The Aggressive Application Group
The aggressive application group consisted of
two red rocket cayenne pepper plants and two ana-
heim pepper plants. This group received one table-
spoon of Easy Grow + per gallon of water with each
feeding.
Getting Started - Frequency of Feedings
I live in a hardiness zone where the last average
frost date is June 15th (not exactly the ideal place to
grow hot peppers, but I have had decent luck with
them in previous years). The peppers were started
from seed by a local nursery and delivered to me
in early June. I kept them in their original contain-
ers (seedling cells) and housed them in a small cold
frame until June 17th. On June 17th, I transplanted
each pepper plant into a three gallon container for
the test.
My idea, when I started this grow test, was to
feed the plants with fertilizer (excluding the control
group) twice a week. However, due to an extremely
rainy month of June, I was not able to feed that often
because I didn’t feel comfortable adding more mois-
ture to the soil. In fact, throughout the month of June
and into early July, the planting containers never
had a chance to dry out. They were essentially water
logged and I was concerned about losing the plants
to root rot.
As many experienced gardeners know, if a grow-
ing medium never has a chance to dry out, it loses its
ability to hold oxygen. When a plant’s roots no lon-
ger have access to oxygen, pathogens, such as root
rot, can take hold. I decided to still feed the plants
the fertilizer regimen once a week, regardless of the
rain and the soaked containers, so I could continue
with the test, even if it was not ideal conditions.
Results
After Week 1
There were no noticeable changes after week
one, except that one of the cayenne peppers in the
control group started to turn yellow. This could have
been due to transplant shock, lack of nutrients, or
pathogens which established in the over-saturated
soil. All of the other plants seemed to have taken the
transplant well and looked poised for growth.
After Week 2
After week two there was a noticeable difference
between the plants that received the Easy Grow +
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www.GardenandGreenhouse.net
October 2017