Last updated on December 2nd, 2011
ARE YOUR PEPPER PLANTS BEHAVING BADLY TOO? Mine, planted three months ago, haven’t set a single flower bud. Happily, in the comments under A Walk in the Kitchen Garden, reader Jen offered this possible pepper-panacea:
About 3 weeks ago i mixed a heaping teaspoon or two of Epsom salts with about 32 ounces of warm water in a spray bottle and started spraying my big, beautiful, pepper-less plants once every five days or so….the plants are still big and beautiful but are now filled with flower buds and tiny baby peppers…
Jen
Why did Jen’s Epsom-spray work? Because Epsom salt, or hydrated magnesium sulfate, boosts a plant’s ability to absorb nitrogen, sulfur, and — perhaps most importantly — phosphorus. Phosphorus is the key to abundant budding, and consequently fruit. (I regularly feed my African violets a high-phosphorus formula, and they bloom and bloom all winter.)
I’m going to give Jen’s treatment a try. Maybe you will, too. Applied in the quantity mentioned above, even if it doesn’t help flower-stingy plants, it certainly won’t harm them.
Furthermore, one can always pour the product into one’s bath water. For Epsom salt — so named because it was discovered in the well water in Epsom, England — is a known ache- and pain-reliever. But you probably already knew this.
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Justin says
Kevin, sounds like that product on the old Saturday Night Live skit. “It's a floor wax.” “No! it's a dessert topping!”
Adele says
I might use Epsom on my tomatoes. The plants are flowering, and producing fruit, but not so much as in recent years. Maybe the salts will give them the kick they need. Do I have to apply it as a folliar spray? Or can it just be worked into the soil?
Katreader says
Hmmm. I'll have to try this. I have some jalapeno and sweet peppers and no blossoms anywhere!
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
Justin – I remember that skit with Dan Akroyd and Jane Curtain! (I had dinner with Jane C. last fall; we talked, of all things, about beagles!)
Adele – You don't have to spray the leaves. You can sprinkle about a teaspoon or so of dry Epsom salt around your tomatoes. Then water it in.
Katreader – Aha! There must be something going around! Elsewhere on this blog Erin mentioned her peppers aren't budding, either. I sprayed Epsom on my six plants today. Tomorrow I may water their roots with Jack's Classic Blossom Booster. Something's gotta give…
Carol says
I've had terrible luck with my sweet peppers, too! I'll give the salts a try.
ChicagoBonnie says
I'm going to try the Epsom salt on my Cardinal Climber vine, as it has tons of gorgeous leaves, but has yet to show a bud. Thanks for the tip =)
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
ChicagoBonnie – Yes, do give Epsom a try on your Cardinal Climber. I sprinkled a little beneath some non-blooming Morning Glory vines 2 weeks ago, and they are now — finally — budding up!
helen says
I have all kinds of pepper plants as well as tomatoe plants they have buds but dry up and fall off.What can i do?
Kevin Lee Jacobs says
helen – Is it possible you are feeding your plants with a high-nitrogen fertilizer? Too much nitrogen will cause blossom-drop in certain plants. Better to use a low-nitrogen, high-phosphorous “blossom booster” type of plant food for tomatoes and peppers.
Wildly-fluctuating temperatures and uneven watering (dryness followed by saturation) are two other causes of blossom drop. Strive to keep the soil evenly moist at all times.