For indoor hobby growing you might
also consider regular garden varieties that are available
in different colors and shapes. These will be bush
varieties so you can change the crop more frequently
than for the staking varieties that continue to produce
for 8 months. You may purchase these seeds from a
seed catalog such as Stokes Seeds or Johnny’s
Selected Seeds to mention a few. Colored bells that
mature within 72 days include: Scarlet King, White
King, Purple King, Orange King, Lemon King and Gold
King. There are ivory, purple, brown varieties as
well. But, they normally change through 2 to 3 colors.
For example, Dove, an ivory variety (photo 2), is
initially ivory (green stage) that will mature through
an orange and finally to red. Similarly, with Blue
Jay that is initially purple (photo 3). The point
is that when you harvest them prior to their fully
mature red stage, their flavor will not be as sweet.
In fact, in the ivory and purple stages of these varieties,
the flavor is very bland, but less acidic than the
green stage of other varieties. Some other hybrid
sweet peppers include: Gold Finch - green/creamy yellow/pale
lemon/red. Oriole - dark green maturing to orange;
Canary - medium green/yellow; Blackbird - green/brown/black/dark
red.
There are other varieties of different
shapes and flavor. The sweet Italian Ramshorns are
2-lobed instead of 3- to 4- as are the others. These
may be up to 8 inches in length. Several varieties
include Sofia (red) and Super Shepherd (red). Of course,
then there are the hot types of peppers. A popular
greenhouse staking variety is Fireflame. Other field
ones include Cayennes-red, yellow; Jalapeno (red);
Habanero (green/orange/red) and many more. Please
refer to various seed catalogs to select what you
like most and determine which ones perform best under
your conditions.
Growing Conditions:
Peppers will tolerate higher temperatures
than tomatoes or cucumbers. However, their optimum
day temperature is 73 F (23 C) to 79 F (26 C) and
night temperatures of at least 70 F ( 21 C). For initial
fruit setting use 72 F (22 C) day and 65 – 66
F (18 – 19 C) during the night. These are optimum
levels recommended for commercial growers. In your
home you may not be able to regulate such precise
temperatures; however, you will still get good production
for your own use. We here at Cuisinart Resort
& Spa Hydroponic Farm cannot regulate
temperatures precisely due to high RH and temperatures
combined. In fact, our night minimum temperature is
often between 75 and 80 F with daytime temperatures
from 85 to 95 F. We still get good production, but
expectedly less than optimum. Try to keep relative
humidity about 75%. Light levels of 5500 lux (510
foot candles) for 18 hours per day is sufficient.
Carbon dioxide enrichment of 800 to 1000 ppm will
promote growth.
Propagation:
Ensure that when you purchase seeds
they have been treated for seed borne viruses. Clean
all propagation trays, and equipment with trisodium
phosphate (TSP) or 10% bleach solution. When handling
seedlings it is best to use a 10% skim milk powder
(100 grams/liter of water) to clean your hands and
any equipment. Germinate the pepper seeds in rockwool
cubes, sowing one seed per cube. Be careful to thoroughly
soak the cubes with water prior to seeding. After
10 to 12 days when the pepper seedlings have fully
expanded cotyledons and the true leaves are beginning
to emerge, lay them on their sides as we do for tomatoes
(photo 4). Space them 28 per tray. Water the seedlings
with half-strength nutrient solution as soon as the
cotyledons are fully expanded. Keep the pH between
5.5 and 6.0. Keep the temperature of the nutrient
solution about 75 to 77 F (24 – 25 C). Once
the first true leaves are expanding to at least 1
inch in length you can transplant the seedlings to
rockwool blocks. This will be about 7 to 8 days after
laying down the seedlings and spacing them in the
flats. Be sure to completely water the blocks with
a mild nutrient solution (half-strength). Place the
blocks in trays in a checkerboard pattern to fit 9
per flat (photo 5). Within 3 weeks transplant the
seedlings into the rockwool slabs or perlite system.
Transplanting:
Soak the rockwool slabs for 24 hours
prior to transplanting with nutrient solution. Cut
the slits in the bottom of the slabs just before transplanting
as for the tomatoes. Transplant 4 to 5 plants per
slab in the same spacing as for tomatoes. The slabs
would be placed in a single row with two support wires
above to train in a V-cordon fashion as was done for
tomatoes.
