Should be fine. I know people grow peppers in various self watering / earthtainer type setups. Never tried them myself, though. I tend to think the hard part is getting the mix right to wick up enough water, but, not too much. But, that's not pepper specific.

"because peppers like dry conditions", not necessarily so. The saying goes "peppers don't like wet feet" but it really means peppers (or most any plant) don't do well in water soaked soil that doesn't allow an adequate amount of oxygen.

I've grown peppers hydroponically in a bubble bucket setup. Basically the roots of the plant get nutrients in a bucket of aerated water... roots live and thrive under water.

So... as tsheets said, you will need the right mix in your pots. Something that wicks water well and also allows for oxygen to penetrate. I'll leave it to other "mix masters" to suggest what to use.

the video link I posted used a cup (with lots of holes) filled with soil as the wick... but another video I saw used an old t-shirt stuffed through a hole. half in the water and the other half pulled up midway into the bucket of soil.
I wonder if the t-shirt method would be better?

Ottawapepper: in a hydro set up, are the roots actually in the water or are they like dangling just above it?
Bruce

There should not be any problems with a 2 bucket watering system.

Here is my home made SWC for my Peppadew. In the middle I have a platform to keep the soil above the water line then in the middle of the platform there is a hole then I took a Gatorade bottle cut it in 1/2 with the mouth of the bottle facing the bottom then poked 3 holes around the top and left the cap off and attached to the platform under the hole. Used MG Orchid mix as my wicking mix. then there is enough space to add water from the top to the bottom, also punch a hole in the side as my over flow to spill out any additional water. the straw that is coming out of the top is for oxygen to get down to the water.

The holes in the leaves from slugs, we have many around here and they seem to be good climbers.

Water roots are a differentiated root-tissue, so the roots in a hydro system
are able to effectively extract oxygen from water. There are likely to be soil roots
in the drier layers of soil, and water roots in the lower layers of soil.

When I intend to harvest peppers, I hold off on watering for a day or two.
I'd recommend letting the SWC dry down, as well, before a harvest.

A fairly common recipe for SWC's is 3 parts potting soil, 2 parts pine or fir bark,
1 part perlite. I've never used it, though.

Josh

scotty66, a t-shirt will work fine. When I did hydro, I used strands cut off a new mop to wick water up to my grow medium until the roots reached the nutrient solution.

Bruce, what Josh said. If I can find the pictures I'll post the root system of a hydro Bhut.

habjolokia, you're gonna need a bigger pot... it doesn't look like yours will hold the Peppadew up once it gets going. It'll easily reach four feet + high and two and a half to three feet + wide.

i got a kick out of the kids at "Global buckets"... was very informative and nice to see kids working to improve the world.

Anyways, in one of their videos about building the SWC, they mention how, not all soils can wick water correctly. I was glad to see Habjolokia say that "MG Orchid mix" will wick, because that is my preferred soil for peppers anyways. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Global buckets

Man, I love this place! So much knowledge / experience!!

Josh - In the recipe you mentioned, did you specifically mean "potting SOIL" or were you speaking in general terms?

Hey, Tsheets!

"Soil" in the generic sense...the type of potting mix/potting soil sold in bags.
One could use peat moss, a peat-based potting mix, coco coir, compost, et cetera....
any fine particulate would probably do.

Josh

Thanks, for the clarification. Often first time gardeners buy potting soil and have poor results when they would have better luck with potting mix - they just didn't know any better. I just wasn't sure if in this recipe, you really did want soil rather than mix. :-)