Grow More's water-soluble powders map cleanly onto the four feeding stages of a pepper crop: 20-20-20 for seedlings, 30-10-10 through early vegetative growth, then a potassium-forward finish such as 5-10-30 once fruit sets. Two things in the older version of this chart were wrong, and both matter at the counter. The bloom formula is 10-52-10, not 10-55-10, and the high-potassium finisher is 5-10-30, not 5-10-40.
Which formula goes with which stage?
Every analysis below appears in Grow More's current water-soluble catalog. Rates come from the label range for general vegetable use; start at the low end in containers.
| Product. | Stage. | Emphasis. | Notes. |
| 20-20-20 | Seedling and transplant | Balanced | Quarter to half teaspoon per gallon, weekly. Fine to run all season if you only buy one bag. |
| 30-10-10 | Early vegetative | High nitrogen | Builds frame and leaf. Stop before flowering; late nitrogen delays fruit set. |
| 15-30-15 | Transition to bloom | Moderate phosphorus | A saner step up than the extreme bloom formulas. |
| 10-52-10 | Pre-bloom | High phosphorus | Justified only where a soil test shows low phosphorus. |
| 0-50-30 | Flowering | Extreme P and K | No nitrogen at all. Easy to overdo; skip it in ordinary garden soil. |
| 6-30-30 | Peak flower to early set | High P and K | The gentler alternative to 0-50-30. |
| 5-10-30 | Fruit fill and ripening | High potassium | Every 7 to 10 days through the harvest window. |
| 10-11-40 Pepper-Herb | Hydroponic fruiting | High potassium | Grow More's hydroponic greenhouse formula, built for this crop. |
| Seaweed Extract 0.10-0.10-0.15 | Any stage | Trace elements | Cold-processed Ascophyllum nodosum. Treat as a supplement, not a feed. |
| 6% Iron EDDHA | As needed | Iron | EDDHA holds above pH 7 where EDTA iron falls apart. Use for interveinal chlorosis. |
| Calcium Nitrate (Foliar Cal) | Fruit set | Calcium and nitrate N | See the blossom end rot section before you buy this for that reason. |
Does a bloom booster actually make more flowers?
No, and this is the single most expensive myth in the hobby aisle. Esther McGinnis at NDSU Extension states it plainly: high phosphorus rates do not increase flower number. Commercial greenhouses run nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratios near 3:1 or 5:1, the opposite of what a consumer bloom label suggests. A plant with adequate phosphorus flowers as well as it can. More phosphorus past that point ties up iron and zinc, pushes phosphate into waterways, and takes years to draw back down.
So use 10-52-10 or 0-50-30 when a soil test shows a phosphorus deficit. Otherwise step from 30-10-10 to 6-30-30 or straight to 5-10-30 and put the money into water management. Our page on soil testing covers where to send a sample.
Calcium nitrate and blossom end rot
Blossom end rot in peppers is a calcium delivery problem, not usually a calcium supply problem. Clemson, Purdue and Iowa State all report the same thing: the disorder appears in soils with plenty of calcium, because swings in soil moisture stop the plant moving calcium into the fastest-growing fruit tissue. Foliar calcium moves poorly into fruit, and it cannot repair a lesion that already formed.
Fix the water first. Even irrigation, mulch, and no heavy nitrogen push during fruit set will do more than any calcium product. Calcium nitrate still earns a place in a soilless mix where the substrate genuinely supplies no calcium, and it delivers nitrate nitrogen at the same time. Just do not sell it to yourself as rot insurance. See fruiting problems for the full workup.
Mixing, pH and tank order
Dissolve powders completely in warm water before they reach the reservoir. For soilless substrates, hold the solution between pH 5.5 and 6.5, the range extension services give for vegetable bedding plants; iron and manganese lock away above it and manganese turns toxic below it. Check substrate EC rather than guessing, since a container crop concentrates salts fast.
Never combine calcium nitrate with a phosphate or a sulfate feed in the same concentrated tank. Calcium phosphate and calcium sulfate both precipitate out, and you lose the calcium and plug the emitters at once. Run them in separate tanks or on alternate irrigations. Flush containers with plain water every three to four weeks. For foliar work, halve the rate and spray at dawn or dusk.
What the extension rates look like in a garden bed
NMSU's garden guide for chile gives concrete figures for anyone who would rather not mix concentrates. Before planting, work in about half a pound of superphosphate (0-36-0) and one pound of ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) per 100 square feet. A week after flowering starts, side-dress 1.5 ounces of ammonium sulfate per 10 feet of row. NMSU adds the caution that matters most: base the actual amount on a soil test, because excess nitrogen buys you a large green plant and very few pods.
That warning applies across species. A C. chinense like a Habanero already runs a long season, and a nitrogen push in July pushes the harvest past your first frost. C. annuum types tolerate more nitrogen and recover faster.
Sources & Further Reading
- Grow More. Water-soluble fertilizer analyses and micronutrient chelates, product lists verified September 2026.
- McGinnis, E. The myth of high phosphorus fertilizers for more flowers. NDSU Extension, August 2023.
- Clemson HGIC. Gardening myths: fix blossom end rot with calcium sprays.
- Purdue University. Blossom end rot of tomato and pepper, Vegetable Crops Hotline.
- NMSU Extension. Growing Chile Peppers in New Mexico Gardens, Guide H-240.
- Priest, C.T., and D.J. Austin. The Chile Pepper Almanac. Harambe Publishing, 2026. Amazon
- WikiPepper. Pepper Plant Fertilizer Guide, dosing and dilution, and nutrient lockout.