Can You Grow Hydroponic Jalapeño Peppers?

As a hydroponic grower, it’s important to consider what crops will be popular for your customers. Hydroponic jalapeño peppers are one of these crops, experiencing a constant growth in demand over the last few years. A 2021 report from Kalsec shows that jalapenos are among the most popular pepper varieties, ranking just behind Cayenne and Serrano.

Jalapeños are a great crop to grow hydroponically because they have a fast development period. They’re often harvestable after just a month and a half to two months of growth! With hydroponics’ ability to grow nutrient-rich produce in any environment, regardless of the outside climate conditions, jalapeños and hydroponics might be a perfect match.

In this blog, we’ll discuss types of hydroponic jalapeño peppers that you can grow, the types of growing environments that are best for pepper cultivation, and what you can do about pests, among other topics.

What Type of Jalapeno Should I Grow?

There’s a lot of different types of hydroponic jalapeno peppers, but you might want to investigate cultivating the hotter varieties.

Curious enough, commercially-available jalapeños seem to be losing their spice — This is because peppers have been increasingly cultivated with further processing in mind. Because of this, peppers have become more uniform in taste, larger in size and less potent in terms of heat.

If you want to make really spicy jalapeños, you can cultivate specific varieties well known for their heat: like Jalafuego, Helios or Zapotec.

A jalapeño pepper takes about two and a half to three months to grow, typically developing fruit around the end of the second month. If your plants hasn’t started to fruit in that time, you may want to hand-pollinate them.

What’s The Ideal pH Level for Jalapeño Peppers?

The ideal pH level for hydroponic jalapeño peppers is between 6.0 and 6.5 pH.

By keeping your system’s nutrient solution in that range, you can create the ideal conditions that jalapeno peppers needs to grow to maturity.

What to be Aware of When Growing Hydroponic Jalapeño Peppers

Some of these green jalapeños show checking marks, which are created when the jalapeño fruit grows quicker than the protective skin can keep up with. Think of them like “stretch marks”, or — better yet: “spice marks.”

When you’re growing peppers, there’s a few things to be aware of. First, jalapeños are a fruit! Even though many people think of peppers as a vegetable, pepper plants have seeds inside their fruit, differentiating them from vegetables.

There’s a few trouble spots that should be highlighted, especially for growers new to hydroponics or cultivating peppers. Here’s some things to be aware of when growing:

How to Tell How Much Spice Your Pepper Has

You should also know that you can typically tell how hot a pepper is by examining its size and looking for thin cracks or markings on the fruit’s skin. This is called “checking” or “corking” and can showcase that the plant has undergone stress during the growing process.

This typically means that they’re hotter than peppers that lack those marks. So if you want the hottest peppers in town, watch out for those “spice marks”!

However, keep in mind that this doesn’t apply to every pepper, as some varieties like Jalafuegos are resistant to checking.

Watching Out For Sun Scalds

Bleached spots on your peppers can be a symptom of sun scald: a sunburn that discolors the pepper’s skin and can lead to rot and decay. While this occurs less frequently in indoor hydroponic farms, grow lights can cause this condition if they’re left on for long enough. As a general rule, peppers need about 8 hours of direct sunlight daily.

Check in with your plants as you adjust your system’s lighting scheduling to ensure that they’re not at risk of developing sun scalds.

What If My Jalapeño Fruits Turn Black?

While jalapeños could turn black for a variety of reasons, it might not always be a reason for alarm. While some jalapeños are naturally darker, or look black during development, it could indicate the presence of a more serious condition.

Dark patches on the blossom-end of your jalapeños might be blossom-end rot. This condition occurs when a pepper plant doesn’t have the necessary levels of calcium to support fruit development.

This problem can be solved by adding more calcium to your nutrient solution. Be careful that the addition of more calcium doesn’t throw off your system’s pH balance.

How to Pollinate Hydroponic Jalapeño Peppers

An important part of growing hydroponic jalapeño peppers is pollinating them. Luckily enough, jalapeño plants are self-pollinating (meaning they have both male and female parts), which means you just have to give them a shake (or blow a plant with a strong gust from an oscillating fan) to spread the pollen around.

However, it might improve your yields if you hand-pollinate each flower, to ensure that every possible flower is pollinated. This can be done by using a paintbrush, toothbrush or even your finger to move pollen from the stamen (male) to the stigma (female).

Dealing with Pests

Aphids, pepper weevils, and other pests commonly affect jalapeños.

While hydroponic farms, especially hydroponic shipping container farms, have less problems with pests than traditional outdoor farms, it’s still a good idea to keep an eye out for pests. This is because pest populations can grow if not addressed quickly. We recommend using all-natural pesticides that are safe to use inside a container farm, specifically neem oil.

What to Do Post-Harvest

When you cut jalapenos, you should always wear gloves. This is because the properties of capsaicin allow it to seep into your hand’s papillary ridges and cause discomfort.

Be aware that even though your skin may be irritated due to exposure to cut peppers, the chance of long-term damage is slim to none. Capsaicin doesn’t burn your skin, it just activates your pain receptors. So, if you’re reading this after cutting your peppers without gloves, you can be confident that the pain will eventually subside, even if it hurts like hell in the moment.

After harvest, you should try to preserve the quality of your peppers. Try bagging them or storing them for preservation!

Summary

Jalapeño peppers can sometimes encounter problems with pests. If you look on the underside of some of these leaves, you can notice small white dots. These occur when aphids or other small pests suck on the leaves. Interested in dealing with pests with an all-natural pesticide? Read our blog on neem oil!

Hydroponic jalapeño peppers offer a promising opportunity for growers looking to meet rising demand for spicy produce. With their fast growth cycle, adaptability to various environments, and the ability to control their heat levels, jalapeños are an excellent choice for hydroponic cultivation.

By understanding the ideal growing conditions, managing potential issues, and ensuring proper post-harvest handling, you can successfully produce high-quality jalapeños that will delight your customers.

At Pure Greens, we’re ready to support you, no matter your knowledge level. From helpful blogs to on-site training, if you buy a container farm from us, you’ll have what you need to successfully grow and harvest your own high-nutrient crops, regardless of outside climate conditions.

Our container farms empower farmers with the ability to precisely control the interior climate conditions of the growing environment, helping you to produce impeccable harvests, every time.
Want to learn more about our systems? Contact us today to address any questions you may have and receive a free quote.