My vegetable garden-very little fruit
By Purplethumb
United States
My vegetable garden contains green peppers,tomatoes
cucumbers, and radishes.
This year my plants look beautiful, but it has produced
very little fruit. I plant in a raised garden to which I add
miracle grow garden dirt.
Any suggestions?
- 27 Aug, 2014
Answers
Hi, welcome to GoY, stop using miracle gro, this is a high nitrogen fertilizer, which encourages lush growth at the expense of flowers and fruit, you will notice that there is a panel on the box which says N P K, the first letter is nitrogen, get any fertilizer where the N is lower than the other 2 letters, Derek.
27 Aug, 2014
Took the words out of my mouth Derek. You need more potassium for flowers and fruit.
27 Aug, 2014
Ah! Sorry purplethumb, I assumed that you were using Miracle Grow LiquaFeed? As others have pointed out. Miracle Grow All Purpose is high in nitrogen which will encourage leaf growth and is not really suitable for fruit growth.
I've just looked on my box of Miracle Grow All Purpose and the ratio of N-P-K is 24-3.5-13.3. So, as Derek said, use a specifically formulated feed for fruits and vegetables.
27 Aug, 2014
Great info! Looks like an easy fix!
Thank you all
29 Aug, 2014
It could be a pollination issue. You can hand-pollinate the flowers using a soft-bristled brush and transfer the pollen from male flowers to the female flowers.
If they are self-pollinating then brush the inside of each flower, making sure the pollen gets down into the middle of the flower.
If they don't start to bear fruit in about a week, then the problem could be something else like lack of water or sunlight.
A nutrient deficiency can also cause plants to conserve energy and not bear fruit, but as you said you're feeding them with Miracle Grow then I doubt that this is the case.
27 Aug, 2014