The problem with using granular organic fertilizers (as opposed to the liquid ones) is it takes time for the micros to break them down to usable forms for the plants. That's why it's recommended to fertilizer your soil in the fall and kept adding them every 10 days or so in the spring and summer; sort of like successive fertilizing, feeding the plants down the road. It's also recommended to use organic liquid fertilizers, such as fish emulsion, a few times in a growing season to supplement the granular organic fertilizers, giving plants some fast food to eat.

Next year you should try to clone one plant and experiment on the five clones that you made as they should give you a more accurate result due to the fact that they are geneticly the same.

would have been interesting to see a "no fertilizer" plant.

I did an “experiment “ between miracle grow organics and worm compost tea the miracle grow grew bigger greener plants but the worm tea produced more, larger peppers.

Basically you set it up so that the inorganics could work a little better. True organic fertilizers work best in a living soil where the microbes within the soil aid the microbes that come with fertilizer to break down and see the plants proper way. By not setting up a living soil you gave the inorganics a pretty decent Head start and better finish. This may be a taboo topic but I recommend checking out living soil cannabis growers as they really have it dialed in

I think one of the biggest pros of Fox Farms is that the fertilizer mix adjusts to what stage the plant is in. Early on, it's for growing the plant, and then it shifts to help produce more flowers, and then healthy fruit. I would think that shift in the macros probably had at least something to do with the smaller plant size for the Fox Farms plant, as well as the larger and healthier fruit yield

This is really helpful! Even though you said it wasn’t “scientific” it was still very practical! Thanks for trying all of these out for us. 👍

Been using Alaska Fish Fertilizer (5-1-1) and Morbloom (0-10-10) on my bog-standard orange habanero this year and it's been working pretty well. I got the seedling from Home Depot so I didn't start it, but what I did after bringing it home and transplanting to a container with some regular Miracle Gro potting soil was only use the Fish Fertilizer (1 Tbsp in 1 gal water) for the first month and a half every two weeks, then I added the Morbloom in combination at the same rate (so 1 Tbsp of both in 1 gal water every two weeks). I was also pinching off blossoms until I started the Morbloom to encourage green growth. I'm up to 131 usable peppers harvested off this single plant with more still on it in various stages of development. I did sort of baby the plant, though, and this is my first attempt at growing produce in trying to turn my black thumb green (I've killed bamboo before ¬_¬). I look forward to expanding next year!

The fertilizer has what plants need, but Brawndo has what plants crave.

While not purely scientific, it’s still an excellent experiment AND great effort

Thanks for taking the time to share this. I started using MI Garden’s Trifecta last year with great results throughout my garden.

The ration / amount of the big three nutrients (NPK) and any micronutrients in each fertilizer would be interesting to compare.

Brawndo has what plants need.. Fox Farm too. Yes, it was hydro. Very knowledgeable.

I used the Miracle-Gro Organic plant food. It was a good year.

I'd go with the regular Miracle Gro, since it's the least expensive, but still performs well.

Fascinating results! (Total garden nerd here, so yes, I'm fascinated.) I'd love to see another video like this. New line up suggestions: a hyped compost like Bu's Blend or Land and Sea, Neptune's Harvest. NH released a tomato formula that would be a perfect candidate, but is suggested to switch to the flowering formula when plant starts to flower-ive been using these this year and cannot believe the amount of massive fruit I have on my padrons and jalapeños and still have flowers everywhere! Also, I know the compost isn't a "fertilizer", but think the results would be very interesting to compare with the targeted ammendments. Thanks for the great content.

I had surprise jalapenos pop up this year. Like everything I grow, I just dig lots of homemade compost into the soil. Maybe a little local chicken manure and some dried leaves too when I have it. I also bury fish/seafood scraps from the kitchen if I have them the season before to break down and my soil is pretty rich. As far as fertilizer, I don't have to do much, even with tomatoes (which were also a surprise this year and last). Just some inexpensive, diluted fish emulsion or kelp a couple times during the season. My beds & soil seem fertile enough that I don't need to feed much & I barely have to plant seeds anymore I get gardens that pop up everywhere. This year I have multiple butternut squash plants, potatoes, 3 types of tomatoes & jalapenos grow - I didn't plant any of them and they all produced awesome! Sometimes a more laid back approach and allowing nature to do it's thing works great!

