Caring for vegetable plants
Your vegetable plants aren't growing the way you'd like? Here you'll find tips on how to increase the yield of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers or chillies.
Compared with lettuces or herbs, vegetable plants such as cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers or chillies are unfortunately little divas. As soon as they form fruit they need a great deal of light, water and nutrients.
If a plant looks a bit weak or wilted but has formed individual fruits, that suggests it didn't have enough energy to develop them properly.
Our recommendation
With vegetables it's best to use only 1-2 plants per row. They need a lot of space and otherwise quickly compete with other large plants for light, water and nutrients.
Keep the LED as close to the plant as possible, but not so close that leaves are permanently touching it or getting hot.
With vegetables, don't wait until the water is gone before refilling the tank. Vegetable plants drink a great deal, especially when they are carrying fruit. It's better to check regularly and keep the water level as stable as possible. Every 1-2 weeks, also empty the tank completely, clean it and refill it.
You'll find a video on cleaning in the homefarming course in the app.
Fertiliser
You can add the fertiliser as normal according to the instructions, but be very consistent with fruiting plants. Vegetable plants draw considerably more on the nutrients than herbs or lettuces. If you have a lot of fruit on the plant at the same time, the plant can quickly become overwhelmed.
Growth & care
Don't let too many fruits grow on the plant at once. It's better to let a few fruits per plant ripen fully and to remove very small, weak or yellowing fruit buds early. That way the plant invests its energy in the healthy fruits.
You can remove brown, completely dried-out leaves. Leave yellowish leaves that are still somewhat green on for now. As long as they don't go mushy, the plant can still draw nutrients from them.
Important: You can also shorten the plant in height if it grows well beyond the LEDs. That keeps it compact and strong and stops it wasting unnecessary energy on growing tall.