If you use bato buckets of perlite,
place two plants per bucket. However, several days
prior to transplanting soak the perlite with Zerotol
to sterilize the substrate. Zerotol is hydrogen dioxide
and oxidizing agent, so be careful to use gloves.
Use a dilution of 1:100 - 1:50 or 1 - 2 fluid ounces
per gallon of water. Apply to the perlite substrate
to the point of saturation (runoff). Just before transplanting
soak the perlite with PlantShield, a beneficial fungus,
at a rate of 1 to 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons of water
or 3.5 gm/2 gallons.
Place one irrigation emitter per plant
at the outer edge of the rockwool block. Attach the
support string to the base of the plant with a plant
clip (photo 6). Remember that the pepper plants will
each have two stems so provide sufficient strings
for supporting them.
Plant Spacing:
Plant spacing is the same as for tomatoes.
Use a plant density of 3.5 to 4 square feet per plant.
This will be achieved with bato buckets of perlite
at 16-inch spacing between buckets and 6 feet between
rows (photo 7).
Training:
Peppers are the most difficult to
train correctly compared to tomatoes or cucumbers.
You must always select the side shoot that you need
to cut back Permit the peppers to form two main stems
(photo 8).
After transplanting place one plant
clip on the lower portion of the plant before it bifurcates.
About 4 weeks after planting out, select two of the
strongest stems and attach them to the support strings
with plant clips (photo 9). It is preferred to alternate
between winding the string around the stems and using
plant clips. This helps to prevent slippage of the
plant on the string. This has to be done at least
every 2 weeks. A pepper should be allowed to set every
two leaves. Prune all side shoots back to two leaves
(photo 10). If sunscald occurs on the fruit you can
prune back to three leaves per shoot to get more shading.
Remove the crown flower where the first bifurcation
takes place. The first fruit should be left on when
there are four leaf axils above the first fork of
the plant. Remove the first three side shoots.
It is very important to keep a correct
balance between vegetative and generative phases of
the plant. You need to be able to “read”
the plant. That is to distinguish between vegetative
and generative characteristics. Please refer to my
book, “Hydroponic Food Production”
for more details on these and other points of training.
By “reading” the plant you can determine
what changes to make in the environment to shift the
plant from one phase to another. Three areas of focus
include the plant head, leaves, and flowers.
Under high light conditions peppers
tend to be generative, so often it is necessary to
shift them more vegetative. To do this increase the
irrigation cycles to at least 6 cycles per day. The
correct balance of fruit is no more than 6 fruit forming
per stem and no fruit set within 6 inches of the top
of the plant. Increase the EC to shift to generative
and decrease it to get more vegetative growth. You
can also change the temperatures; raise night temperatures
and drop the day temperatures by 1 to 2 degrees to
make them more vegetative.
Peppers are not normally lowered as
their stems are very brittle and will break easily.
However, if you have low ceilings you may have to
lower them. When they reach within 6 inches of the
wire, lower the plants 6 inches, not a foot as that
may break their stems. Lower them more frequently
and less amount than what is done for tomatoes.
Remove lower leaves only if they are
yellowing or if they get tangled up during lowering
of the plants. However, do not remove more than 2
leaves at any time or during any week. Snap leaves
with your fingers at the abscission layer (natural
breaking zone) near the stem. Avoid cutting them with
a pruning shears. Harvest the fruit with a sharp knife,
not a pruning shears. They are generally too hard
to snap off. Remove any sunscald or blossom-end-rot
fruit when it is young and thin the fruit to 6 per
stem to get larger size. As plants approach the support
wire and are heavily laden with fruit you can increase
the watering cycle to 8 or more per day, but that
is dependent upon the number of fruit forming. For
your own use pick the fruit when it is 100% ripened
as commercial growers will harvest at the 85% ripe
stage to facilitate shipping. Storage temperatures
below 41 F (5 C) will damage the fruit. Keep the fruit
in the refrigerator at high relative humidity for
best shelf life.
Pollination:
Pollination reduces the days from
fruit set to harvest, increases the percentage of
extra large and larger fruit, and decreases the amount
of deformed fruit. While commercial greenhouses use
bumble bees to pollinate that is not feasible for
your indoor system. You can pollinate by vibration
similar to tomatoes. Do this during the mid-day or
driest period in your environment. Peppers usually
set fairly easily unless growing conditions are not
favorable, such as poor light or non-optimal temperatures,
etc. that we spoke of earlier.
Please
follow up for the completion of this article by this
link to Hydroponic Culture of Peppers 2
