How I grew these jalapeño peppers in my closet

No soil, no mess. Well, a little bit of mess. You’ll see what happened.

I started growing hydroponically — no soil, roots in water with a growth medium to hold up the plant — about a year and a half ago, August of 2019. Fascinated by a world where lettuce grows on walls, I delved into vertical farming in hopes of finding a research project that might win me an international science fair or two. In this pursuit, I realized hydroponic growing was much bigger than a blue medal — and much harder too.

This hydroponic jalapeño pepper grow was inspired by a spicy-food kick I had, where I drizzled sriracha and mayo on rice and called that lunch everyday. Below, I’ll be describing the procedure and progress of the grow, plus any insight my fellow gardeners had in italics. Enjoy!

Overall Stats

SEEDS: Burpee hot pepper seeds, Jalapeño Early

HARDWARE: 3" net pot, wide-mouth mason jars, red-blue grow panel, white fluorescent shop light (very briefly) timer

GROWTH MEDIUM: hydroton (clay pebbles)

NUTRIENTS: General Hydroponics MaxiGro, Flora Series