This Week's Focus in the Greenhouse
Live plant season is officially in the books, the last replacement orders are out the door and the flood tables are getting the deep clean they deserve. The greenhouse feels different this week, quieter, more deliberate, and that energy is exactly right for what comes next.
The focus has shifted fully to pepper seed stock production, and this week was all about getting the hydroponic Dutch Bucket system ready to go. Clean buckets, flushed lines, pumps tested, supplies inventoried. The goal: get our Dragon's Breath plants, currently growing in rockwool, transplanted into the buckets and growing out for seed.
Clean Dutch Buckets, flushed lines, pumps being tested by a greenhouse technician. Every detail checked before a single plant goes in.
Live Pepper Plants: Season Wrap
Final Update
It's done. The last of the replacement orders shipped this week and every plant that needed to get to a customer has gotten there. We are genuinely proud of how this season came together and even more grateful for the community that showed up for it.
To every customer who grew with us this season, we cannot wait to hear how your grows are going. Send us your updates, your harvest photos, your wins and your war stories. This is the part of the season we love most.
Ongoing
Flood table cleaning continues as we reclaim the space and reset the greenhouse for the next phase. A few weeks ago the tables were packed wall to wall, now they are empty. Bittersweet, but the reset is necessary and the next chapter is worth it.
Seed Stock Production: Dutch Bucket Prep
This week was all about preparation. Before a single plant goes into the Dutch Bucket system, everything has to be right. That means:
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- Scrubbing and sanitizing every bucket
- Cleaning and flushing all the lines
- Testing pumps to make sure the system runs exactly as it should
- Inventorying supplies so there are no surprises at transplant time
The target is to get our Dragon's Breath plants, currently thriving in rockwool, transplanted into the buckets as soon as the system is ready. Dragon's Breath is one of the most intense peppers on the planet and growing it out for seed stock is not something we take lightly.
Dragon's Breath thriving in rockwool, ready for transplant into the Dutch Bucket system.
How Our Dutch Bucket System Works
For those who haven't followed along from the beginning, here's a quick look at how we run seed stock production:
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- Dutch Bucket hydroponics is a system where individual plants grow in their own buckets, fed by a continuous drip of nutrient solution that drains back into a reservoir and recirculates. Each plant gets exactly what it needs, when it needs it, no competition, no guesswork.
- We use perlite as our growing medium.
- Perlite is a lightweight volcanic material that drains exceptionally well, holds just enough moisture between watering cycles, and doesn't break down over time. For pepper plants, which are notoriously sensitive to overwatering, it's close to ideal. It keeps the root zone oxygenated, which is where healthy pepper growth starts.
- Combined with our isolation rooms, which keep varieties completely separated to prevent cross pollination, the Dutch Bucket system gives us the control we need to produce seed stock that grows true to type. When we say a variety is stable, this is a big part of how we back that up.
Grower Plants: Hardening Off for Outdoor Transplant
The only plants currently being cared for in the greenhouse are the Dutch Bucket Dragon's Breath and our grower plants. We have started to harden off our grower plants so we can get them outside.
We are genuinely excited about what's in this round. A couple of new varieties we have been looking forward to all season are finally getting their moment, including the Mattapeno we teased earlier in the season, Yellow Bhut, and Gator Jigsaw.
There are a few others we are not ready to talk about yet, we want to make sure they earn an announcement and we can't give all our secrets away yet.
Stay tuned over the coming months. There will be news worth waiting for.
Hardening off and headed outside. This round has some varieties we've been looking forward to all season, you can see the beautiful variegation of the Mattapeno.
Looking Ahead
Our priorities for the week ahead:
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- Complete Dutch Bucket transplant of Dragon's Breath plants from rockwool into buckets
- Transplant grower plants outside
- Continue flood table cleaning and greenhouse reorganization
- Monitor Dutch Bucket system performance post-transplant
What This Means for Home Growers
Your plants are in your hands now and that is where the real work happens. If you are growing any of our varieties this season and have questions, we are always here.
A few resources worth bookmarking as the season heats up:
And if your plants are doing something interesting or something concerning, reach out. We love a good troubleshooting challenge.
Keep Up with the Greenhouse
Missed a week? Week 21: Last Week's Update
Want to see how the season started? Start at Week 1
Stay spicy. Thank you for being the best pepper community around.
🌶️The Pepper Joe's Growing Team