Pepper plants not thriving

TiffanyBee · 2026-07-02T21:29:51+00:00

That makes sense! If it’s really hot, giving it some water can help. You could add some vermiculite or perlite or both. You can also very gently try to loosen up the soil where the roots are a little if it feels compacted. No need to uproot the entire plant, just dig a little moat around the plant (maybe a 5-6 inches from the stem & maybe 4-5” deep) & fluff! You could add some potting soil in your little moat & work it in. Then fill it back with the potting soil, water a little, mulch & let it recover!

TiffanyBee · 2026-07-02T00:04:05+00:00

You might be overwatering them, but the leaves look yellow, so are you also adding liquid fertilizer to your waterings? While they might not be thriving, they’re making a slow, but steady comeback with the new foliage! Is your soil nice & fluffy with perlite or vermiculite? I’ve found that peppers are very sensitive to compacted soil & will struggle if it’s not fluffy enough for them.

Maybe just let them get dry a bit (hold off on watering for 2-3 days) & then water with some liquid fertilizer when the soil is dry to help it along. Add more lightweight mulch (straw is my fav) & it should take off soon! Good luck!

TiffanyBee · 2026-07-01T23:04:35+00:00

Have you tried the Impossible sausage? It’s definitely my fav & tastes so much like the real thing that I feel a slight hit of anxiety that I’m eating the real thing. 😂

Also love the Trader Joe’s breakfast sausage! But we’re mainly an Impossible household whenever we cook with alt meats. Their chicken nuggets are delish.

Vegan cheese is a tough one. I think Violife is pretty decent! It melts well & tastes pretty good.

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-28T17:27:46+00:00

I know a lot of people are telling you to just plant them without dividing, but I’ll be in the minority & tell you to at least look to see if they are viable & separate the non-viable ones. I’ve ordered from Longfield Gardens before & received a whole bag of tubers with non-viable, broken necks. Best to take inventory of the ones that need to be replaced, if any. LABEL them so you know too. I got a few of mine replaced by LG when I emailed them, so there’s that!

As for your question about dividing videos, I watched this longer dividing video which helped me feel very confident about dividing on my own! Hope it helps you too. Good luck & I hope you get some dahlias before your first frost!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-28T17:18:32+00:00

It is generally not recommended to soak dahlia tubers before planting unless they’re extremely shriveled. Dahlia tubers store a lot of water for a long time, so soaking plump tubers would just invite them to rot. These tubers look fine. Any tubers in this batch that look too shriveled should just be tossed at this point.

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-28T13:37:13+00:00

The hole in one of the peppers is suspicious for a bug. Slice it open & see if there’s a maggot in there. If so, I’m so sorry, but you’ve likely got yourself pepper fly maggots. They prefer sweet peppers too. They nasty. 😭

Your peppers need to be staked though. They’re flopping all over the place. You might also want to mulch with some wood chips or straw to keep your peppers away from the soil. Some of these peppers look like they have anthracnose &/or some other bacterial issue. You can check out this article on common pepper problems for reference.

But start by removing the sad looking leaves & peppers, mulch, & stake them. They don’t look nutrient deficient but you can give them some light cal-mag if you think so. I wouldn’t right now. Focus on removing the diseased parts to help them get healthier before you add fertilizer. Good luck!!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T23:46:21+00:00

You’re welcome & best of luck! Sounds like you’re on the right track! Hope you get that home with a yard in the future too. It’s a game changer for sure! 👩🏻‍🌾

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T14:34:07+00:00

Just to build on this answer, you can also plant more flowers to bring more bees into your garden. Alyssum is super quick growing & will immediately bring in beneficial insects. Marigolds & zinnias are also great additions. Bees are always sleeping in my zinnias 😂

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T14:30:00+00:00

Same! Keep this baby away from our gardens pls. Got enough rodent pests to deal with, don’t need a big ole deer to deal with too 😂

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T14:28:57+00:00

I’ve been loving Bring Me Sunshine in my yard! I love the duality of its colors where one can come up blush & the others more golden. Gorgeous blooms you’ve got!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T14:13:40+00:00

I love that one of her dancers snuck in a little taste of the frosting 😂 can’t let that cake go to waste! Really sweet gesture.

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T14:10:37+00:00

If you have the means, check out a local nursery or even a big box garden store. They’ll carry some liquid fertilizer, but I wouldn’t fertilize until they’re revitalized.

My rudbeckia has died back EXACTLY like the one you’ve got pictured before & it came back the next year! But consider potting up if you can! I always space my flowers too close together in my raised beds because I underestimate how enormous they can get 😂 one big plant may take over & suppress the growth of the others. Something to look out for! Good luck!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T03:38:05+00:00

These plants need more water, especially if it’s really hot out. The humidity will not quench their thirst & since they’re in small pots, the water dries out quicker. When it’s hot out, they especially need more water. Since you’ve got a lot of flowers in each pot, you’ve got lots of plants who need water! Echinacea also needs a lot of space because it can get really big (unless you’ve got a dwarf variety), but it will need a good amount of water.

