Pepper plants not growing as quick as other things...

[Jeffross1968]

I have a 12x15 garden, year 2...soil is mostly red clay with some compost tilled in this year (thin layer across the whole garden). I have tomatoes, peppers, bush beans, onion, carrot, cukes, and squash. Pepper types are Sweet banana which were store bought starters, and from seed that I started inside and transplanted, there are Corno Di Torro Giallo, Emerald Giant, and Purple Beauty.

The garden on the whole is flourishing, but the pepper plants seem stunted. None have yet flowered, though everything else has. They also seem very small compared to all the other stuff (except the bush bean, which is small but has flowered and growing beans).

Last year it seemed the pepper plants started very slowly as well. My green peppers barely produced, though the banana peppers did ok. Is there something I can do to help them along or are peppers just much slower growing? I really don't want a pathetic yield like last year...

[rainbowgardener]

Peppers are slow, but a thin layer of compost is not much added nutrients. Compost is good for your soil, but it is low concentration of nutrients, probably 1-1-1 or 2-2-2. That's ok if you have lots of it, not so much if you are spreading it thin.

Either add more compost right around the plants (not spread over the garden) or look for some organic fertilizer. Green peppers are heavy feeders and need a lot of nutrients.

[sheeshshe]

Mine havent grown either and they've been in there for a month and a half. I thought for sure with the heat wave we just had, they'd take off like everything else. nope. Last year they were growing crazy! Good thing I got 6 replacement ones from the nursery But still, I grew them from seed and picked certain varieties for a reason I'm still holding out hope

[Francis Barnswallow]

Don't know why, but the peppers I put in containers did much better than the ones I planted in the garden. Both had the same soil.

[dustyrivergardens]

I do grow a lot of peppers and at the start of the season peppers are slow but what they want is a little nitrogen hit them with something like a blood meal I use chicken poo very lightly and then I hit them with magnesium I use epsom salts I dilute 1 tablespoon of epsom salts per gallon of water and I pour this over the top of all my peppers. then every time I pick my peppers I make another batch and do the same thing it works well for me and my peppers usually do better than anyone in the area.