Not Miracle-Gro, Not Banana Peels: Gardener's Old Secret For Bigger Pepper Harvests

Growing vegetables in the summer is so exciting. Unfortunately, when you're growing peppers, and your plants don't yield very many fruits, that anticipation quickly becomes disappointment. If you've been looking for a natural fertilizer that makes peppers thrive and produce more fruit, you might just need a little water and compost from your pile. Compost tea is made by brewing your compost in a container of water, which is where it gets the "tea" name. This process creates a liquid that is jam-packed with nutrients, which can be used to fertilize your plants. Though compost tea can be used to give a nutrient boost to a variety of plants, it could also make a big difference for your peppers.

Compost tea has been praised by gardeners online for helping their pepper plants, whether that be to recover from tough conditions or to grow better and grow more peppers. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence supporting compost tea as a pepper plant fertilizer, and there's also some scientific merit to this claim. In a 2018 study published in the Italian Journal of Agronomy, compost tea was given to pepper plants (Capsicum annuum L.) in a controlled, organic greenhouse for two years. Though the study found the peppers didn't grow larger than normal, compost tea helped the plants produce more peppers in a season. During the initial year, the pepper plants produced 21.9% more peppers, and in the second year, they grew 16.3% more fruit.

Besides the aforementioned study, gardeners have also been talking about the bountiful harvests they get when watering peppers with compost tea. In a YouTube video, CaliKim29 Garden & Home DIY showed off her peppers that are watered with homemade compost tea. "These peppers are probably the healthiest looking peppers I have," she said, adding, "...but the leaves are just humungous, the plants look super healthy, [and] there's tons of peppers." She claims the secret is compost tea, which could be easier to make than you think.

For a simple way to brew this natural fertilizer your garden needs, CaliKim29 Garden & Home DIY recommends dumping a large scoop of compost into a five-gallon bucket. Then, simply fill your bucket with water and leave it alone (aside from stirring it every once in a while). After about a day, you can give your peppers a nutritious drink. By the end of the season, you might just end up with more peppers than your typical year. Some university extensions recommend putting the compost into a mesh bag before adding the water, essentially creating a compost teabag, and leaving it for up to 36 hours. You could also use an aerator, like an aquarium pump, to keep the water moving rather than stirring. When watering your peppers, pour the compost tea directly onto the soil. Since compost can carry pathogens that affect humans, you shouldn't dump the water over the entire plant and the peppers.