Six weeks ago I planted Rainbow Peppers and Sweet Basil into the indoor hydroponic grow system. So far I've had two basil harvests, and have just switched to bloom for the peppers.
Indoor Hydroponic Grow
The weather is too cold for an outside garden for the next few months, and there's not enough sun light. To satisfy my green thumb, I have rainbow peppers and basil growing in this indoor hydroponic garden. It's housed in a grow tent, with a pair of 1000 watt LED lights, and an air filter and exhaust system that draws in cool air from the bottom.
There are many types of hydroponic grow systems, wick, ebb and flow, drip, NFT, and aeroponic, the one I'm using is called water culture. The plant is planted into a basket that is hanging in the water on top of a 5 gallon bucket, a bubble stone placed in the bottom of the bucket to aerate the water and roots than have grown down into the water. This is a very similar setup to the kitchen countertop grow systems.
Five 5 gallon buckets are connected with piping at the bottom, so when one is filled, they all self fill to the same level. Four buckets have baskets and are used for growing, one of them is a reservoir for easy water and grow nutrient adding.
Hydroponic Nutrients
I'm using pre-formulated nutrients for this hydroponic system - they are pH neutral, so I don't have to worry about pH levels. They are formulated for the seedling, grow, and bloom stages, about a cap full per week is all that is needed for this size system. Some systems use fish waste instead of pre-formulated nutrients, that would be an aquaponic system.
In the basket I'm using porous baked clay pebbles for the grow medium, I give them a wash and good soaking before seeding.
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Rainbow Peppers and Basil Seeds
I pre-soaked the Rainbow Pepper seeds, then carefully placed them in the pebbles, the sprinkled basil seeds easily stuck to the wet clay p, then I covered with a plastic lid to hold in the humidity until roots have grown down into the oxygenated water.
For the first two weeks, twice a day, I would take off the lid to carefully water the seeds and clay pebbles.
 Week 1 |  Week 2 |  Week 3 |
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I probably could have taken the plastic top off earlier, but the first two weeks I had my water levels too low. I had the water up to the bottom of the basket, but it should have been all the way up to just 2 inches below the top of the clay.
Week 4
By Week 4 there is no need for the plastic covering, the plants have plenty of hydration from the roots growing down into the water.
Week 5
By Week 5 you can see the basil taking off, shooting up above the pepper plants. Check out those baby roots.
Week 6 - Basil Harvest
In the 6th Week you can see the unruly basil crowding the pepper plants, they had to be harvested.
I was careful to leave a pair of sucker branches on each basil I harvested so they would grow back for another harvest. Not a bad little bounty, enough basil for a pizza.
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A few days later you can see how quickly the basil has rebounded.
A couple days later the basil had over grown again, triggering another harvest.
Easily three times as much basil with this harvest, the pepper plants have matured more too.
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Bloom Time
I could let these Rainbow Pepper plants grow much larger before bloom stage, but I want them to be done by spring, so I've put them into bloom mode. Bloom mode for peppers is 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of darkness - this mimicks nature, after a couple weeks the peppers will start blooming.
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I should have some peppers in a couple months, the indoor winter garden has been a nice distraction from the snow.
Peppers and basil are great in hydroponics! So cool you are doing it in winter as well. Fresh basil just tastes like summer.
Basil is like nature's candy, so nice. My first time with this setup, seeding on the clay pebbles reminded me of a chia pet, it was fun to watch it grow :D
Omg yes isn't it SO good. Basil on EVERYTHING! Wierdly, a bit in a strawberry banana smoothly with a bit of lime is the bomb...
Do you notice any difference in flavour between plants grown outdoors and plants grown hydroponically? I have always wondered.
I did not notice a difference with the basil, sweet and flavorful as always :)