Dining and Cooking
Follow-up to an earlier post—Running a soil test to find what works best. 18 plants total, 3 sets using different mediums.
In Hot Peppers

Follow-up to an earlier post—Running a soil test to find what works best. 18 plants total, 3 sets using different mediums.


I had asked the community last week what their favorite soil or potted plant medium was, and received a ton of helpful replies. I’m taking some of the info I received and applying it to a little experiment this year.

I went to the local(ish) Home Depot and picked up three different bags of potting soil:

Working in individual batches, I filled three sets of six pots using each of the potting mixes, poured them into a bulk container, and mixed in perlite to about 30%. Then, each newly mixed batch of perlite and potting mix went back into their respective six-inch pots.

To clarify, I have six pots with Promix and perlite, six pots with Black Kow and perlite, and six pots with Kellogg and perlite.

I kept the mixes relatively simple for two primary reasons: ease of availability and cost. I would have loved to throw vermiculite into the mix, but it wasn’t available at my Home Depot and I didn’t want to order online since I wanted to re-pot everything last night.

When I move these to larger grow bags, I will maintain the same potting mix per plant. I’m hoping to either get the same grow quality out of each—meaning that either potting mix option works just as good as the next—or some other really interesting finding.

Here are the 18 plants I am growing as part of this experiment (apologies for the all-caps, as this is a copy/paste from an order form):

CANDLELIGHT MUTANT (x2)
CALABRIAN DIAVOLICCHIO
CHERRY BOMB HYBRID
COFFEE
HABANERO CHOCOLATE
HABANERO RED
HAWAIIAN SWEET HOT
HUNGARIAN YELLOW WAX
IBERIA HYBRID
LUNCHBOX RED
SERRANO
SUGAR RUSH STRIPEY
TANGERINE TIGER
THAI RED
THUNDER MOUNTAIN LONGHORN

BLACK BEAUTY TOMATO
CELEBRITY TOMATO

I usually keep my fertilization usage and schedule pretty simple throughout the season. I’ll likely lean on Tiger Bloom a bit, but nonetheless, each plant will receive the same treatment to keep things aligned.

Since many of my seedlings arrived in different heights or at different stages of growth, I’ll probably need to base results on fruits/harvest.

by EverbodyHatesHugo

2 Comments

  1. Prescientpedestrian

    If you were doing one variety you could extrapolate information from this experiment, however there is no way to get any meaningful information out of this when it’s essentially a different variety in every pot. If you do it again use a single solid F1 hybrid variety that will grow essentially uniform, and skip the perlite, it’s just reducing the potency of the soil mix and reducing the effective window of nutrient delivery by several weeks.

  2. StueyGuyd

    The ProMix and Kellogg should be ready to use; how come you added more Perlite?

    You mentioned potting up to grow bags soon. I would NOT add in more Perlite, at least for the mixes mentioned. I’m not sure about the Black Kow.

    I highly advise that you add a granule-type slow release fertilizer to the ProMix. Maybe scratch some into the soil in a donut shape around the stem, or mix it in when potting up to the grow bags. Use it for all of them maybe.

    If limited to HD, something like: [https://www.homedepot.com/p/Jobe-s-Organics-4-lb-Organic-Granular-Vegetable-and-Tomato-Plant-Food-Fertilizer-with-Biozome-OMRI-Listed-09026/303412370](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Jobe-s-Organics-4-lb-Organic-Granular-Vegetable-and-Tomato-Plant-Food-Fertilizer-with-Biozome-OMRI-Listed-09026/303412370) , or Espoma Tomato Tone might work well.

    That’s 17 different plants and 1 duplicate?

    Your results will absolutely be interesting, but potentially inconclusive.

    Potentially, if you had 3X of one plant, you could then test and observe its growth behaviors in 3 different soils.

    If you have 2 or 3 different plants in 3 different soils, that’s an added variable.

    It’s best to change just 1 variable at a time, such as the type of soil. However, this can still be a good opportunity to see how different plants grow and thrive in different soils.

    Also, at some point the tomatoes might need more frequent waterings than the peppers.

    Good luck!

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