Sweet peppers

10 years ago

I live in Central Texas, zone 8b. We have clay/limestone/rock "soil". I amended it by removing the rocks, and adding compost (homemade and store bought), expanded shale, slightly aged coffee grounds and vermiculite. I did it slightly different in a few different areas. Everything is doing very well compared to previous years, except my sweet peppers. I'm not sure what to do. I've planted them in several different mixes of soil and near some tomatoes (which are doing great) and in another bed near some okra and eggplant (which are both doing pretty well). I'm not sure why they're so slow growing. I may have them in too much sun. I placed a pallet at an angle over the top of a few of them and we'll see if it helps. I would love if anyone has some good ideas for what may be going on. I had problems with growing bell peppers last year but we had a huge amount of rain and I didn't catch the pill bugs munching off all the first leaves and killing the plants so I thought that was my only problem. This year I prepared by starting the peppers in pots. They came out of the soil fairly quickly (a few days or so) but then their growth seemed to halt. They took forever to get their first true leaves so I thought my potting soil mix must not be right. I planted them in the ground thinking they'd take off in better soil but nothing. I have some that have been in the ground for weeks and they still look like sprouts. Others have gotten bigger but seem like miniature versions of sweet peppers (the stems, leaves, stalk are all smaller than they *should* look). Maybe I'm just being impatient but everything else is taking off. I need my peppers, guys! They're so yummy! The varieties I'm growing are Alma paprika and purple sparkle. I haven't grown those varieties but they were reviewed well and people in a similar climate reported success. I hope it's not too late if I need to start more peppers. I have fewer than I want and I'd like to get some growing faster than the ones I've got. Any help would be great.

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Comments (2)

digdirt2
10 years ago
Has it been especially wet and rainy or are you over-watering them? Overly wet soil is one of the first things that will stunt pepper plants. They prefer to dry out some between watering. Given your clay soil which retains water usually, too wet soil would be my first guess.

Also what have you fed them? What sort of nutrients are available?

dave
sustainabee
Original Author
10 years ago
I sprayed fish emulsion a few weeks after transplanting them, even though a couple didn't show much growth. Over watering might make a lot of sense. It seems like the first few inches of soil dry out by mid afternoon if I've watered the night before. Some of the peppers seems to wilt around this time as well so I end up watering them again. I have a drip irrigation so the pepper sprouts don't get their leaves wet much. It may be that they're both getting too much sun and being over watered. Maybe I could sprout a few in a paper towel then transplant the sprouts to the bed but keep them underneath some shade? The tomatoes are getting big enough that some of the peppers are getting a fair amount of shade, if the sun is the problem that shade should help the peppers grow. If it's over watering, which is completely likely (I'm terrified of things drying out and since I have drip a lot of things get watered at the same time regardless of whether they're wilting). I have some aging leaves that a landscaper donated to me (he doesn't use herbicides/pesticides on the properties he manages), I could potentially use them to keep the soil cooler/wetter. It's Texas so I thought I'd wait until we dry out a little more and for my plants to get well out of the soil, then cover the beds in an inch or so of aged(3+ months or so)leaves. (As a side note, does anyone think that might attract too many pests?)

Thank you Dave for your quick response. I will try to fight my impulses and stop over watering! I grew some lemon grass this year, and couldn't help but over water them, for how dry the soil felt I thought they'd die for sure, I'd end up watering them and they'd be okay, then we'd get a rain and they'd die. Those sprouts sure smelled good though! lol
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