Wow.. Thank you so much for this video. These types of diligent long term study videos are rare and far between because its so hard to keep all other variables controlled but bravo!

I've used MG performance organics with unsulfured blackstrap molasses (1-2TBS gal), and seaweed extract (as directed) in combination as a fertilizer twice a month with wonderful results since MG launched their organic line. I also use garden tone at planting either in pots, or ground.

My favorite is miracle grow. I use it all the time and pleased with the results.

Love your videos! This was my first year growing jalapeños and I used your recipe for pickled jalapeños. Delicious recipe! I planted my plants with Dr. Earth and got both a great yield and huge plants. One of mine grew bigger than my Roma tomato plants that were in similar sized pots. I fertilized at the time of potting and then again 1 month later. I then covered the soil with mulch to retain moisture. Very interesting video.

Thanks! I always wanted to see a survey like this. I use Trifecta + and Fish Emulsion. So interesting, I have heard nothing but good things of Fox Farm

Awesome video! Incredible to see the variation in quality and quantity. A few ideas for future tests: 1. I noticed the fertilisers have very different nutrient ratios. If you have the time, calculate the exact amount of each nutrient (macro and micro) that is going into each pot. Once you have all the data its easier to identify ideal nutrient blends. 2. The top soil would contain nutrients and change the availability and balance. For example, one of the fertilisers might have had the perfect balance and load of nutrients for peppers, but when mixed with the top soil it actually made it underperform. Maybe try swapping it for something with minimal nutrients like coco coir or composted pine bark. 3. The size of the pot is important for organic fertilisers. Soil biology multiplies in large pots faster due to the more stable conditions eg less dramatic heating and cooling. The faster the biology multiplies, the more nutrients become available to the plants. I think you would see the organic ferts perform much better in larger pots, or as you said in raised beds or in the ground. 4. Test everything. A few pH tests along the way. Soil/leaf tests if you are super keen. Brix meters are very cool. Thanks for sharing! Big ups from down under!

For the last 2 yrs I fertilize the method used by Hollis and Nancy. Water in blood and bone meal. Then add some more bone and blood meal to base of planting, mixing in with dirt. Water planting again and forget about it rest of the year, no additional fertilizer. You could scatter additional bone meal in halfway through the summer for a boost. Great plants and harvest. Although all my peppers are sweet, hungarian, cascadura, shishito, cherry etc.

This was awesome! Thank you 🎉

Thank you for all the effort that goes into this type of content We've all seen channels that start something and can't finish, (for good reasons sometimes). I feel like the granular stuff usually needs a couple of weeks to even months to get working, you touched on that slightly, Gary's Best mentioned that in a video once. So perhaps avoid it for potted stuff unless you can start a culture in pot medium before planting. Just an idea.

Nice job and a good application of the scientific method.

Thanks for making the video. I was looking forward to it, as you hinted to it in an earlier video. I went with the miracle grow performance organics. Only one of the fox farms trio is labeled OMRI, so I would probably stick with the miracle grow

Thank you for this video!

Very informative video! It would be interesting to see a flavor comparison as well.

Pretty cool comparison. Thanks for all the hard work

I love videos like this!

I have the Miracle Grow Plant Food in liquid form. From the chart it shows the best production other than weight so i'm sitting good. I'm new to all of this and I always see people using crazy fertilizers and wild names and it gets overwhelming. I found a couple bottles of miracle grow at my moms and went with those. Glad I found this video to see what I'm working with. I've been finding your videos helpful the last 24 hours. Thanks!

Thanks for this!

I'm mid Ohio and of 24 bell peppers plants passed 110 before 8-20 .that's early for zone 6 I only add worm casting and micorizomes after first leafs and not any end rote all season believe my reason because such healthy seedlings and I planted the beginning of the last week of May. So our temperatures were hopefully above 60s but belive they did dropped into the low 50s but seemed to not slow these down. As you I compose in fall and at planting time. I'm a stuff peppers person 5 days a week and pepper jelly fan. Glad someone like yourselves are treating peppers as big importance. If I had to give up tomatoes or peppers tomatoes might be going out. Thanks for the teaching Sir and Lady

Great little test dude! I am on the opposite side of the world so it is just about time to get my peppers going. I will try a few experiments with different fertilizers also. Love your vids.

great test, so much to learn!

