Pep For Your Peppers: Choosing And Using Fertilisers To Boost The Growth Of Your Jalapenos
Growing your own hot chilli peppers can be a rewarding hobby as well as an excellent way to save money on your grocery bills, and with so many different varieties of chilli pepper to choose from, the budding pepper farmer is spoiled for choice. However, if you're just getting into the business of growing hot chillis, jalapenos are a great place to start; their modest, warming heat is ideal for palates unaccustomed to the more violently spicy varieties of pepper, and the plants themselves tend to be very hardy and can grow well without expert attention.
Adding fertiliser to the soil your jalapeno plants grow in can be a great help in obtaining the largest, tastiest peppers possible, but simply adding any old fertiliser to your plants will not do. Chilli pepper plants in general, and jalapeno plants in particular, have quite specific needs when it comes to fertilisation, so you should keep the following guidelines in mind if you intend to boost your jalapeno growth.
Avoid fertilising newly-planted seeds
Jalapeno seeds are very hardy and tenacious, and have evolved to germinate in a wide variety of soils including those with relatively poor nutrient content. Adding garden fertilisers to newly-sown seeds can actually be detrimental, as the influx of nutrients forces seeds to sprout early and exhaust their resources too quickly.
Choose a balanced fertiliser for sprouting seeds
Once your seeds have germinated and the resulting sprouts have reached a reasonable size, you can begin fertilisation in earnest. At this early stage, your jalapenos will benefit most from a fertiliser containing an equal balance of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium—these three nutrients are essential for the growth of most green plants, and will help your young jalapeno plants grow more quickly and fight off any infections or fungal growth they may encounter.
However, over-fertilisation can still cause damage at this delicate stage, so you should be careful not to overdose your soil. Liquid fertilisers are particularly useful at this stage, as they can be meted out in small, precise quantities more easily.
Avoid excessive nitrogen for growing plants
When your jalapeno sprouts have grown into small but fully formed plants, you should switch to a fertiliser with less nitrogen content than phosphorus or potassium content. About half as much nitrogen as phosphorous and potassium is generally a good ratio. Excessive nitrogen content at this stage will cause your plants to focus more on leaf and stem growth, drawing nutrients from the fruiting bodies and stunting the growth of the jalapenos themselves.
Go back to balanced fertilisers once fruits are fully formed
After the blossoming stage, the fruits of your labours will quite literally begin to appear. Jalapeno peppers grow relatively quickly, to the point where overly-large chilli fruit can weaken the rest of the plant, so you should switch back to a balanced or slightly nitrogen-rich fertiliser at this stage to ensure the healthy growth of the plant as a whole. The amount of fertiliser you add at this stage will also depend on your culinary tastes; the smaller your jalapeno fruits, the spicier they will tend to be, so use modest amounts of fertiliser if you have an adventurous palate.