First time grower here. I panted these a bit over a week ago and am very happy with their progress. Wondering what advice people have for fertilizing. Any tips on when to start, and which brands/types to go with?
I've seen some conflicting advice between starting now and waiting until a month after sprouting.
by 0lafe
8 Comments
Yeah just wouldn’t worry about that until you see flowers, unless your dirt is completely devoid of nutrients
I use 1/4 strength master blend and calcium carbonate once true leaves appear
Watch the leaves. Once a set or two of true leaves appear, then fertilize. I use ONE TEASPOON of 20-20-20 jacks professional in a gallon of water, and I bottom water. It will also depend on what you planted in and how you’re growing. I grow my starts in completely sterilized coco coir, peat moss, and perlite. So when I fertilize, I have to use water soluble as there’s no life in the soil to break any organic fertilizer down. The fertilizer I give them is their only source of nutrition for 2-3 months before being transplanted outside. I fertilize with every watering, unless I see signs of over-fertilization, in which case I back off with the fertilizer.
You’re seeing conflicting advice because everyone starts seeds differently to some degree. It’s a lot of trial and error since your exact growing conditions in that room are specific to you. The more you do it, the more you’re able to just look at your plants and tell what they need.
Btw, it looks like some of your seedlings are “praying” or reaching for light. But some are not. I would rearrange your trays so the ones praying/reaching are all on one side, and the ones not are all on the other side. Then just boost the ones that are reaching with a spare box, books, etc so they’re closer to the light. They should adjust within 24 hours to be more… flat, and not reaching for light. If possible, now or in the next two weeks would probably be a good time to either separate the ones with multiple plants in a single cell, or cull the extras so you have one plant per cell. I grew two per cell my first year and it really does stunt peppers quite a bit. The ones with one plant per cell grew almost 3x as fast, and produced more fruit. Good luck!
since you are using a soil like Happy Frog I’d say your good for a while. plus it wont be long before you’ll have to repot into some fresh soil anyway so there will be a new addition of nutrients there. what you don’t want is to grow your plants to quickly and have to manage some monster plants indie before your ready to plant out. I try to shoot for between 6″- 8″ plants in 3″ nursery pots to put out. Preferably closer to 6 then 8 as space is a premium in my 2’x4′ tent.
I wouldn’t get ahead of myself. Don’t mess with them too much, just make sure you got your watering schedule down. I wait a month to be safe. Some do it two weeks after their sprouting and if you do go as lightly as possible but depending on your light system, two weeks of growth with badass lights versus two weeks of growth with less than ideal lights will have the same pepper at different sizes and growths. If you fertilize I’d do 1/5 or 1/6 to start off with. Then the quarter. But definitely don’t give them full doses and also do it at a 2 week grace period for smaller seedlings. Once they get a little bigger. NPK feeding I would do once a week(and not even full dose still) with trace mineral nutrient feeding of fertilizer every two weeks.
Best of luck and happy growing!
enough nutrients in the soil at this stage, when you transplant use a good nitrogen heavy fertilizer.
NPK allo stesso dosaggio va bene.
Ciao
DONT fertilize something that small! It will burn the roots. There is a reason why seedlingsoil is poor with nutrients.
When you repot, the soil is good for about a month before you need to fertilize, but at that time its probably time to repot again.