It is difficult to draw any conclusions without more information. Was the fertilizer applied all at once or with each watering or...?

What was the fertilizer? A water soluble, or an organic insoluble? If the fertilizer was organic it isn't at all surprising (to me) that best results were obtained by tripling the recommended rate. If it was Miracle Grow or some other water soluble fert I would be a bit more surprised.

Interesting experiment, but more details are needed.

The University of Illinois Extension website says, "...peppers can actually produce fruit quite well under almost ridiculously high fertility programs."

This caught my attention last year and I made sure to fertilize my chili peppers well, if not ridiculously high. At planting time I mixed all purpose granular fertilizer and bone meal, about a handful of each, with soil in the bottom of a generously sized planting hole. Later, I occasionally sidedressed with granular fertilizer and sprayed with soluble fertilizer. I had good results, large, sturdy, well fruited plants.

I plan to experiment with different applications of fertilizer on other vegetables, much like the experiment posted by solanaceae but not in containers.

Here is a link that might be useful: University of Illinois Extension

Boy, a triple fertilizer dose flies in the face of all the traditional advice about not fertilizing pepper plants much because they'll grow green and lush but just won't produce any fruit.

I, personally, think tomatoes need fertilizing again after they begin to set fruit, though it's frowned on by many who say tomatoes aren't heavy feeders. At least that's been my personal experience. Maybe someday someone will do a similar experiment with tomatoes!

Anyway, thanks for the information. My peppers have ALWAYS been pretty pitiful, scrawny, small fruits with thin walls, even when left to ripen, no matter what the variety is. I'll certainly feed them more this year to see if that makes a difference.

I guess I'll be piling on the locally-produced urea! Thanks for the tip.

jimster

I was looking for this thread to save some of the information and your post about experimenting with fertilizer levels with other veggies caught my eye. If you do that, can you post the results later?

Thanks to Jim and Anney, for very valuable info.

cyrus