Growing Jalaps in-gound in clay-heavy soil with organic matter mixed inover the last 7 years. Last year, using Fish Emulsion 5-1-1 only to fertilize when potted up and then for the first 2-3 weeks after transplanted in ground Espoma Garden Tone used at planting and once in mid-late July, my data shows 48.75 avg total usable harvest per plant, 903.39g total usable weight per plant harvest and 18.53g avg per pepper.

This is great! It was exactly what I needed to see because I was debating going from regular granular miracle gro to the organic kind this year. I wondered if paying a little more would be worth it. Now that I have seen this I think I will go with the organic miracle gro for an organic garden. Thanks for this experiment!

Great video. For a potting mix it makes sense. The soluble ferts are immediately available. The dry amendments need to be broken down before they can be used by the plant. I'd love to see a side by side in real soil. Or in a potting mix that's been inoculated with a diverse soil food web. The microbial life will break down the amendment faster. Too much soluble fert on soil could harm microbes.

I'm cheep. I buy as little as possible. Great experiments. Your conclusion was spot on. Thank you. I picked my first red pepper today. Thank you for the save seeds video. Zone 6, 6A. Peppers are Bell especially for container plants. The only plants available. Had only one container so 2 went into the garden. The one in the container out doing the ones in the garden. Garden soil and geen compost kitchen scrapes etc and leaf mold is what I used. Compost and leaf mold to top dress during growing season

My only recommendation would be to do more than 1 plant for each fertilizer. There could be genetic variation and just random chance at play when just testing 1 plant. These results could be within normal margin of error. The more plants you use, the less genetic/random variation will have an effect. 2:43 Also, if you water too much here, there could be cross contamination.

Thanks for the great and very useful info - Cheers!

Thanks for this. Gonna give Fox Farms a try. I've been using Greenway Biotech Pepper & Herb Fertilizer 11-11-40 and it's been good to me.

I've been using FF Happy Frog Jump Start at planting/potting, then AgroThrive liquid throughout the season. An unusually cold and wet Spring then 6 weeks of 100+ degrees with no rain made this a terrible season, but my peppers are finally setting flowers and fruit with a little cooler weather now.

Great video. Congrats on 100K!! Keep going!

I used Fox Farm granular and liquid throughout my garden and I don't think I will use any other from now on. I really love the results.

Thank you

Ive been using the miracle grow big bloom soil mixture and the fox farm liquid fertilizer this year. I've noticed how much faster the plant grows after being transplanted.

Good video. I've been using chilli focus from GROWTH TECHNOLOGY in my hydro and going to try it in my poted plants this season.

Thanks for sharing your results! I would like to see next year you use a better potting mix and then the same fertilizer comparison. What would be interesting for the end of the plants, would be to see the root structures of the plants as a follow up.

very interesting! I use three of the five. I put Dr Earth/Espoma into the planting hole and give it a Miracle Grow hit once heavy fruiting hits. Might have to play around. Thanks!

Loved your video👍

I've been using fox farm for 3 years now in a raised bed. I use the trio plus the Wholly Mackeral and Kelp me Kelp you (helps with growing in north carolina I was told). My assessment is that is it very "hot" in the first month with some fertilizer burn. But when plants are established I found them to be super prolific.

And all plants I would’ve added, some sort of microbiology, such as compost, and some sort of fungal compost. I would’ve also had cow mag. Calcium magnesium supplement, with a most likely stop the blossom and rot.

Congratulations on 100k!!!

very cool video thanks for doing this!

New Sub, that video was actually really fun to watch! I'm trying to grow some tomatoes and peppers in Florida, but God have mercy, the sun killed my plants even though I watered them. I just received a bunch of replacements, and I'm growing them in my garage with the window open. They have sun but not direct sun or else they would burn. They are very young plants. I will save this video for when I have to fertilize them.

Great video and a very informative test

Good stuff. Next test should be in ground plants. I recommend Neptune’s Harvest; it has been my go to for some time.

Great content! Thank you!

This was very helpful as I grow Jedi jalapeños this year. I didn’t really fertilize them and most where smaller then they should be. So I will be using some fertilizer next year.

