I been growing peppers and tomatoes for many years (mostly in pots). One day it dawned on me to take my peppers indoors to see if it can last the winter. I kept one pot strictly under halogen light and two pots behind the kitchen window.
Not only did they survive the winter but they kept bringing new peppers (though not impressive looking ones)
Never did like having soil in the house though, and hydroponics appealed to me. Heard about aeroponics and the fact that your plants grow way faster if you suspend them in a very fine myst. I was eager to try this but don't exactly have the $$ to spend on this.
First task was to get some seeds to sprout. got some cheap led growing bulb from china (more on lights later)
once sprouted, I bought a $4 ultrasonic fogger
I used my plastic drying grill to elevate them and let the roots hang all inside a large plastic container. i put a small pan filled with my hydroponic solution in the corner and submerged my ultrasonic fogger.
I knew these cheap foggers don't last but i managed to keep it alive for a long time, when it would seize up i would submerge it in vinegar for a while and it would work again, though it did fail for good eventually.
The fog was escaping and the roots were getting longer, so i had to improvise. I bought ice cube trays and cut the bottoms off and placed the plants inside. i put the lid on my container and made large holes for the trays. I filled the bottom with hydroponic solution just enough to submerge the fogger. (this served as a backup in case the fogger failed, the longer roots could still get to water)
..ok so it' s only paritally aeroponic, it's my first time and time/resource is limited.
And just like that they started to really grow. i added more lamps and they kept hogging the light sources..so i put surrounded them with carboard with aluminum foils to get more lights concentrated on them.
and not long after, it started to look ridiculous
and then i started seeing flowers
I had to bail..didn't know how to maintain this anymore, so i decided to take out the fogger fill it all the way with hydroponic solution and put the whole thing outside
there were cucumbers, tomatoes and hungarian wax peppers.
I took 3 the wax pepper plants and transfered them to a bucket full of solution, which in turn grew to over 2.5x the size that i would have expected in soil. and they brought TONS of peppers. (i did this years ago and unfortunately i can't find a picture of it right now)
Observation from a guy who knows nothing about plants:
- Some growers seem to be religious about the kind of light they're using. from my experience as long as you get enough lumens aimed at it, the color frequencies don't matter all that much.
- i had some issues with my peppers (leves were culring funny) until i threw some expired calcium pills into the water..it seemed to fix everything.
- it's not the end of the world if you don't use a fish bubbler to oxigenate your water, though it may help (that could be another article in itself)
many other things i could have mentioned like mold/algae etc..but this is my first post ever and it's getting to be too long. apologies for the lack of sturcture.