Pathetic Chillies

[rary]

Interesting reading through this thread, I don't use any bought liquid feed, all my plants, get fed with comfrey or seaweed and occasionally adle made with chicken pellets, they get the fed every four days and if as ameno says the adle is chicken ma ure in suspension it still gets absorbed with every following watering which will desolve the solid partials to make it suitable for plants to absorb, I have no scientific facts to prove this, but as I feed my leeks with adle and they grow well enough, I am quite happy to continue to use it

[Marb67]

Exactly that, the water is the thing that breaks them down much quicker thus making it easier for the plant to absorb. How else does it get absorbed into the soul of water isn't part of the process.

Also, I bought a chilli plant from Asda a couple of years ago in a much smaller pot and they it was laden with fruit all Summer.

By the way, I accidently flagged the above post (no good typing on small phone) and no idea how to reverse it so please ignore.

[burnie]

Trouble with using chicken pellets is it is very high nitrogen, so helps with leaf growth, but won't add much to the fruits, liquid feed in a container is very good, but again, if it's just one plant, nettles or comfrey, it has limited NPK balance. I tend to use a seaweed base liquid and a slow release like fish, blood and bone.

[smallblueplanet]

Yes and they are plenty big enough I can tell you. Again, I have limited space and compost. My sister in law has huge cucumber and pea plants with good cropping growing in those same large tins. It's what you feed them that is important.

I'm curious about what compost you used to start them off in. As I said earlier in the thread we bought some (new brand) organic multipurpose compost and started our seeds off in it. Maybe there was something/some contamination in it as some of the plants never grew beyond a few leaves and 10cm high-ish. Other seedlings including some tomatoes and peppers eventually grew through it, but were much later in their development. We've just composted some calendula seedlings that after a couple of months were still less than 10cm high!
We used (I've just remembered the name) Rocketgro. Now maybe it was just coincidence but I've never had it happen before and we've been growing some decades.

[Nicos]

By the way, I accidently flagged the above post (no good typing on small phone) and no idea how to reverse it so please ignore.

No problem marb- sorted

[Marb67]

I'm curious about what compost you used to start them off in. As I said earlier in the thread we bought some (new brand) organic multipurpose compost and started our seeds off in it. Maybe there was something/some contamination in it as some of the plants never grew beyond a few leaves and 10cm high-ish. Other seedlings including some tomatoes and peppers eventually grew through it, but were much later in their development. We've just composted some calendula seedlings that after a couple of months were still less than 10cm high!
We used (I've just remembered the name) Rocketgro. Now maybe it was just coincidence but I've never had it happen before and we've been growing some decades.

Bathgate seed sowing compost which is high quality. Fed with liquid seaweed too.

[smallblueplanet]

Bathgate seed sowing compost which is high quality. Fed with liquid seaweed too.

Ah well, just a thought.

[ameno]

Bathgate seed sowing compost which is high quality. Fed with liquid seaweed too.

Is it necessarily high quality, though?
Composts are reformulated often, and the new formulations often don't hold up to previous ones. Even big producers with a good reputation can fall foul of this, as trials by consumer organisations have demonstrated.

Also, liquid seaweed isn't really a fertiliser. It's supposed to have certain plant hormones and stuff in it which stimulate growth, but it has very little actual nutrient in it. Legally, it cannot even be sold as a fertiliser, due to said lack of basic plant nutrients.

Exactly that, the water is the thing that breaks them down much quicker thus making it easier for the plant to absorb. How else does it get absorbed into the soul of water isn't part of the process.

Water doesn't make it easier for the plant to absorb, as it's still largely insoluble and thus not absorbable.
What water does is make it easier for bacteria and fungi in the soil to break it down, and thus render it into a form plants can actually absorb. This still takes time, however.

[rary]

Like burnie I too add blood, fish and bone to all my potting compost, even peat based compost , we can still buy peat based compost in Scotland, which gives us more time to get the quality of peat free compost sorted

[Marb67]

Like burnie I too add blood, fish and bone to all my potting compost, even peat based compost , we can still buy peat based compost in Scotland, which gives us more time to get the quality of peat free compost sorted

Interesting idea. I will try that as I usually sprinkle on the soil as I thought it may burn the roots.

[rary]

Don't overdo the addition of BFB, I would recommend a level teaspoon full to a couple of lts of compost, try that to start with and if you recon you need more just add in small increments, if you have added too much it can lead to discolouration of the leaves or even the shedding of leaves, remember its better to need to add feeding than to try taking away, if at any time you have added too much when making up the compost just add more compost

[Marb67]

The way the Summer is going I doubt I'll get ripe toms, let alone chillies. Must be that global warming eh

[Marb67]

There you go, proof you can get large plants in small pots no bigger than my tins. This is a local nursery and they are not dwarf
.

[Jungle Jane]

Marb that’s a bit frustrating because none of your containers are that big,go back to the photo of your containers,they're not this big. Also one plant per pot in that size container is proof of one plant per pot being best.

[Marb67]

My tins are the size of those pits. Granted 2 are in some pots but some also have just 1.