This week in the greenhouse, our team continued preparing for the upcoming live pepper plant shipping season.
As we get closer to shipping, the focus shifts toward fine-tuning plant growth and environmental conditions to ensure each plant is healthy, stable, and ready to transition from the greenhouse to home gardens.
Live Pepper Plants: Production Update
Current Growth Stage
Pepper plants throughout the greenhouse remain in the seedling stage of growth, with multiple waves of plants progressing through early growth at the same time.
Maintaining these staggered planting cycles allows us to continue planting while preparing older plants for shipment.
Our Ghost Pepper plants we’ve been following since January 9th are now ready to ship the week of April 6th. Next week, we’ll start fresh by following two newly planted trays from seed to shipment, including sharing germination rates along the way, since this is one of the most common questions we receive.
Environmental Conditions We’re Monitoring
Temperature and humidity continue to be key areas of focus inside the greenhouse.
We’ve recently made adjustments within our greenhouse control system to better regulate these conditions. Our Link 4 environmental control system manages temperature, humidity, and airflow, but over time, multiple layers of automation had been added.
- The Link 4 system is what helps automatically manage temperature, humidity, and airflow throughout the greenhouse.
These overlapping controls began to “compete” with each other, making it more difficult to maintain stable conditions. Simplifying and refining these settings helps create a more consistent growing environment for the plants.
Maintaining stable temperature and humidity is especially important at this stage, as fluctuations can impact plant growth and overall health.
Recent Changes in Care
Some pepper varieties have been growing more quickly than expected this week.
To help manage growth, these plants were moved to tables with reduced fertilizer rates. This allows us to slow growth slightly while still maintaining plant health and structure.
Fertilizer levels play a key role in how quickly plants grow, so small adjustments can help slow or maintain growth as needed.
Why These Adjustments Matter
Preparing pepper plants for shipping requires careful control of growth.
Each plant must meet specific size requirements to ensure safe packaging and successful delivery. For our live pepper plants, this means staying within a target height range, tall enough to be well-established, but not so large that they become difficult to ship safely.
By adjusting fertilizer levels and environmental conditions, we’re able to keep plants within this ideal range while maintaining strong, healthy growth. This balance helps ensure plants arrive in good condition and continue growing successfully after transplanting.
Getting plants ready for shipping is a balancing act. Plants need to be well-established, but not too tall to fit safely in our blister packaging. The plants in front have grown slightly too tall, while those behind are at the ideal height for safe shipping.
Seed Stock Production
There are no major updates for seed stock production this week. Seed stock plants are grown specifically for producing seeds rather than being sold as live plants.
Dragon’s Breath seedlings in rockwool and additional varieties grown for local grower partners continue progressing through early growth stages. These plants will eventually support future pepper seed availability in our store once they mature.
Two approaches to seed stock production: seedlings grown in soilless media (left) are sent to local growers to be grown to maturity, while Dragon’s Breath seedlings in rockwool (right) will remain in the greenhouse and transition into the Dutch Bucket system.
Observations & Challenges
Managing Growth Rates
One of the main challenges this week has been managing differences in growth rates between varieties.
Some plants naturally grow faster than others, and recent environmental and nutrient adjustments have amplified that difference. Because of this, certain varieties required additional attention to ensure they remain within the ideal size range required for shipping.
Looking Ahead
As we move closer to the start of shipping season, the team will continue focusing on:
• Monitoring plant growth and height
• Ensuring plants stay within the ideal size range for shipping
• Fine-tuning temperature and humidity controls
• Adjusting fertilizer levels as needed
These ongoing adjustments help ensure plants are healthy, stable, and ready to transition successfully into home gardens.
What This Means for Home Growers
The work happening now inside the greenhouse is all about delivering plants that arrive ready to grow and thrive in your garden.
By carefully managing growth rate, plant size, and environmental conditions, we’re helping reduce stress during shipping and ensuring your pepper plants have the best possible start once they reach your garden.
🌱 Keep Up with the Greenhouse
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👈 Week 12: Last Week’s Update
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Stay spicy friends, we’re getting excited to ship out our first batch of pepper plants starting the week of April 6th!
🌶️ The Pepper Joe’s Growing Team