I love gardening. I'll plant vegetables anywhere. I also love using organic fertilizer and gardening products whenever possible. This past summer, we had more than our share of rain. My pepper plants did not seem to be doing well during the excessively rainy summer. Peppers like it hot, and they love sun. I had a wide variety of peppers, too, including bells, Tabasco, volcano, pimiento, jalapeno, sweet banana, and a few other varieties.
I tried using Miracle-Gro which was working fine on some of my other garden plants. I normally alternate among fertilizers, using organic fertilizer as often as possible. The peppers remained dull and listless, as if completely stuck. I switched over to fish emulsion, that really awful smelling yet highly effective fertilizer. Things improved slightly, but not enough to suit me.
Organic
I started doing some research and discovered two fertilizers that I had not yet tried. Amazingly enough, both products were ready available in my own home. The first "fertilizer" product I discovered was Epsom salts, more commonly known as magnesium sulfate.
I took a small handful of the Epsom salts and put them around the base of each pepper plant, and then I watered the salt into the soil. I repeated this process once weekly. The results were amazing.
At the same time, I also began to take our used coffee grounds and spread those around the plants as well. After a few days, I decided if the pepper plants liked coffee grounds, surely they would not have a problem with the excess coffee left in the pot, so I made sort of a "coffee tea" by diluting the left over coffee with a little water and applied that to the plants as well.
My husband and I could not believe the results. The plants bushed up and out, transforming into some of the most gorgeous, luscious pepper plants I've ever seen. We had to stake the plants to support the heavy pepper load. I have never, in all my years of gardening, had pepper plants produce that many peppers.
One thing that commonly happens when fertilizing vegetables is that you might get a lot of green leaf and plant growth without much vegetable production. That was not the case. These plants became abundantly loaded with peppers. I had to spend half days washing and slicing them so I could preserve them in the freezer.
One thing I noticed when using the Epsom salts on other garden plants, such as squash. Do not "throw" the fertilizer onto the vegetable plant leaves. Take the time to place it around the plant base, and then water it in. I made the mistake on a really hot day of trying to do a quick scatter. Some of the salts got on the squash leaves and the sun literally burned the leaves up.
I am still not sure if that was what caused the problem with the squash, but without more experimentation I personally recommend a plant base application and lightly watering in.
It could primarily be the Epsom salt, or it could primarily be the coffee grounds and "coffee tea" producing these outstanding results. Then again, it might be the combination of the two. Of course, the fertilizer is just a part of the gardening process. You can't expect miracles. Vegetables still require good soil, adequate sunlight, and sufficient water.
It is now late September, and the pepper plants are still lusciously green and loaded with peppers. I live in the Deep South so our growing season is a little longer than in some other locations. As long as we keep harvesting, those plants keep producing. We'll keep harvesting peppers until frost comes, I suppose! From now on, my pepper plants will drink coffee and get salted on a regular basis! Happy gardening!
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Organic Fertilizer - Salt, Coffee Grounds, and Day Old Coffee Pump Up the Peppers
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