Hydroponic Color Pepper / Capsicum Cultivation

Farm Questions
61

Hi

Can you give more insight on fertilizer requirements?
Do we have to use complex water soluble fertlizers or Urea, white potash, super phospate etc. work?
Any numbers on average cost of fertilising a 500 m2 hydroponic system for colored capsicum?

Thanks for your time.
Nikhil

62

Hi Nik,

Fertilizer requirement is based on water analysis. These are not complex as such but what is complex is the exact combination. Otherwise these fertilizers such CaNo3, KNo3 etc are commonly available in the market. Of course you have to buy them in bulk thus it becomes difficult for hobby growers to mix their own juice.

500 sq. mt should hold approx. 2000 plants and on an average each plant should consume 1 liter of nutrient enriched water daily and chances are it may cost you about Rs. 0.30-0.40 per plant per day. Assuming you have them in greenhouse for 240 days then cost should be around Rs 1,44,000 in a year.

With approx 10-12 tons (5 -6 kg per plant) produce at Rs 40 / kg you should fetch 4 - 4.8 lakh PA

Let me caution you though, these are numbers based on my experience at Pune and nutrient uptake and yield can change in different climatic conditions since we use naturally ventilated greenhouses. So get a good consultant (mostly from abroad and make sure you check their back ground and experience, as in India you only have copy cats) who can create a formulation based on your water tests. Formulations taken from internet are not the right source.

Regards

Atul

63

HI,
Mr atul is good , since you sound like a amature / hobbist beginner , good , i suggest you also try a combination of hydroponics and natural growing too,
hydroponics does not mean , use only chemical based fertilizers,
i tried a combination of both world , natural and chemical , to complement each other , like chemical pricing and some particular unavailability of certain chemicals, ,

since we mostly grow in a bag and drip irrigate it , and since you farm is small ,
try this suggestions in a small numbers, this way ,

  1. when your seedlings are ready for transplant , 1 week before transplanting , mix a slurry of chicken dung / burnt ash and pour it into the grow bag/coir pith bag and let it dry and a few day before planting do it again with out the ash,
    and after transplanting do it 10 days later ,
    it should give you enough required fertilizer for the next 40 days or so , ( like urea/amonia / calsium / MG/ FE/ZN/P/a little K and others ,
    so underline , you only give water to plants ,(if at all any defency crops up just give that particular ferts in granular foam as its easier to optain, no expensive soluble chemicals and no need to beg anyone to sell you in small quantitys,
    i tried this way and succeeded too , my website seribubio.com , got a lot pics on my trials, go thru it and i am not selling anything to india,(tooo far) dont worry.
    Just keep on try it, make your own ferts ,
    if you need natural recipe to make Kno3 , N4 , C , later i can share it with you too,
    lets make and grow more cheaper vege , broā€™s

Ramprakash L Chandra

64

hello Atul ji good eveningā€¦ surprised to watch hydroponic culture. I appreciate your efforts.
I wish to know while nursery raising (capsicum and cucumber) in protrays what are the ideal nutrient mixtures and how to control pythium (soft rot) in nursery stage. Can you give me some tips to get healthy seedlings in protraysā€¦
regards
Nagaraju
9704129080

65

Donā€™t worry about nutrients till first true leaf appears. You can mix 30% worm casting with coco peat when doing germination. This will allow you to wait up to 4 true leaves before you can start nutrients.

Make sure good air circulation and minimum moisture for your nursery and that will reduce / remove damping off and pythium problems.

You may also want to ensure that water is free from any pathogens by using UV treatment or H2O2 treatment.

Hope this helps

66

Thank u
I wish to invest on hydroponic cucumber cultivation. Is it possible to grow that crop in Tirupathi, Andhrapradesh (Temp. may reach up to 43-45 C.

67

Dear Atul,

Tremendous jobā€¦

Well, Iā€™ve been looking forward to establish a pilot project of medicinal plant for safed musli, ashwagandha & psyllium husk on nearly 3-4 acres of land in north gujarat. Is it possible to use Hydroponics greenhouse for medicinal plants?? Would appreciate an elaborate information for the same.

Thanks,
Vijay

68

It is very much possible to grow most of the crops through hydroponics in most efficient manner. However crops that you have mentioned are not familiar to me.

So I will need to work on under standing the plant physiology, behavior and the works before I can be capable of advising you.

Regards

Atul

69

Thanks Atul for your reply,

What if I send you general overview of the crops Iā€™m willing to grow with hydroponic??
So as to enable you determine viability for the same.

Let me have your email id plz.

Thanks,
Vijay

70

atulkalaskar@yahoo.com

71

Dear Atul,
I am pleased to read about your project. I more so appreciate some of the phrases that you used in various posts,in particular ā€œorganic is a scamā€. I fully agree with you. The very idea of organic is elitist and devoid of understanding of basics of food cultivation for human beings.
Anyways. This is not my reason to write to you.
After reading your posts i am impressed with the theory but i need to know whether your concept is workable in the agro-climatic conditions of western uttar pradesh (Moradabad-JP Nagar districts) where summer temperatures touch 45 degree c and winter ones plunge to 3-4 degree besides dust storms during summers (May-June) and frost in Dec-Jan?

