hydroponic Aero garden 1st time growing super hots in hydro

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darkchile

Been a crazy year, haven't kept up here but have in all my home gardens. I picked up a few aero gardens (including the bounty elite so its taller/bigger). I attempted to cross my own peppers this year and have seeds from it. I've used the aero for lettuce and basil thus far and its simple enough. Issue I have in my head is that I germinate my super hots via heat mat to speed up the process and germinate them much better than just surrounding air temps. The aero garden does not heat up, so is there a method to increasing the germ? Does anyone have some experience with it, such as germinating on a heat mat and placing the cotyledon in the sponge once its germinated? Or, without heat, will the aero garden still germinate the super hots sufficiently?

The cold dreary winter is here, I'd like to have some fun and see where this goes. Any tips on the germination process from above is useful.
 
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I've germinated some Chinense (non-superhots) in an AG Bounty, the older 9 pod with 50W LED so equivalent to the new Bounty Elite. They germinated OK with the light set at the lowest position. I also tried some in a lower power Harvest Slim 20W LED (Baccatum) and gave up as they were taking too long. Much of it will be down to what your ambient temperature range is as well.

I normally germinate peppers outside of the AG and transfer the seedling into it. I know of people that do germinate in them though.
 
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I had really good luck getting seeds started in my AeroGarden last year.

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Let's get 2021 started!!! My grow list is a blend of my yearly regulars, new peppers I want to explore, and unstable crosses. Like a lot of people, I can never seem to grow enough pepper plants to satisfy all my desires, so I have to make some decisions. I have a lot of Annuums on my grow...
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I didn't start many Chinense last year in my AeroGarden, so I don't want to make too many generalizations. But, I was pleased with my germination rates. I was starting several varieties, and the germination rates were mostly dependant on the quality of the seeds, and seemed to ignore the lack of heating in the AeroGarden water resoivoir.
 
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I'm wondering if it's worth effort to paper towel germinate and then place immediately in the sponge? The room it will be in will be cooler, so it might help to germinate outside the aero garden and put in as soon as seed pops in paper towel on heat mat? Quality of seed is good, came from my own peppers and only fully ripe. Maybe it doesn't even matter if the light stays low enough and the dome on, it'll add a lot of heat reflecting onto it.
 
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I started the chinense seeds around new years eve. I'm sitting on about 10 days later without a germination yet. 3 pods with 2 seeds each. As of now not too concerned being as they can tend to take 2 weeks or more, but after that point I may start some in paper towel to transfer into the .
 
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darkchile said:
I started the chinense seeds around new years eve. I'm sitting on about 10 days later without a germination yet. 3 pods with 2 seeds each. As of now not too concerned being as they can tend to take 2 weeks or more, but after that point I may start some in paper towel to transfer into the .
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I'm a total noob at this (peppers and hydroponics), but I wanted to chime in since I'm doing the same thing in an IDOO 12 pod setup. My anuums (Anaheim and Mucho Nacho) germinated in 5-6 days. I have one chinense (Bubblegum) variety that I'm waiting on at 6 days now. Please fire off an update if you see some activity on your end. I'll do the same. :)

Thanks!

Rich
 
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I have seen all germinate now, all 3 pods. It started around day 11 and all done by day 14. The room they are in is a porch and gets cooler, and of course no lights at night so it's cooler. They're all tiny little cotyledon's right now but they're going. I'm psyched up because I crossed my own peppers last year, and these seeds are the result of it. Curious to see what happens.
 
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All 3 are doing well now, at about 6 weeks after planting, they're starting to leaf out and root heavily in the aero. They've hit that tipping point where there is enough leaf and root to start growing visibly day to day significantly.

I had planted dwarf tomatoes in another aero and those are much larger (of course tomatoes) than the peppers. They're growing as expected.
 
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darkchile said:
All 3 are doing well now, at about 6 weeks after planting, they're starting to leaf out and root heavily in the aero. They've hit that tipping point where there is enough leaf and root to start growing visibly day to day significantly.

I had planted dwarf tomatoes in another aero and those are much larger (of course tomatoes) than the peppers. They're growing as expected.
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Awesome! I forgot to update here, but all of my Chinenses eventually popped. The average days to germination was 7, with the Habanero taking 8, and Paul's PT F4 ~12-14.

👍🏼
 
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