My peppers have barely grown since I started them. Some haven’t at all, and I suspect they’re dead. Some are growing excruciatingly slow and look pretty sickly. What am I doing wrong?
My setup/routine:
-16 hours per day under a Vipar Spectra 2500 at 60%
– watering every 2-3 days
– Once per week I water with a dilute Fox Farms Grow Big fertilizer solution (6-4-4)
I had/have a fungus gnat situation but I am using beneficial nematodes and mosquito bits to try and kill them off.
Any help would be greatly appreciated
by PeanutButterLeopard
7 Comments
Looks like the soil may be too moist. At this point the plants are so small I doubt it’s a nutrient issue. Some pepper seedlings just take a long time to grow, I’d give them time to dry out. I water mine about once every 3-4 days when they are this size. Depending on conditions of course.
I am new to peppers but I would suspect they are over fed, over watered or most likely the PH is off (due to over feeding).
I use happy frog or coast of Maine which has a lot of nutrients in it so I wouldn’t ever feed a seedling any nutrients aside from trace amounts of an organic Veg blend I use, but that is certainly not necessary. I think I was overwatering some of my pepper seedlings which appears to be the case based on ur soil but it would depend when you last watered
They look *mostly* fine, just a bit too wet. Let them mostly dry out sometimes! Any time the soil is completely dry to the touch, give em some water.
Plants that young don’t need fertilizer unless the soil is really poor.
That aside id say too wet and my guess is also too cold. Below about 70 they grow incredibly slowly.
Mine were looking great until I switched to the double cup method and my soil got too wet for too long. Now many of mine look like that. If recommend not watering on a periodic and watering when needed. People say here peppers like to be watered and then dry out, and almost ask for water.
They look better now that the soil is drying out
As many already mentioned, the soil looks very moist. My advice when it comes to watering is, don’t stick to a schedule. Plants use it as they need it. Sometimes they are thirsty, sometimes not. Usually around once a week is enough. When you are unsure, you can test if the soil is moist 1 knuckle below the surface or judge by weight. The pots get a lot lighter when dry.
IMO 16 hours of light is also a bit much. Peppers mainly grow in their “sleep”. In this stadium I stick to 10-12 hours of light. But this is just my personal observation and also depends on factors like lighted area/height of the grow lamp above the plants and temperature.
They can pull through