Or more particularly jalapenos? I have several nice seedlings coming in and I need to thin out the pot asap, but all I have on hand dirt wise is a bag of potting soil, I think it’s Schultz All Purpose Potting Soil Plus. That’s not going to make poisonous peppers is it?
No, potting soil won’t make your peppers poisonous.
Both times I’ve grown cayennes in pots, I’ve mixed some regular old garden dirt with potting soil. The plants grew well.
These guys probably know more about the subject than I do:
Growing Peppers in Containers
Read the section about fertilizing peppers. I managed to stunt my garden peppers one year with too much nitrogen.
Perfection. I now have my pepper sprouts in two different pots, but I’m going to narrow that down to just three or four winners after they grow a bit more and have a stronger root system. That page will become invaluable when they reach the next stage. Thanks Squink.
Raising this Zombie because…
NVM. Read the replies more closely and got the answer I needed
Zombies and vegetable plants may not thrive in commercial “potting soil” either, because it tends to be heavy and holds too much water, leading to root rot during prolonged wet periods or due to overzealous watering.
I generally mix bagged potting and “garden” soil with lightweight additives like Pro-Mix or vermiculite, creating a medium that holds water adequately but doesn’t get waterlogged or dry out too fast.
Huh. Unless I’m reading it wrong, the first cite in the thread says the opposite: that commercial potting soils drain too fast and age prone to drying.
Not what I’ve seen.
Commercial bagged potting soil for instance may contain some perlite, but it’s usually widely scattered grains. Sand content is negligible, and peat is typically not in the form of finely milled sphagnum moss. When you hoist a bag of the stuff, it feels heavy, comparable to what’s marketed as topsoil. A lot of content seems to be soil scrapings from when properties are “developed” and composted plant materials of uncertain origin.
Another downside of using pure bagged potting soil for vegetable growing is that it makes containers heavy and more difficult to move around.
Using more lightweight and better-draining mixes may mean needing to water more often, but I find it an acceptable tradeoff, especially if plants are healthier and less prone to waterlogged soil..
Definitely not my experience with potting soil. It’s usually in a bag 3x the size of topsoil to get the same weight.
I use a compost-based potting soil, and also grow a few tomato plants to maturity in it. Works fine. They do need some supplemental fertilizer after a while, as the potting soil’s only designed to have nutrients enough for about the first six weeks; I use a fish emulsion/seaweed mix.
Potting soils vary a good bit. Some of them probably work better than others.