Whether growing sweet bell peppers or spicy varieties, peppers of all kinds thrive when growing using Tower Garden technology.
When starting the seedling process for peppers, the manufacturer advises to plant 2 seeds per rockwool/coco coir, and when seedlings are about 5 cm tall, they recommend to cut the weaker plant. At Agrotonomy Corp., we prefer to start with only 1 seed per rockwool: our experience has proven to us many times that when 2 seeds germinate at the same time in the same constrained space, the smaller seedling does indicate necessarily that it would develop in a weaker plant when fully grown. Starting with one seed per rockwool is our preference as it allows us better to benchmark which are the healthiest seedlings which need to be planted.
It takes about 14 days for the seeds to germinate and another 2 to 3 weeks to be ready to be transplanted into the tower. Peppers must not be exposed to temperatures below 21°C/70°F.
Like all nightshades, whether tomatoes or eggplants, peppers love to receive a full sun exposure and they grow at their best in temperatures ranging from 23° to 32°C (75° to 90°F). Of course, pepper plants can thrive temperatures above 35°C/95°F when grown in the soil (although they then require enormous amounts of water), however, our aeroponic technology is not meant to be used in temperatures above 35°C/95°F.
The advantage of growing pepper is that they require very little maintenance aside from trimming the excess leaves (on a regular basis) to allow enough sun to reach the fruits. Once again, peppers need full sun exposure for better results!
The downside of growing peppers when using a Tower Garden for home-use, is that most pepper varieties grow into “mini-tree-like-plants”, which therefore prevents from using all the planting ports of a tower.
In fact, when growing strictly peppers on a tower featuring 7 sections/28 planting ports (the equivalent of the Tower Garden with extension kit i.e. Tower Flex), we can only plant 12 pepper plants per tower (maximum).
When planting pepper plants on a Tower Garden, we advise to use the bottom planting ports ( middle planting ports maximum height). If planting several pepper plants on the same tower, we advise to plan them on opposite sides (i.e. planting ports north and south or east and west) to counterbalance the weight of each plant. In fact, when full of fruits, pepper plants can weigh a lot and throw the tower off balance.
We also recommend to plant only two pepper plants per planting section to allow enough space for the roots.
In fact, a pepper plant will stay on average 5 months on a tower: Sweet bell peppers usually will start giving harvestable fruits after two months and keep on giving new fruits for another 2 to 3 months ( sometimes longer depending on varieties). The spicy peppers always take longer to reach maturity and can only be harvested around the 3rd month of growing on a Tower Garden. Like their sweet counterparts, spicy peppers will give new fruits for almost 3 months after being ready with the first harvest.
Make your own hot pepper sauce or powder! At Agrotonomy Tower Farms, we like to dehydrate hot peppers and then grind them into a thin powder: our cayenne pepper powder sweet and spicy at the same time revealing fruity contrasting flavors. You just cannot buy cayenne pepper powder like this! Time has come to make your own!!!!