72

Hi there,

Thanks indeed for your post.

Very idea of Hydroponics is based on overcoming the challenges thrown by mother nature at our crops. It does matter what conditions are out there and thus all your planning and designing of systems will be shaped by these external variable. What really matters is will it make a business sense and will it be profitable?

So in realty every concept / theory will fail if execution is not right, if expectations are unfounded and if you do not consider the regional dynamics. I have seen even McDonald stores going bankrupt in United States not because concept is non workable but due to failed executions.

Bottom line, Hydroponic works and it is proven all over the world. Can you make profitable business out of it or not depends on you.

Currently my focus is on creating a system that should work in any part of India where you have access to electricity and water and you will be hearing about it by 3rd quarter of 2012 as few projects will go online and will be noticed by many.

By the way " Organic is a scam" comment does not mean Organic food is bad. It is good if done right but you sure cannot run as a reliable business as a grower. As a trader you will make really good money but as a grower you will not. There in lies my concern.

Regards

Atul

73

Hi

To all the readers

I have been following hydroponics cultivation methods in various forums for the last 9 - 10 months. The yields given by the folks ranges from 50 tons to 150 tons or some times much more. All theoretical projections may be .

I am yet to see any one successful case with clear yields mentioned. If I have missed, it please do let me know as it is better to contact and get a real picture. I intent to start hydroponics cultivation

My interaction with at least 3 farmers with green house setup ( not with coco-peat) but with regular soil,drip, have confirmed me the yield of 45 tons.

Please advise

thanks
Kalahas

74

Hi Kalahas,

You are absolutely right about claims made by various people on various forum are at times bit difficult to digest. Even I have put upto 100 tons per acre as yields as a possibility when lot of ā€œinputsā€ are managed correctly.

They are few who have promised 2 crop cycles per year and thus very high yield per acre per Annam basis. I truly believe those numbers are way too far fetched. Internationally 28 kg per sq. mt is a norm for color peppers. so at 4000 sq. mts you can get somewhere around 100-112 tons per year. Since our lack of proper quality green house, absence of CO2 enrichment, quality plants etc should give us 70% thus taking us from 70-80 tons per acre.

Also it depends how the information is usedā€¦for example you just mentioned 45 tons per acre in soil. But I can assure you in just 2 years of growing Capsicum, that grower would be growing something else. So considering crop rotations you are actually producing just half.

Anyway, I hope people do their research right.

Regards

Atul

75

Dear Atul,
A very good and educative preposition indeed. I am into advanced stages of establishing a 2000 Sq.Mtr. Polyhouse in Dehradun (Pilot Project, can go to 10000 Sq.Mtr. very soon if everything goes right). In this regard, kindly guide me about a few things mentioned hereunder -

  1. Is the 2000 Sq.Mtr. project viable?
  2. I would like to Grow only Colored Capsicum, is the selection of Vegetable right ?
  3. Kindly suggest me about Hydroponics. What medium should i select - Coco Peat or natural soil?
  4. Somebody was referring to Mix Medium (being cheaper than Coco Peat, due to huge transportation cost involved in bringing cocopeat to Uttarakhand). What is this Mix Medium and where to get it from?
  5. Do you know of any such suppliers in Uttarakhand?
  6. Can the practical results (70 - 80 tons) be achieved in Soil Beds on a Pond Canal Film?
    This is my first project in horticulture, I hope you can understand my concerns.
    Thanks and Regards
    Maneesh Mittal
76

HI Atul,

I have visited your facebook album and looking forward to visit your farm shortly.

btw with above production and sales figures, i can assume 70 ton/acre and 28 laks as first year sales as a first year production.
now keep in mind that in Gujarat you can have up to 75% of the subsidy(25% central + 50% state). and trying to figure out individual cost for greenhouse+coco peat+drip+fertiliser+seed for first year and second year investment.could you please help me with above.

Cheers,

JKD

77

What a setup here. You got a huge setup and that even indoor so you can grow the capsicum through out the year. As it isa vast so require man power to keep it productive and to get the maximum results.

78

Has anyone looked at hydroponic flower cultivation, especially rose. This seems to be quiet successful in israel and they use cocopeat I believe. See the link below, this producer claims to be fully hydroponic and he can also control when the flowers blossom !

if anyone has experience or information on this, please contact me here on the forums or private message

israelrose.com/

brijesh

79

Hi Atul,
Appreciate your efforts and the sense of business development.
Some things should be open to all. I found that the links you shared on the forumā€¦

youtube.com/watch?v=lpRrZNthZvU
facebook.com/album.php?id=755052354

ā€¦ to view says ā€œThis video is privateā€ can you share me the access to view and understand please ā€¦
I would be Glad and thankful to you.

regs,
Akheeq

80

Dear Maneesh Mittal,
we can supply you high quality cocopeat products like blocks, grow bags, open top bags etc.
Regards,Hareesh M,WALGREENS COIR Inc.#127,Subbian Nagar,Pollachi-642002,Coimbatore District
Tamilnadu(India),Telefax:+91-4259-235173,Call -91 -99950 91807,Skype-hareeshm.nair
Mail:walgreensindia@rediffmail.com;walgreensindia@gmail.com,www.coirsubstrates.net