[rivkele]

Hello, i have a pepper query.
i've got some green peppers growing outside (where i live they grow ok outside). i bought them as little plants as by the time i thought about it it seemed a bit late to start from seed. they weren't great quality, very rootbound and leggy.
anyway, they've been in  a few weeks now and they're not doing much, they've grown minimally, they don't look sick but they're not taking off either. i put it down to the shock of tranplanting them, but it occurred to me i might not be watering them enough (or too much, who knows). Can anyone tell me, compared to tomatoes say, how much water they like. also if i should be feeding them lots or not.

thankyou very much

[mumofstig]

all i can say is.... if they're not wilting in the heat......you are watering them enough I think they need about the same as tomatoes.
Is the soil not very fertile there if not you may need to use a little general purpose fetilizer just to get them on the move. Once they set fruit change to tomato fertilizer.

[pushrod]

doubt very much if you are overwatering if they are outside and it is hot and sunny. Did you break up the root ball a bit when you planted them. If they are pot bound i will dig a slightly bigger hole and backfill it with good compost and break the root ball up a bit to encourage them to start to grow into the new soil, otherwise you can find that the roots seem not to want to get going and just sit there.

[ben]

I wouldn't have thought that you were over-watering them - unless they are sodden all day.
I tend to water mine when they are beginning to dry out, and they seem happy enough.

I would say unless they are looking poorly, then they are probably just waiting for it to warm up a bit - they probably got a shock from going outside, and if they were great to begin with, I'm sure they are just building up their strength.

Maybe give them a bit of tomato feed if you suspect the soil is lacking a bit.

[Trillium]

You say they were very rootbound before you repotted them, so that's the problem. When I set out toms or peppers, I always open up the rootwork (not tear it apart) to spread it for better growth. It's not too late to pull the plant from the pot carefully, untangle the root mess and reset it in the pot with a bit of general fertilizer in water to get it going. Bet it takes off quickly now.

[blackbob]

all i can say is.... if they're not wilting in the heat......you are watering them enough I think they need about the same as tomatoes.
Is the soil not very fertile there if not you may need to use a little general purpose fetilizer just to get them on the move. Once they set fruit change to tomato fertilizer.

regardless of the amount of water available.plants will still wilt in extreme temps.
without going into too much detail,it's basically a shutdown process.

[mumofstig]

Speaking from experience of growing peppers and chillies in the heat in Greece....  if they had enough water they did not wilt.
Maybe as Trillium says the roots are still struggling, or maybe they need a feed.

Just had a thought if they are in the soil..not pots..if you insert a water bottle with the end cut off deep into the soil beside the plant and water into that, it will encourage deeper rooting.

[gobs]

Peppers rarely wilt in high heat even, but water , they can take as much as you can provide, really. A good way to grow them in hot climes is the ridge method and the sunken tunnels in-between the rows get flooded for overnight. Stop watering about a week before harvest.

When not fruiting yet, less water should be enough. Unless they are already their final size and/or the soil is poor it's really in them having been pot bound. Such roots can even strangle themselves and the plant. I'd dig one up to see if they have done anything in the root growth department.

If the soil is poor, I'd only use some general fertiliser or well rotted manure, high potash feeds - like tomato feed - are only good to use once fruiting started naturally. Even then, peppers need a lot less of this than tomatoes, about half.

[rivkele]

thankyou very much for all the input and ideas.
i reckon it must be that they were root bound, coz i didn't do anything to them, just stuck them in the ground as is. (you live and learn ) i'm going to dig one up this weekend and see what the story is, and if they're not doing much i'll do as you suggested trillium.
it could also be the poor soil, so if the roots look ok i'll try feeding them.
you're right gobs, they haven't ever wilted, even when the lettuces and borage and things were looking like they'd been washed and wrung out.

thanks again for all the replies. i'll let you know how they get on

[cabbagehead]

Peppers need good drainage. If roots get water logged, the plant will suffer. Do not over water peppers espceially in pots. Peppers originate from Mexico. They are drought tolerant. I grow my peppers in a greenhouse and even in hot weather I probably only water twice a week. Water in the morning if you can. This gives the soil time to dry out before night fall.

People grow many plants in diffrent ways and all have some kind of success.

I'd say. "Do not over water".

Good luck!

[rivkele]

well, i dug up a pepper on saturday, and although its roots weren't incredibly extensive they'd definitely developed quite a bit since i put them in. So i reckon i'll leave them alone and maybe follow mumofstig's advice about watering into a bottle to encourage them to root deeper. time will tell. i'll let you know if i get a crop