Great comparison!

thanks

Interesting test. Thanks so much for going through the trouble. Personally, I went with Miracle Grow Performance Organics this year. Some of my plants are overproducing to the point where i have to try to give peppers away (Long Red Cheyenne) and some of my other plants have only produced a small handful of peppers (Italian Roaster). I'm thinking of switching it up a bit for the rest of this season. The next time I would sprinkle some Miracle Grow on my plants, I might use this bottle of liquid plant food (fish based) that I have in storage.

I only use organic fertilizer with all my plants. I mostly use Neptune's Harvest water soluble fertilizer.

Vermicompost is always my first choice for all my plants

Firstly this was AWESOME! But of course as you know, not a great "fair test" as we learn in science class. You need a much bigger pool of data and plants, so you need to have 5 plants per fertilizer all from the same pod, all roughly the same size, all placed in the same sun using a UV gauge. As currently my most unhealthy plant has given me the best chilli, yet the much more bigger greener happier plants are giving me a bit more fruit just way behind. Maybe if we both have the same issue, maybe stress or stunted growth might be a factor, I'm a complete amature at this, and it's my first chillis. But THANK YOU for doing this, I LOVE these videos.

I grow in containers on my patio. I mix my own potting soil of peat moss, perlite, and topsoil. I use bone meal, organic granular tomato fertilizer to set up the pots, then water in with Alaska fish fertilizer at transplanting. When blooming starts, I switch to Alaska Mor Bloom on 2 week feedings. Once a month add a little fish for the nitrogen. I’ve had my most successful year growing large, fleshy pods of the 5 types I have! Not a bit of BER. I think this combination will be my routine going forward. Thanks for the comparison experiment, very interesting. 👍🏼 I’m in zone 5b.

I love FF soil and fertz. A little pricey but well worth it

I started the season using Miracle-Gro organic general purpose for the extra nitrogen to get the plants big and leafy. I switched to tiger bloom in late June early July. I have a good number of pods but they are not too big before they start to ripen. I might switch to a heavier feeding of tiger bloom next year and see if that produces bigger pods.

Very interested and the organic fertilizers thanks for doing this. Great at growing peppers maybe not so great at house plants 😂🤣

I grow my peppers with Down To Earth organics with fantastic results big healthy peppers

I do container gardening up north in zone 5A and have been making my own homemade potting mix for 11 years that performs amazingly well in the short grow season here. I start by using clay dug from my backyard I let it dry in the sun on my driveway then I crush it into a fine powder then sweep it up. I used to use the topsoil as part of my base ingredients instead of clay, but found that the clay has way more minerals than the native topsoil in my backyard. Basically I mix the (1)clay, (2)compost, (3)worm castings, (4)coconut coir, plus "inoculants" and "amendments" together by hand. Per 10 cubic foot heavy duty wheelbarrow (1 batch): Two 5gal buckets total of 10 gallons, Coconut Coir 10 gallons of crushed powdered clay 10 gallons of locally-sourced earth worm castings 10 gallons of my homemade super compost This is the soil base mix. Then I add these inoculants and amendments to the base mix listed above. (1)Bat Guano (2)Bone meal (3) blood meal (4) rock dust (5) alfalfa meal (6) kelp meal (7) seaweed meal (8) chicken manure (9) green sand "mineral deposits from the ocean floor" (10) feather meal (11) mycorrhiza "a type of fungus" (12) microorganism mix "multiple different types of microorganism bacteria" (13) course garden perlite (14) red wiggler worms about one dozen per flower pot depending on the pot size (15) Neem Cake meal My soil looks like a complete tangled web of millions of white spider webs throughout the soil mixture. This is the holy grail of the home gardener, it's known as "soil hyphae" mycelium a type of mycorrhiza fungus network that has a "beneficial" symbiotic relationship with the vegetable plants. If you're able to achieve this hyphae network magical things happen like absolute ridiculous yields from one plant 👍. I basically make a living soil and let the soil feed the plants (happy soil microbes happy plants)😁. I do use Alaskan Fish emulsion but only for the first 4 to 6 weeks, after that the soil amendments and inoculants carry it the rest of the season. Feel free to copy my epic recipe👍, I promise you won't be disappointed😁. Mycelium or bust!!!!! 🤷✌️

Peppergeek: *summarizing his really helpful experiment and compared the strengths and weaknesses of 5 popular fertilizers showing the different results obtained by using orgainic vs. inorganic fertilizers, water-soluble vs. non-soluable, liquid vs solid* Peppergeek's neighbor: YOOOOOOOOOO PEPPERGEEK, LOOK AT THIS FREAKIN SWEET NEW EXCAVATOR I GOT!

