Hi everyone,
last year I tried to grow some of my favourite chillies in a mix of coconut coir and perlite, tried to compare the results, learn from mistakes and do some experiments. Overall I'd call it quite successful and more clean than usual soil growing, and mostly with very early harvest that actually started in June and continued in ~2 week cycles until end of October.
This was the main reason for me to almost completely abandon the standard growing in soil, and fully focus on hydroponics, using coconut+perlite mix, drip irrigation and indoor growing for first 3 months continued in greenhouse (for the top plants) and/or open sky terrace once temperatures allow that for the rest.
I plan to share with you the progress of my garden, what worked and did not work so you can learn from my mistakes, and welcome any kind of question/comment !
Pictures will follow once I gather them up and publish to my web so I can link them here.
Edit:
Current setup:
- 250W Metal-Halide lamp
- rockwool or coconut Jiffy used for germination
- Coco/Perlite mix used as growing medium
Seedlings:
- pH 6,0-6,2
- EC up to 0,8 ( 400ppm)
- 1:1 ratio of coconut/perlite
2+months old plants:
- pH rather to 6,0 to avoid early flowering
- EC up to 1,2 ( 600ppm)
- 60% of coconut, 40% of perlite mix
last year I tried to grow some of my favourite chillies in a mix of coconut coir and perlite, tried to compare the results, learn from mistakes and do some experiments. Overall I'd call it quite successful and more clean than usual soil growing, and mostly with very early harvest that actually started in June and continued in ~2 week cycles until end of October.
This was the main reason for me to almost completely abandon the standard growing in soil, and fully focus on hydroponics, using coconut+perlite mix, drip irrigation and indoor growing for first 3 months continued in greenhouse (for the top plants) and/or open sky terrace once temperatures allow that for the rest.
I plan to share with you the progress of my garden, what worked and did not work so you can learn from my mistakes, and welcome any kind of question/comment !
Pictures will follow once I gather them up and publish to my web so I can link them here.
Edit:
Current setup:
- 250W Metal-Halide lamp
- rockwool or coconut Jiffy used for germination
- Coco/Perlite mix used as growing medium
Seedlings:
- pH 6,0-6,2
- EC up to 0,8 ( 400ppm)
- 1:1 ratio of coconut/perlite
2+months old plants:
- pH rather to 6,0 to avoid early flowering
- EC up to 1,2 ( 600ppm)
- 60% of coconut, 40% of perlite mix
I love the taste and aroma of 7pods, the heat of Nagas, and the shape of Scorps. Now let's see whether they will give some nice harvest ! 
