How to Grow Hydroponic Peppers

Peppers are hardy plants that are generally easy to grow; with different varieties, you can add some color to your hydroponic garden. Like tomatoes, peppers are either determinate bush-type plants or indeterminate vines which need to be staked or trained to a trellis. Deciding which type will work best in your hydroponic system is only the first step to producing large, healthy peppers all season long.

Pepper seeds

Rockwool cubes

Rockwool blocks

Grow light

Hydroponic nutrient solution

Trellis or cages

Garden shears

Choose seeds for either determinate or indeterminate pepper plants. Indeterminate varieties require stakes or trellises and are more suited to outdoor growing. Determinate varieties grow in a bushy shape and are a better choice for indoor gardening.

Soak rockwool cubes for 24 hours, then drain and plant one pepper seed per cube.

Water with half-strength hydroponic nutrient solution with a pH of 5.5 to 6.0 and a temperature of 75 to 77 degrees F when seedlings form their first true leaves, usually around 10 to 12 days after planting.

Soak rockwool blocks in half-strength nutrient solution for 24 hours, once the first seedling leaves reach 1 inch in length, usually seven to eight days after they emerge.

Drain the rockwool blocks and transplant the seedlings.

Prepare the hydroponic system you'll be using for your peppers. Use a perlite or perlite/vermiculite mix for your growing medium.

Move your plants, still in the rockwool blocks, into your hydroponic system as soon as they are well rooted, allowing 3 1/2 to 4 square feet of space per plant.

Prune indeterminate pepper plants to two main stems and prune all side shoots back to two leaves. If fruit develops scalded spots from the sun, allow three leaves per shoot to provide more shade.

Attach the main stems of your indeterminate peppers to a support trellis or cage.

Pollinate hydroponic peppers grown indoors by gently shaking the plants. If you do not pollinate your plants, they will not produce fruit.

Regulate the temperature. Peppers require warm temperatures for optimum growing; aim for 73 to 79 degrees F during the day and 66 to 70 degrees F at night.

Provide 18 hours of light per day. For outdoor gardens, place your hydroponic peppers in full sun; indoors, place them in a south-facing window. Indoor peppers may require supplemental energy from a grow light in order to thrive.

Watch for disease; peppers are susceptible to stem rot and tobacco mosaic virus. Some pepper varieties are disease-resistant and indoor peppers have a smaller chance of contracting diseases.

Watch for pests. The most common pests that feed on pepper plants include aphids, broad mites and caterpillars. Of these, broad mites are the most dangerous to your plants. Broad mites are translucent and small, so they are difficult to find; watch instead for drying leaves at the growing tips.