A Passion for Peppers
Jay's Peach Ghost Scorpion Peppers
The wireless smart sensors designed by SensorPush to measure temperature and humidity over time have attracted a wide variety of users in myriad environments – from greenhouses to passive houses; from refrigeration to reptilian incubators; from sommeliers to cigar aficionados.
We appreciate all customer feedback and it has been our distinct pleasure to connect with Nicholas, a.k.a. Prof. Pepper, a prolific Canadian plant enthusiast who generously agreed to talk with us about all things peppers. Nicholas is as articulate as he is passionate about his chosen crop, and we are delighted to share our conversation here:
SP: What is something everyone should know about growing peppers? And how does that vary from one type of pepper or pepper family/group to another?
PP: Well, there is so much to say but if I have to pick one I'd say patience, as with any plant really, patience is key, but with peppers we are talking more in the 100+ days from seed to harvest. And this can vary greatly depending on the family of pepper. (i.e. Capsicum Chinense are usually in the 160-180 day range as Capsicum Annuums can go as short as 90 days) And not to forget sprouting, which can sometimes take 30 days and even more, if the seeds are older, this can lead to scrapped runs when you don't know better.
SP: What are the most challenging aspects of growing peppers, including both what sensors can help with as well as things that have nothing to do with what sensors can do?
PP: Peppers are very resilient and not that capricious, but they can have certain sensitivities. They do thrive in relative humidity ranges of 50% to 70% and thus keeping a stable VPD in the 1.0 to 1.3 range seems to work best to avoid oedema and the like. I find that the HTP.xw helps tons with monitoring that, especially when combined with the Gateway. They are easy to position and reposition for area monitoring and provide precious feedback. They don't however have the capacity to control any humidifiers, dehumidifiers or HVAC elements, therefore, you need seperate controllers that are calibrated in unison with your Sensorpush sensors in order to grow in the best environment possible.
SP: What have you found useful about our sensors as well as other measurement tools?
PP: I really love how precise they are and how you can see the tiniest variations over time to really understand what your grow environment is going through. That and the fact that the data is all stored on the cloud (with the Gateway) so you can actually go back and pinpoint moments in time that might help diagnose issues or establish lessons learned for the next run.
SP: What do you think is most important with respect to growing peppers... and what needs to get measured?
PP: Definitely VPD, which in turn is the relationship between temperature and humidity. Why, well because if your VPD is dialed in usually you'll be in the temperature and humidity sweetspot and that will prevent loads of problems!
Join us as we continue to follow Nicholas as he compiles his data and shares his pepper compendium on Instagram »