experience, bell peppers are much harder to grow than hot peppers. I suspect high N aggravates something like "blossom end rot" in bell peppers.

Summarizing the results thus far, respondents have found, or suspect, that high nitrogen causes:

1) Good yield.

2) Flower drop.

3) Large plants.

4) Sparse blossoming.

5) Maturation of peppers and seeds.

6) Decent yield but yield is better with no nitrogen.

7) Blossom end rot.

I didn't expect a consensus to be easily formed and it hasn't been. I'm not interested in opinions about whether or not to apply nitrogen and how much. That the plant puts its energy into vegetative growth at the expense of fruit production doesn't satisfy me. Can't a big, lush, healthy plant produce a good yield of fruit? Will a scrawny, enemic plant yield more profusely? I'm exaggerating here to make a point. I hope it is clear.

What I would really like to know is how too much nitrogen affects the plant. What specifically can I observe about the growth of the plant when too much nitrogen has been applied.

Side issues, such as Epsom salts, have been mentioned. Those are interesting but right now I'm craving answers to the nitrogen question.

Jim

I used a lot of nitrogen and got tons of blossoms. Hundreds on each plant. A lot dropped after the pepper load was reached since I have small pots, but most did set until then.

Is this what your looking for?

http://www.downtoearthdistributors.com/fert_nutritiontips.html

"What I would really like to know is how too much nitrogen affects the plant."

It depends on the forms of the N. Plants tolerate a higher concentration of N in the form of nitrate ions than other common forms. At sufficiently high concentration, any fertilizer salts will draw water out of the roots and kill the plant. Somewhere in between a plant will stop growing and exhibit damaged leaves. It may eventually recover and even make up for lost time.

One more thing, high nitrogen fosters mite infestation because mites like sap with high amino acid concentrations. I never had mite problems on peppers, but I have seen other people report them.

I don't know...I have a special section of my garden that has about 6 feet of 5 year old horse manure and shavings that I rototilled in. My sweet pepper plants are easily 4 foot tall and so loaded with peppers that I have to use 16 foot sections of rigid stock panel (also called hog panel) to tie them to. Wyoming has a lot of wind and plants heavy with large peppers are really vulnerable. I don't fertilize anything, ever. So far, I have frozen 18 gallon vacuum bags full of diced bells this year. I am currently pureeing peppers for a roasted pepper and tomato soup I make a lot in the winter. I have probably given away as many as I have chopped/pureed.

I never have to fertilize any of my plants (I have a sun-dried tomato business and have around 150 plants each year.)
They only thing I ever fertilize is the 200+ orchids I have growing in my house!

I do grow a few varieties of hots as well. I dry them all on strings.

Too much Nitrogen fed to legumes will force them to stop Nitrogen fixation thru the nodules on the roots,instead it will push the plants into vegetative growth.Excessive Nitrogen in the soil creates higher osmotic presuure outside root surface compared to inside the root.It is difficult to arrive at a focused conclusion about too much Nitrogen.It is for sure in general that Nitrogen does help healthy growth of the plants.At the same time it has different effects on different plants at different concentration of Nitrogen.

It's apparent that overfertilizing to the point of damaging roots is too much. We can all agree on that. The effects of too much nitrogen short of physical damage isn't so clear. I think I'm searching for a clearer description, maybe with pics, of the level of of nitrogen where "a plant will stop growing and exhibit damaged leaves", if indeed that is what happens.

I'm still wondering if too much nitrogen reduces pod production. This may sound foolish because it has been so often said that it will. Pod production this year hasn't been up to expectations and I doubt it is due to excess N. I will need to do a controlled experiment next year to satisfy myself on that point.

Of course, need for fertilizer depends on soil. My soil is different from many or yours. I have extremely sandy soil. Nutrients leach out quickly. Undoubtedly, this soil is much more difficult than usual to overfertilize. That's a big part of my obsession with this topic.

Thanks for joining in on this thread, everyone. It helps my thought process.

Jim