What Fertilizer Is Best for Pepper Plants? A Full Breakdown of Fertilizing Key Points

Pepper is one of the indispensable vegetables, with functions such as sterilization, preservation, seasoning, nutrition and dispelling cold. Therefore, adding a little pepper to your daily recipes is greatly beneficial to your health. At present, many people also have experience growing peppers, so what fertilizer should be applied to pepper plants?

1. What fertilizer should be applied to pepper plants?

For the base fertilizer of pepper plants, barnyard manure, phosphate fertilizer, calcium superphosphate, etc. can be applied; about 15 days after transplanting and survival, urea can be applied as a seedling-promoting fertilizer; during the growing period, compound fertilizer is generally applied; at the early fruiting stage, ammonium sulfate or calcium superphosphate is applied, and 0.2% potassium dihydrogen phosphate can also be used for foliar spraying.

2. Pepper cultivation techniques

1. Land preparation and fertilization

Pepper should not be continuously cropped, nor should it be continuously cropped with crops of the same family such as eggplant, tomato, potato and tobacco. The plot for cultivating peppers must have good drainage, be convenient for drainage and irrigation, and require deep plowing. It is best to carry out winter plowing and leave the land fallow to freeze, so as to improve the soil and eliminate overwintering pests and pathogen spores. Peppers have a long growing period and weak roots; in order to keep flowering and fruiting continuously, good soil conditions and nutritional conditions are necessary. Before planting, the soil needs to be turned to a depth of 10-15 cm, and 5000 kg of barnyard manure per mu can be applied mixed with 15-20 kg of calcium superphosphate; short irrigation and short drainage ditches should be connected with one another so that no water accumulates in the field after rain.

2. Planting management

Peppers should be planted at the right time to promote early root development and early seedling growth, which is the main principle for determining the planting time and post-planting management. Trench planting or flat planting is suitable. At planting, cover the soil shallowly and gradually earth up to close the ridges. After planting, relying only on drought hardening of seedlings will damage the root system, so during the pepper seedling stage, management should involve light hardening or no hardening of seedlings, promoting growth all the way through.

3. Planting density

Pepper plants have a compact growth habit and are suitable for dense planting. Dense planting has great potential for increasing yield, especially for green peppers that continue growing until autumn. Appropriate dense planting helps to close the ridges early. Because the soil surface is covered and shaded, changes in soil temperature and soil moisture are small, and after heavy rain the root system will not be exposed to the sun, which promotes root growth and seedling growth. Generally, the production density of green peppers is 3000-4000 holes per mu, with a row spacing of 50-60 cm and a plant spacing of 25-30 cm. Generally, 2 plants or 3 plants per hole are mostly used. Planting methods such as dense planting in single rows on large ridges, dense planting in alternating large and small ridges, and dense planting in double rows on large ridges can all achieve relatively high yields.

4. Weeding and fertilizing

After the pepper plants survive planting, a shallow intertillage should be carried out in time. When the plants begin to grow, another intertillage should be emphasized. Before the plants close the rows, intertill once more. Intertillage should be combined with weeding and earthing up. After planting, peppers should be topdressed with seedling-promoting fertilizer on sunny days. Each application should not be too large or too concentrated, otherwise it is easy to cause excessive vegetative growth and delay flowering and fruiting. After the first and second layers of fruit set, more fertilizer should be topdressed to promote fruit enlargement. After the fruit begins to be harvested, the soil is even more required to have sufficient fertilizer and water so that the plants can grow and fruit normally.

5. Drainage and irrigation

If heavy rain follows shortly after watering before the soil has dried, leaf drop and plant death will be quite common, especially during the period from the end of the hot season to the beginning of autumn. Therefore, when irrigating, the irrigation time must be determined according to the weather forecast. The irrigation depth should preferably not exceed three-quarters of the furrow, and irrigation should be carried out at night or early in the morning, with rapid irrigation and rapid drainage.

6. Harvesting and seed saving

Peppers grown for fresh eating are mostly harvested as green fruit, but red fruit can also be harvested, while peppers grown for drying must be harvested as red ripe fruit. Harvesting must be timely, otherwise it will affect plant growth and fruiting. For saving pepper seeds, the method of selecting plants combined with selecting fruits can be used, that is, in the field, select standard plants according to the variety characteristics and mark them as seed plants. Harvest the first layer of fruit early for market, and leave 2-4 layers of fruit as seed fruit. When the seed fruit is red and ripe, further select fruits with the characteristics of this variety at harvest. The harvested seed fruits should be spread in a cool place to ripen for 5-7 days, then cut open, take out the seeds, dry them and store them.

There are many kinds of fertilizers used for peppers, and the fertilizers needed during the growth process of peppers are also different. I hope the above content can help everyone.