When to fertilize?

[PunkRotten]

Hi,


I pruned a 2nd year Pepper plant over a week ago. Now new growth is appearing. I have Azomite, 2 different organic fertilizers (granular), and fish/seaweed liquid fertilizer. One of the organics is a balanced 4-4-4 while the other is something like 3-5-4. Anyway, should I give the pepper plant some fertilizer soon? If so, which one?


I also just planted a Lemon tree in a 15 gallon pot. The car instructions said to fertilize Spring, Summer, and Fall. What type of fertilizer do I want to use for this?

[jal_ut]

Is your pepper plant in a pot? Either of the fertilizers you mention would be good. A bit of Azomite would be ok also, to boost the minerals in your soil. Yes, do it now.

[jal_ut]

Oops, I didn't comment on the Lemon tree. Not knowing what you filled the pot with its hard to say, however if you used some bagged potting mix, you would do well to add some Azomite for the minerals. The one nutrient most often lacking in soils is nitrogen. If you like to use organic fertilizers, some compost or one of the organic fertilizers you have would work.

Myself, I don't mind using chemical fertilizers for things in pots. Fertilizing things in pots, with these fertilizers must be done carefully, as too much can kill the plant. I think the best thing is the Miracle Grow mixed with water and applied according to the instructions. You won't get an overdose doing this.

[PunkRotten]

Any particular reason you don;t mind chemical fertilizer in pots? Yes the pepper is in a pot.

For the Lemon tree I did a mixture of 2 types of potting soil. One was mostly a mixture of shredded wood with compost the other was a mixture of materials as well as some organic fertilizer already mixed in.

[jal_ut]

Bagged potting soils are not really soil. They are a mixture of mostly inert things that are pretty useless for anything except to anchor roots. Peat, and perlite, two common ingredients, have no nutrients at all. Sawdust has no available nutrients until the microbes break it down. What it all boils down to is that unless you add some nutrients to this stuff, the plants are starving for nutrients. A little steer manure or compost will help, but these things are stincky so what usually goes into potting mixes is chemical fertilizers. So you see, I am not opposed to adding a little more of those chemicals.

The fact of the matter is the plants don't know where the nutrients came from, but they sure notice the lack of nutrients.

One more thing, it is not likely that runoff from the pots will make it to the ocean to cause algae bloom. (One of the big drawbacks of using chems on large tracts of agricultural land.)