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So this is a kind of open-ended question, if it's too broad I'll try to be more specific, or remove the post.

  1. Do any of you have good resources for information on organically growing peppers?
  2. Do you have any pro tips that you've experienced yourselves?
  3. Do you have experiences growing in climates like Los Angeles?
  4. Why are some things to consider as Best Practice with regard to growing food plans, while keeping them healthy (i.e. organic).

Basically, I have a mild amount of experience growing plants, but mostly flowers and such - not edible plants. I did do a small amount of farming, but that was up in central Oregon, and all you basically have to do is plant the seed and water occasionally (and put a lot of effort to keep deer away).

Now, my wife and I are trying to grow some of our own peppers and herbs for cooking. Since we have an apartment, that means potted plants only ( ). It's very different than my other experience growing anything.

Anyway, all that said, our primary challenge now is dealing with pests and fungi/illnesses as they show up. Some isn't bad, but too much has resulted in 2-3 of my wife's plants dying. F we can put together a good enough collection of data, maybe we can make this into a wiki or something.

Thanks in advance for any contributions you all may have!!

kyle_engineer
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2 Answers2

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Growing plants in pots is a great solution. But if you did not use sterilized potting soil and used garden soil instead well, that would be your problem. Potted plants are totally dependent on what you give them. If you use soil out of the garden you easily can plop in a disease or insect that otherwise is controlled by the large body of garden soil. Big no no.

Plants in pots need potting soil (without added fertilizer or water holding sponges/gels) planted in pots with drainage holes at the bottom. No rock or gravel between the hole and the body of soil. Just soil. A bit of fertilizer...balanced fertilizer, never compost. Great light. Out doors on a covered patio is wonderful. If you are trying to get flowers, peppers and other reproductive growth you have to keep your nitrogen lower than the P and the K. Too much N and you will only get vegetative growth. For herbs like basil, tarragon, thyme...vegetative growth is fine. I would use my standby easy peasy safe to use extended release fertilizer recommendation; Osmocote 14-14-14 which will work fine for both reproductive and vegetative growth.

Here is the skinny with Organic from MY perspective. Knowing how to grow plants to the extent no mistakes will enhance insects or disease or any necessity to use PESTICIDES...that is growing organic. Fertilizer is not a pesticide. It is critical for plants. Without the proper chemicals available, plants are unable to do photosynthesis which is how they make THEIR OWN FOOD. Fertilizer, compost, fish sauce, grins...blood meal...non of this is FOOD for plants. In pots, you use potting soil. Potting soil does not require amending. Compost is to improve and feed the garden soil.

The biggest part to 'grow organic' is to make dang sure you do not purchase GMO seed. If there is a problem with insects or disease or getting started, you ask us professionals. Pesticides are band aids on problems never a solution. Organic to me and others means never using pesticides. Plants in pots need potting soil, great drainage, great light and fertilizer. All four are critical. Seed that is NON GMO will say NON GMO. Keep asking questions about how to grow your little garden on your balcony!

