Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

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 .

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.