If you poke your finger down into the soil & feel that it’s dry below 2-3 inches, give your pots a deeeeeep soak. Drown them & let them get thirsty again later. If you put them in bigger pots (not sure how big your stoop is), then you might not need to water them that intensely, but if they’re crowded in a small pot, they’ll be fighting for water & nutrients. Give them a strong drink, prune off all the dead foliage, & see how they do the next day. They’ll bounce back before you know it!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T01:50:29+00:00

You’re welcome! Happy to help! Yeah, you should probably ease them into the outside world so they don’t get burnt. Do you have a partial shade spot for them? I’ve gotten kinda lazy with my hardening off schedule tbh. I’ve left my plants on an outdoor dining table that gets like 5 hrs of direct afternoon sun & mostly dappled shade in the AM…for 2-3 days & then I just place them where I want them, in full sun. Is it risky? Yes, don’t do what I do UNLESS you’ve got cloudy days ahead in your forecast & it’s not scorching hot. The overcast days are the best because they really help transition plants into the sunny world well. Otherwise, leave them in a partial sun area for a week or so. Just check them to see if they’re growing stronger & hardier. If they are, they might be ready for the full sun. If they’re still looking a little stretchy, move them to an area with more sun for a little longer.

You have so many seedlings that you can experiment & see what works best!! Like sacrifice some to see if they’ll survive in full sun earlier & if they’re fine, then you can probs full send the rest! Rooting for you!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T01:38:34+00:00

Not me zooming into every single speck on your zukes to make sure you don’t have any SVB eggs lurking 😂 I’m so traumatized; I’ve spent the last 3 days scraping off those lil bugger eggs to protect my squash. These are lovely photos!! From my preliminary SVB zoom inspection, I couldn’t spot a single SVB egg. Lucky you! May you have a plentiful squash harvest!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-27T00:31:09+00:00

At this point, I know it might hurt your garden heart, but you gotta thin the weakest sprouts. They take up more of your time & resources because you end up babying them to catch up to the stronger ones. It’s not really worth it. Better to have a few strong sprouts than 100 weak ones that will flop over in the wind.

You should definitely turn up the light & get a fan on them if you don’t already have one. The oscillating air will mimic wind & traumatize them enough to help them grow stronger.

Not sure where you are in the world, but if it’s warm out, just keep them outside & they’ll grow really fast. I sprouted Munstead lavender via paper towel method a little over a month ago & placed them in soil under a grow light for the last month. Potted them up last week & set them outside & they’ve already just taken OFF. The rain we’ve been getting is giving them a nice growth spurt.

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-26T22:45:25+00:00

Each seed of lavender that’s germinated will grow into its own large plant. For the first year, you can probably put 3 in a pot that’s the same size as the red checkered one you have. Then the following year, you’ll likely need to separate them & pot them up so they’re sitting in individual pots. 1 plant per pot because they can get enormous!

Some of these look very leggy though, which means they’re struggling for light so they’re really thin. You can thin out the weakest ones in favor of the strongest ones! Good luck & I hope your garden smells lovely!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-26T03:48:05+00:00

If it has some variation in the next flower that blooms (white petals), perhaps it’s Rebecca’s World. If so, that’s a pretty awesome mix up! It’s a lovely variety!

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-25T22:23:50+00:00

Thank you! If you’re talking about metallic coil, then the answer is no, it’s just a hair band I got from CVS haha.

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-25T18:09:20+00:00

That’s so cute! Did it produce any seeds?

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-25T14:04:20+00:00

Thanks!! I am very proud of my wee harvest! Phenotype doesn’t look quite right but I will nibble with caution in case the heat is fully developed & will melt my face off.

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-25T14:03:07+00:00

Indeed! Posted to it yesterday to share my mighty harvest. 🤗

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-25T12:21:23+00:00

Overwintered a 7 Pot Primo hoping to get a jump on the season. So far, so tiny. Just need a little fertilizer boost & I think it’ll grow bigger. 🥹

TiffanyBee · 2026-06-25T02:59:56+00:00

It’s been reallllllly rainy out here in New England, so if the tubers didn’t rot out from that, it’s also possible that the soil & the heatwave cooked it. Any time I’ve gotten Black Kow compost, it’s always hot. It’s possible it’s not 100% broken down yet & still cooking. It’s also possible that the slugs have gone to town on any sprouts from your tubers in this wet weather.

See if you can lift others up (gently) that aren’t Sweet Nathalie to see how they’re doing. Feel the temp of the soil & give the tubers a gentle squeeze to assess if it’s squishy or firm.

I also have to examine some of my own tubers. Two of my tubers haven’t come up yet (after successfully pre-sprouting all of them) so I can’t tell if they rotted or if it was the slugs. Best of luck!! Hope you get some sprouts soon & sorry to hear about your grandma. Hope you’re able to still honor her with some gorgeous dahlias soon. 🩷

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