Hydroponic Pepper: Day 85

It’s been a bit over a month since the last time I posted an update on my hydroponic Aji Lemon — though I have been sharing frequent photos on Twitter for those that follow me there. A good amount has happened over the last 45 days. Looking back at the last update, the plant has simply flourished in its current set up, easily besting two feet in width and covered in immature pods.

As you can see in the photo above, I’ve kept the plant shorter with occasional trimmings. My current lighting rig isn’t all that tall so I opted to keep the plant shorter, which has in turn resulted in fuller and bushier leaf coverage. Compared to the Aji Lemon that I had outside, this plant simply looks that much better. Most of that, of course, is due to an ideal and consitent environment (lighting, nutrients and temperature).

Not only is the plant looking better, it’s far outpacing the bloom and fruiting rate of that outdoor plants that I’ve had this season — again, ideal conditions and all that. I will note that I have not done anything different with the hydroponic mix, opting to keep it simple with the base ratios of General Hydroponic’s Flora Series. I may see what amping up to the bloom/ripen formula does to the plant in a bit, but I’m not sure it needs any further influences in that regard.

The pods vary in size across the plant from still flowering to nearly two inches in length already. At this rate I’ll have peppers ripening much earlier than anticipated. I was hoping to be able to pick fresh peppers throughout Winter, but I have either started my project too early or this particular pepper plant really thrives in this sort of situation.

Regardless, I’m thrilled with the progress thus far and am already thinking which plant I may grow in this set up for the next round.