Saved by the Chilies and Cayenne Pepper

All through out the summer I had noticed  my peppers, Bells and Jalapenos, grew leaves and only little bit of fruit. So the fisrt thing I thought of was the fertilizer. I had used compost tea from the worms and that was pretty much it. I watered them like normal, moved them to a sunnier spot and still not much happened.

 It was in late August when I started thinking about what could make them grow better and as the blog is titled -Garden By Nature- I turned my attention to what naturally happens to fertilize plants to make them grow strong and grow fruit. I realized that it was mostly things that fall from it's own plant the leaves and the fruit that drops to the ground that supply additional nutrients and also things from surrounding plants.

Ok armed with that bit of knowledge,  I was on a mission. I needed to find some pepper ingredients to use to feed the plants. I know this sounds unconventional, but I pulled some of the lower leaves off the bottom of the plant and left them in the pots. But my thinking was that the would take forever to decompose to add any benefit quickly. My next thought was to use the next best thing ...ground chili pepper I purchased from the farmers market. I still had some, so I mixed it with two quarts of water and a teaspoon of sugar and watered the pepper plants. What could it hurt? The ground chilies simulate the the plant debris that would naturally fall to the ground anyway.  

A week or so later flower buds and flowers grew on the plants. This was exciting. It worked! Maybe it's because the chilis are rich in nutrients themselves that gave the the plants a boost,  I would have to research that,  but it seemed to work. And because it is September and so late in the season, I'm not sure what to expect. The weather is changing and I hope to get some fruit before the cold kicks in. I might even take the plants indoors to see what happens. I'll post updates on the plants as they grow.

If this is successful I will use this as away for fertilizing all my plants. (with their own debris simulating nature.) It makes so much sense, God has been doing  it with nature ever since he had created it.  

Like nature leaves fall and it feeds the plants, in addition to tossing them in the compost, leaving the clippings and debris from plants, to fall in the containers or on the ground surrounding the plants, might no be a bad thing. 

Fertilizer for pepper plants
2 tablespoons of ground chili powder
1 teaspoon sugar
2 quarts of water

In the mean time while we wait for the leaves and the fruit to drop, here's the quick fix Pepper fertilizer recipe

Disclaimer:  It's just an experiment.  

Enjoy!