Backyard Hydroponic Peppers

A few pictures of the peppers growing my homemade hydroponic bubbler I made from an inexpensive 18 gallon storage container, an air stone, a cheap aquarium air pump, with some fish emulsion for nutrient.

Bell Peppers

Cubanelle Peppers

Guess how many pepper plants are in this picture? All are currently fruiting.

There are a total of six plants in the picture including bell, Cubanelle, poblano, and hot chili.

I made the bubbler as an experiment and have less than $30 invested in the entire project.  A commercial version can run upwards of $90 or more.  I'm unsure whether the commercial version works 3 times better because I don't own one, but my homemade version is working pretty well so far. 

I need to fine tune the nutrients more and my results would likely be even better.

If you look closely at the picture, you'll probably notice that I had to add some small stakes to support the plants.  Windy days were wreaking havoc on the plants and these bamboo sticks I had in the garage are doing the trick.

Here's another idea for a homemade backyard hydroponics system that I'm going to try later this year. I've seen a wicking system idea that is similar, but I want to continue experimenting with cheap and easy hydroponics.  "Even a blind hog finds an acorn every once in awhile."