I've been doing a lot of reading for the past week. I think I know why my chilis have been doing so badly for last five years. I'm hoping to come up with a passive system that will work outside for me.

I grow chilis outside in five gallon buckets. I think my two main problems are: 1. High water PH, 2. soil compaction leading to low oxygen and too much water around roots.

I need a system that does not need electricity. It would ideally only need to be watered twice a day. On the 85+ degree days, I wouldn't mind some mid-day watering/fertilizing. I'm guessing the pot/holder size will have to be bigger than your usual NFT or aero type set up. Given this, I would of course prefer to have reusable growing medium.

Any thoughts? I'm trying to find out anything I can, but the books I've been able to get a hold of so far doesn't go into anything like this.

The whole purpose of concentrating efforts on a small number of chilis in containers is to get a lot more from each plant. It's very discouraging to get nothing more than what I can grow in the garden. Sometimes worse.

Next year I'm putting my peppers in the ground except for my asian and southwest drying types. I'm hoping to grow at least six of these but no more than twelve.

Thanks for any advice and/or ideas.

John