stormy
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  • I agree with not using garden soil for potted plants, but I am confused by your advice to use Osmocote fertilizer which is not organic. There are a variety of options for natural and organic fertilizer, why do you recommend using something synthetic? Can you also explain the problem with compost? Is it too dense/takes to long to break down, that makes it unsuitable for growing indoors? – MyNameisTK Aug 24 '17 at 14:24
  • Thanks stormy! An amendment to my question: would you classify it as "organic" to use the old soap & water vs aphids solution? The recipe that I found and used a couple times is 1 TSP to 1 US Gal. ( s a note, we have a soap that I believe is an organic soap and doesn't contain any colors or scents - which I presume is better since prolonged use could affect change of flavor...) – kyle_engineer Aug 24 '17 at 17:43
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    My opinion would be 'that's organic enough for me'...that dang word is over used and confusing. Doesn't it mean any material that came from living material but now includes all compounds that include carbon? Even the definition has gotten confusing, grins! – stormy Aug 24 '17 at 18:09
  • Not really! Organic refers to anything derived from a carbon based lifeform- however many mineral salts can fall into that trap as they can be produced from a lifeform such as guano but be chemically pure most things bought from proper suppliers will have an organic standard printed somewhere on their packaging. – olantigh Aug 26 '17 at 16:52
  • http://www.dictionary.com/browse/organic @olantigh Here's the definition of organic. It has been upgraded by including any compound that includes carbon. – stormy Aug 26 '17 at 17:56
  • @1800-94-Jenny I am sorry, I didn't get pinged with you question/comment. Osmocote is not organic but neither is NPK. Nitrogen is nitogen, Phosphorus is phosphorus and potassium is potassium no matter how it was produced. Fertilizers differ only in fillers. Osmocote is the safest fertilizer I know to recommend for people who just want to be successful with plants. Compost is for amending soils not to be used as a fertilizer. It isn't balanced for one thing and it isn't sterililzed and you could be adding insects and disease to a potting soil that would have no beneficials or controls. – stormy Aug 26 '17 at 18:03
  • @1800-94-Jenny ...the large body of soil in the garden will have beneficial insects, moles, centipedes, nematodes and many other 'natural' controls. Compost is decomposed organic mulch, supposedly. Bark is just mulch because it is not decomposed. Soil organisms feed off of decomposed organic mulch not straw or bark or newspaper because they can only eat decomposed. So stuff that isn't decomposed will be in the decomposition process by decomposer organisms and they need nitrogen for energy to do their work. Until there is decomposed organic matter to eat they go dormant, die, stop reproduce – stormy Aug 26 '17 at 18:10
  • @1800-94-Jenny...ing. Once there is decomposed organic matter the organisms wake up, hatch, reproduce go up to the surface eat, go back down into the soil and poop mixing this matter into the soil for you. The plants need a soil full of life out in the garden to be healthy themselves. Not so in pots. The potting soil has very little actual soil, won't become compacted, superior drainage and with the proper addition of balanced fertilizer the right amount of light a potted plant has all it needs to make its own food via photosynthesis. I think this organic fad has gone a bit too far... – stormy Aug 26 '17 at 18:17
  • ....our gardens are organic as long as we don't use pesticides. There are 'organic' pesticides such as NEEM, soap and water, milk and water ...some even include manual methods such as spraying water or squishing insects between your fingers in the grouping of pesticides.(herbicides, miticides, fungicides, all the 'cides' which means 'to kill'). All of our landscapes, gardens and potted plants are all artificial. Always will be. They are organic but totally artificial in any sense of that word. They rely on us completely – stormy Aug 26 '17 at 18:26
  • @stormy Thanks for the explanation. I found this article (http://bit.ly/2mz1yBY) that summarizes the pros/cons of organic vs. chemical fertilizer. I think you are right that we don't need to concern ourselves from a soil building perspective when growing in pots because we aren't trying to build healthy soil communities as we do in a garden. Its true plants don’t discern between nutrient sources as long as they have what they need to grow. That said if I am growing plants to eat I avoid chemical fertilizers because they can leave behind traces of heavy metals (http://bit.ly/2vwxwme) – MyNameisTK Aug 28 '17 at 14:16
  • @stormy I also disagree that "our gardens are organic as long as we don't use pesticides" and that the "organic fad has gone too far". I think most gardeners would argue that organic means not just avoiding synthetic pesticides but also synthetic fertilizers. We can debate forever what exactly organic means but why not try to make choices that will be best for our plants, us and the earth. Since the user asked for best practices, I think it makes sense to give advice on the absolute best practices and then let the user decide how “organic” they want to be. – MyNameisTK Aug 28 '17 at 14:28
