HelpfulGardener.com

We found a great place to get compost at a local winery. When we brought it home to use, some of our plants did well in it, others like our pepper plants started to turn yellow and wilt. Not sure why? Any suggestions? It even took our tomato plants some getting used to, but the flowers are alright.

When and how did you apply it? Dug into the soil ahead of time, right at planting, or placed on top after planting?

How much did you apply? (1" thick, etc.)

What did the compost look and smell like? Was it cold or still hot, did it smell earthy and pleasant or not?

When we transplanted our vegetables and flowers we used a compost/soil/dry vegetable food mixture. It was not completely compost alone. It was not warm compost, it had been stored outside. They used it for blueberries and grapes. It is very rich compost, and like I have mentioned only the peppers have a bad reaction to it. It took awhile for our tomatoes to adjust but they are all fine now. Just the peppers are wilting and leaves turning yellow. I think if we want to be sure of the pH level of the compost we could always test the compost, but we have not done that yet. Perhaps we will and let you know how that goes?

Thanks for the feedback this forum is extremely helpful!

Compost can hold on to a lot of water. How long does the soil the peppers are in take to dry out? Peppers like an evenly moist soil but it doesn't like it too wet.

Our soil doesn't stay too wet. Think we figured out the problem. Our compost doesn't have enough nutrients for the peppers once they start flowers. We need some good fertilizer. Thanks all for your input!

I looked on a vegetable gardening forum for you and it seems some people have had problems like this with peppers, caused by too MUCH water and fertilizer.

If the compost from the winery wasn't finished, it could compete with the plants for the nitrogen which could cause some yellowing unless you supplement the nitrogen. Fish emulsion every week would probably do the trick to feed the compost and the peppers. I hope your neighbors are far away.

Compost is a great thing to add but it works better added a few months before to make sure it is finished.

Thanks a lot everyone for your advice! Really helps!