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I want to share last year’s experience with growing peppers. We grow them every year, but we only tried this last year. Partly because our seedlings did not appear to be in very good condition, they grew more slowly and when the neighbors’ were almost already flowering and growing like crazy, ours looked freshly planted. We were afraid there would be no harvest, so I ran to ask at the garden center and the manager advised me bitter salt. I used Epsom salt (my wife has it at home for roses), but the cheaper bitter salt from the garden center will also do.
3 steps to a bountiful harvest
We started spraying about 2-3 weeks after planting into the garden. We made a simple spray – 1 teaspoon of this salt (Epsom) per 1 liter of standing lukewarm water. We sprayed the plants well and left it. After a few days we saw that growth had slightly accelerated and so we repeated about once every 2 weeks. The idea is to make sure the seedlings have enough magnesium, which they need for root formation and vigor. After that growth goes quickly.
When flowers appear
We started the next spray when the flowers appeared (at that time the seedlings need even more nutrients)
– Dissolve 2 tablespoons of salt in about 4 liters of water and apply to the seedlings once a month, instead of one watering.
Every six weeks until harvest I also added 1 tablespoon of salt to the soil around the peppers – not right at the stem, a little further away. At the start of the season the salt helps with root development, cell processes in photosynthesis, growth and preventing rot. Using it later in the season will result in more fruits, larger ones and a longer fruiting period.
I would also add that a chicken manure brew has similar effects to bitter salt. However, we don’t have hens and this is a simpler and more fragrant solution.