  • @1800-94-Jenny The user actually asked for MY opinion. This is akin to Global Warming via man made CO2. Which just ain't happening but when someone is almost convinced they always ask why not use this as a forum to get over fossil fuels? At least it is getting closer to being responsible sensitive humans about the environment. From my point of view to base anything on a lie even if the result would be a good thing is still a lie and will cause even more confusion. I need to go look up the fillers in fertilizer as that would be the only thing that stands between organic and synthetic. – stormy Aug 28 '17 at 18:49
  • https://www.todayshomeowner.com/debate-over-organic-chemical-fertilizers/ This article is fairly good...talks about fillers. 'Nutrients are nutrients' is the same as 'chemicals are chemicals'...Nutrients as a word is right in there with Natural, Organic, Food for Plants. Confusing. Most people could never give plants they grow in their artificial environment the correct amount of 'nutrients' or chemistry necessary for photosynthesis. The facts about how to know what you are adding are critical to learn. The best thing for this world is to make everyone successful with gardening. Correctly – stormy Aug 28 '17 at 19:01
  • @1800-94-Jenny If you are concerned about heavy metals there are a few things you need to learn about; tap water or city water. Very high in heavy metals and the worst thing is fluoride. Unbelievable they are STILL putting this extremely toxic by product of phosphorous production (for one source). Absolutely nothing to do for teeth...more than half a century they put fluoride in our drinking water to make money off a substance that should NOT be in our water. The other thing is cloud seeding, also called Chemtrails. Calling it conspiracy theory has shrouded this problem for almost a 100yr. – stormy Aug 28 '17 at 19:08
  • Particulates they blast into our atmosphere basically to seed clouds, water vapor are primarily heavy metals. The military vowed that by 2025 they would be in control of the weather in conjunction with HAARP. Go look up the patents that have been updated and in place since the 1920's. Your eyebrows will go up with the lists of chemicals we play with in our atmosphere all around this planet. My friends in Hawaii who tell me growers have to use greenhouses now to protect their soil from heavy metals. Fertilizers are insignificant within the scale provided by chemtrails and fluoride. – stormy Aug 28 '17 at 19:16
  • Personally I tend to consider "organic" by its older definition of not using synthetic/chemical pesticides. Obviously the primary consideration is these chemicals leaching into the plant and adversely getting into the food. That said, since plants fully functions off of chemical processes, I doubt they will really process thing in the soils that they don't want. Meaning (as an arbitrary example) if you had some percentage of lithium in your soil, thy doesn't *necessarily* mean that you would get lithium in your fruit. – kyle_engineer Aug 28 '17 at 19:41
  • From my understanding, the major problem with chemical pesticides was that spraying them into the plant left a layer of the leaves and flowers and adversely the fruit. – kyle_engineer Aug 28 '17 at 19:42
  • Depends on the formulation of pesticide. If it is systemic it is all through the plant. Interesting analogy, lithium. Probably the only 'drug' that supposedly is good for you, says my doctors. It would be nice to know what killed your wife's plants. That tells me what to look out for in the future. Never water the plant or leaves in the evening or night. Pull the plants in when it rains. Water only in the morning allowing the rest of the day to dry the plant and deter fungus. There is absolutely no reason you should need to spray anything at all. More information Kyle. Please! – stormy Aug 28 '17 at 20:00
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I would grow them like tomatoes, chose an organic sourced potting compost and mix with some home made compost- I like to put a dollop of manure in the lower half of the pot- think fairly big here- no smaller than 15 inch wide here and at least 12 inches deep or more- the bigger the pot the less you'll have to water it, feeds can come in a selection of types from shop bought to home made comfrey juice- use what ever is available, I like to use a seaweed liquid feed as it contains some of the micronutrients and avoids problems on the whole- I add a sprinkling of white wood ash when the fruit develops and let the sun do the rest. If you want to paranoid then chose organically grown seed, or a heritage variety to start off with and then take and use your own seed from there after- as long as your only growing one variety- bees have a knack of spreading pollen and genetic material all over the place- I would change variety every year and experiment with varieties and growing methods every year until you find one that works for you- hope it helps. I would also ask the local horticultural associations and neighbours for help too- do a search online might find a local source for the that organic material you might need later- (manures, compost etc)

olantigh
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