Any gardeners out there?

[William33 110]

Hello all,

For the benefit of my Fiance and myself, I am growing Thai and Indonesian Chili peppers. 90 days ago, I bought 16 semi-mature Thai sky pointing chili plants, which I grow indoors. They get a west exposure of sunlight of about 5-6 hours daily. As a supplement, I use Flourescent lighting, which has worked well. The Thai plants are producing many peppers, although some flowers do fall off every day. (Not sure why that is).

Anyway, about 60 days ago, I started about 60 Indonesian chili pepper plants from seed (three varieties). They are now about 23 inches tall and are just beginning to flower.

The question: about six plants are much smaller and have "splitting main stems" .. Any idea why this is happening? Any other thoughts to increase production?

Yes, I did research this. But, there is limited information on the subject.

Any insight would be appreciated.

[*Robert* 2]

What are you using to fertilize the soil?

I've always used chicken manure for fruit bearing plants and find they respond well. The warmer the better too.

[William33 110]

.21% nitrogen, .07% phosphate, .14 potash miracle gro fertilizer. Not sure what the ratio is on that. Is that too hot of a fertilizer?

Where can one get chicken manure? Plentiful in Indonesia and Thailand, but here? Can that be had at Lowes or Home Depot?

What are you using to fertilize the soil?

I've always used chicken manure for fruit bearing plants and find they respond well. The warmer the better too.

[*Robert* 2]

Absolutely!!!

Home Depot, Ace, Wal Mart... any large store with an "Outdoor" department.

Just wouldn't be right growing peppers without good 'ole "chicken poo poo"!!!

[William33 110]

Alrighty then, chicken ####### it is!!!! A large order please!!!

Any thoughts on the stem splitting? I expected a few plants to fail, but I am trying to assess whether or not I need to be concerned about some sort of disease killing everything.