One of the important factors that is very often overlooked by growers is soil pH. Soil pH plays a very important role in your plants well being.

Capsicum prefer a slightly acidic soil to grow in. This ranges from 5.8 - 7.2 on the pH scale.

The most important aspect to this range is the availability of nutrients. All nutrients are available within certain pH ranges. A pH range of 5.8 - 7.2 means that most nutrients your capsicum require for optimal growth are freely available to your plants.

Growing your capsicum in soil that is outside of this range (either more acidic [below 5.8] or more alkaline [above7.2]) means that certain nutrients will not be available to your plants and this may result in unhappy plants. It can also result in excess availability of nutrients, which is also not a good thing.

The good news is that testing your soil, you can establish the pH of your soil and amend the soil with various additives to help lower or increase the soils pH and bring it within the desired pH range.

Understanding the mobility of nutrients in plants