Give me your pepper "tricks"!

[gladahmae]

I'm planting peppers for the 2nd time, and I need some tips and tricks to help them do better than last year. Last year was DRY here, and I didn't water as well as I probably should have, but my pepper plants were TINY and pretty much every pepper got brown "scabs" on them. Reading into the latter issue, it seems that they may have gotten sun burn. SO, how do I A.) get my plants bigger and B.) keep the peppers from getting burnt?

Oh, and I'm in Michigan, and I'm growing jalepenos, and california wonder bell peppers.


I have a decent pile of manure from LAST YEAR's meat chickens.....what should I use that on?

 

[lazy gardener]

I can't answer your manure question, as I can't see your soil and your manure, and I'm on a learning curve re: use of chicken manure in the garden. Everybody's soil conditions are different. But, I can tell you what works well for me in my garden with peppers... not that I grow wonderful peppers, cause I don't. It's just too cold here. By the time they get going well it gets too cold for them to keep going. Peppers need enough moisture for sure. And they like it hot. Can you make a little plastic green house enclosure to surround them, or even put a window pane over them to trap some heat. The next thing that they like is Magnesium. In my area, with my soil, that translates into application of Epsom salts. It's recommended as a foliar spray. If you do a web search re: Epsom salt foliar spray for peppers, you'll find all sorts of good stuff. Specifically, look at "Pepper Joe's Gardening Tips".

 

[gladahmae]

Soil is sandy. Slightly acidic. I probably need to top dress around the plants I with compost or something to help with nutrients in general.

Will look into the Epsom salts. Thanks!