Living in IA and in an apartment, with only summer sun on the westside of bldg, are there any ideas to what type of hot peppers one could grow out of a pot??? From reading other posts it sounds like there are alot of experts out there. Thanks for any & all help.
Apartment pepper growing
- Thread starter Barley-pop57
- Start date
Hey there Barley! Welcome to the THP ^^
I myself suffer from apartment living and have no outside space to garden in. There's a few things you can do for growing in a apartment (depends on the space you've got and your budget)
You can do a hydro setup, like DWC (Deep Water Culture) http://alphahydroponics.blogspot.com/2011/12/alpha-hydro-deep-water-culture.html
You could also try this but it depends on the peppers you want to grow in it. Windowfarms http://www.windowfarms.org/buildyourown
Or you could just go the old fashion way and do a pot and soil grow. The biggest pot you would need eventually is a 5 gallon bucket. Others have gotten peppers from smaller pots but the 5 gallon seems to be the most sufficient.
For any of those set ups, light is extremely important. You can get a seed to start and grow to about 12 to 15 inches under a simple Fluorescent light, but you won't get far after that. So you'll want to make sure to check out the lighting section here on the THP, its either under the growing section in general or the tech section in the growing forums.
Hope this helps! Good luck Barley and I hope you are able to find a way to grow some peppers for yourself ^^
I myself suffer from apartment living and have no outside space to garden in. There's a few things you can do for growing in a apartment (depends on the space you've got and your budget)
You can do a hydro setup, like DWC (Deep Water Culture) http://alphahydroponics.blogspot.com/2011/12/alpha-hydro-deep-water-culture.html
You could also try this but it depends on the peppers you want to grow in it. Windowfarms http://www.windowfarms.org/buildyourown
Or you could just go the old fashion way and do a pot and soil grow. The biggest pot you would need eventually is a 5 gallon bucket. Others have gotten peppers from smaller pots but the 5 gallon seems to be the most sufficient.
For any of those set ups, light is extremely important. You can get a seed to start and grow to about 12 to 15 inches under a simple Fluorescent light, but you won't get far after that. So you'll want to make sure to check out the lighting section here on the THP, its either under the growing section in general or the tech section in the growing forums.
Hope this helps! Good luck Barley and I hope you are able to find a way to grow some peppers for yourself ^^
I live in an apartment as well. If my work wasnt a cool place I wouldnt be able to keep a few of my plants there, and I'd have to cut back from the 9 plants Im growing to 6. If lighting is a problem try to use artificial light. Only grow what you have room to grow as well. Lucky for me I have a large balcony that get good light in my apt. Good luck!
Oh ya one more important thing! Pepper plants will only get as large as you want them to be. So if you pot up to a very large pot and take good care of your plants then they will get very big! And vice versa
Oh ya one more important thing! Pepper plants will only get as large as you want them to be. So if you pot up to a very large pot and take good care of your plants then they will get very big! And vice versa
I live in a apartment as well, all though I get amazing sun exposure since I'm high enough off the ground to avoid the shade of near by trees. As long as you get at least 4 hours a day direct sun, you should be able to get some peppers to fruit.
Anyways, I grow scotch bonnets, Jamaican red hots, super chilis, and am trying to get the super hots to fruit this year. I purposely limit my pot size to about 5 gallon so I can grow more varieties, but obviously this effects the yield. Personally I care more about having 8 or 9 different types of plants than 3 or 4 monsters.
Anyways, I grow scotch bonnets, Jamaican red hots, super chilis, and am trying to get the super hots to fruit this year. I purposely limit my pot size to about 5 gallon so I can grow more varieties, but obviously this effects the yield. Personally I care more about having 8 or 9 different types of plants than 3 or 4 monsters.
Welcome... give it a try... ya never know... Rember theres a ham sandwhich in every can...
Thanks for the input guys, most appreciated. I guess I'll have to jump in and learn on the fly. I've been reading posts in the grow tech forum...reminds me of some college classes I had, bot I'm a dinosaur...lol
Yup that's exactly what ya gotta do! I did the exact same thing, just jumped in and dealt with the trials of it all but it was a fantastic learning experience. People can tell you all the info they want which is helpful but the real way to learn is through trial and error. Check out my first grow log if you want to see what I mean. My indoor grow setup started off as pitiful but now its exactly at the point I was hoping for it to be at ^^ Took me lots of time and lots of failures but it worked out in the end 
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/25516-kappys-first-grow-log-d/page__fromsearch__1 (Kappy's Grow Log)
Oh also I forgot I added links to what I've been growing in the first post, so if you're still unsure about what you'd like to grow indoors you can take a look at those if you want to get an idea ^^ Happy growing Barley! If you do decide to start up you should make a Glog about it, people always love to see chili plant progress ^^ And it's a great way to get feedback on what you're doing.
http://www.thehotpepper.com/topic/25516-kappys-first-grow-log-d/page__fromsearch__1 (Kappy's Grow Log)
Oh also I forgot I added links to what I've been growing in the first post, so if you're still unsure about what you'd like to grow indoors you can take a look at those if you want to get an idea ^^ Happy growing Barley! If you do decide to start up you should make a Glog about it, people always love to see chili plant progress ^^ And it's a great way to get feedback on what you're doing.