I think it would be interesting to repeat this same experiment next year with a different variety

Could you initially use one of the granular and then water now and then with Fox farms?

I used to grow a certain plant that will remain nameless. I watched a video a decade ago on how to pre-mix bottles of nutrients/water. I premade every months' mix in individual bottles per day in advance for the entire grow, veg/bloom. It really made it effortless with my LED light on a timer and the pre-mixed bottles all done in advance. I'd love to see a video on how to do this with scotch bonnet peppers like I had with the other plant I grew. I like automating everything that I can.

Compost tea works great for all my hot pepper plants.

I like Neptune's harvest, I used it all last year and had great results. This year I'm going to also try agrothrive. I've heard good things about this and lazy dog farms uses it. It's also organic and very reasonably priced. I got a 2.5 gallon hug for around $60 I think it was

My FoxFarm did the same (small plants with nice heavy fruits)

Really interesting video! I'm curious, did you PH the nutrient solution of the water soluble fertilizers? If not, I think it would be interesting to do an experiment where you have plants with the same fertilizer, but slightly different PH values being applied to the water/soil.

I literally use all almost everything listed but I use them together and I have great results

A test with a bigger variety of liquid fertilizer wood be cool. Like adding Neptune's harvest, Alaska and GS Plant Foods and AgroThrive. Also, changing to a bloom specific fertilizer when blooms appear.

The organic granule plants did not receive sufficient water, hence the edema we saw early on and the bottom end rot during fruit production. Bottom end rot is typically associated with calcium deficiency due to inconsistent watering

this year im using SHREDDED HORSE MANURE, last year my mums partner used it and it was very good, most did not require anything else extra at most dose tomato feed near end season

Use worm castings and compost tea seems to be the best choices 👍✌️

I must say that your experiment is absolutely fantastic, congratulations! Don't take it wrong, but the only thing I would say that is missing is the fertilizers component At least here in Brazil, is required the suppliers to describe the NPK and micronutrients percentages

Thanks for putting in the time to do an interesting test, iv been using one called chempak high potash N:P:K - 15:15:30 in an autopot grow system, got a corbaci which im forever harvesting, a scotch bonnet thats 4 foot tall by 4 foot wide laden with fruits, 7 pot, jalapeño all doing amazing but not as big as the scotch not far behind mind, think if you get a good fertiliser with the autopot system your onto a winner.

Your website is great. I'm a subscriber here.

Interesting!♥️

Interesting little experiment. I seem to always get short and thick pods with my organic tomato fertilizer, so I think I'll use your findings/recommendation and go look for some Fox Farm. A small note: none of these plants are grown hydroponically as the medium contains nutrients (both top soil and peat moss will break down and provide nutrients). That said, I do get your point about the readily available nutrients from water soluble, that resembles what you provide in hydro. Generally, great video as usual. Thanks

This a good experiment!

Good video. It would be nice to know at what stages did you change the Fox farms trio. Also, can or did you save the extra liquid fertilizer for the next feeding?

Love this! However, I’d like to see the MG switched to veggie blend once they start to bloom.

I use Peruvian seabird guano at 10-10-2 plus Langbeinite in my large (45 gallon) smart pots. Each spring I work a goodly amount into the potting mixture, which is mostly coco coir plus perlite and peat moss. I can make a guano tea if I think the plants need more nutrients, but it hasn't been necessary so far, it's just water and wait.

Try out Neptune harvest (liquid feed immediate uptake) and I do use trifecta(slow release) and mycos when transplanting. Really great success using all 3 combined. Using dry fertilizer you need to top dress halfway through the season especially in pots. The nutrition was washed away so if you didn't top dress that could be why they under performed. Maybe next year try top dressing.

Down to earth is what i use. Would love to see in a test. I have great results.

I think a bigger sample would be great. Maybe 10 plants to each fertilizer instead of just one... Probably a more conclusive test. This is a great start though.. I've laid awake at night wondering about these things. ;)

Granular needs microbial life in the soil to help make more nutrients available. Mixing with a handful of QUALITY compost when applying will help. Compost teas a couple times a grow will also do wonders. This method has worked for me very well for 20+ years. Lots of ways to do it. As long as you're smiling, it's the right way.