• Blog your pepper progress. The first image in your first post will be used to represent your Glog.

How can I go back to dirt now? (hydro grow log)

I've been sucking valuable info off of this forum for some time now, so it's time to say thanks to everyone for answering all the questions I never had to ask!

Back to the subject at hand... how can I go back to dirt now that I've done hydro? Haha. I decided a few months back being an extremely long winter here in Canada to try my hand at hydro, just to see if it was all that it was cracked up to be. The project started near the middle of November '09. I was going to try DWC but then the guy at the hydro store convinced me try the continuous drip feed system that they sell. He claimed it was less effort of watching water levels and such. I guess I was easily convinced, as well they had a nice little Thai pepper plant run on that system in the store that was just busting with peppers. That got me excited for sure! Its got a bucket, I think it's 12L or 15L then I use the air pump to supply air to the fitting inside which then pushes the aerated water up the tube and onto the hydroton.

I also needed a light, and being this was just a test I couldn't justify any HIDs or T5 flouros so I just went simple and got a 40W daylight spectrum CFL for $10. I figured this should be ok for one plant. I then needed a plant, and being very impatient I decided to make use of a few pot-bound plants in a styrofoam cup that had been sitting on my windowsill for the past eight months. There were three plants stuffed into the cup so I graciously separated them and chose the fittest of the lot for my experiment. I'm fairly certain they are Carribean Red peppers. I wasn't sure how well it was going to adjust to it's new home in hydro but I washed off the roots the best I could and stuffed it in the basket with hydroton.

Here's the starting photo... Nov 22.

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I started off with 1/2 strength nutrients, these were the hydro shop's house brand stuff...again keeping it cheap. The first week was rough, the pH was all over the place and I'm using this damn aquarium test kit matching colors and stuff. I'm now thinking maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all. I figured it could have been from using tap water so I started using distilled water. That and I think it finally got rid of all the dirt on the roots, things started sailing! My pH was locked in at between 5.5-6.0 for the whole week.

Low and behold, it was starting to spit out foliage. This was Dec. 11:

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I think it was around the fourth week I decided I needed some more light, so I bought another 40W CFL. This time I got soft white. I increased the feed strength around the 3rd week as well.

Here was Dec. 18:
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So in here is a bunch of boring nothing... I changed the water every week, that's about it. So this is how it progressed.

Dec. 23:
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hoping I can continue this post, so I can include the other photos...
 
Continued

And check out these roots coming through:
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Here's Jan. 7:
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Top view Jan. 7:
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Jan. 21:
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Sorry to overwhelm with pics.
 
More coming

Getting to be quite a beast:
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This is more like it...
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These now are the most recent pictures from Feb. 3rd:
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dcp1831.jpg
 
The end

What's that hiding in there?
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dcp1835.jpg



I think I've counted around 14 peppers so far, the biggest is now like a ping pong ball. I noticed fruiting at I think it was 9 or 10 weeks after installation. My season of indoor container dirt gardening went ok in '09 but this was good enough to surprise me. I suppose the plant being 8 months old already helped (though it wasn't exactly a picture of health, was it?) For a very amateur, no real testing equipment, first time setup I think it did really well.
The only thing I don't like is it seems difficult to do lots of plants. Then you need more room, better lights, more nutrients etc. I'll probably toss this one in a few months so I can try and grow a 7 pot. Next upgrade for sure is a small HPS light. So that's all I got for now, hopefully it encourages someone to try it out!

Thanks
 
Check into a 400 watt Metal Halide light and see what you think. I don't think they cost that much and they really put out the light.


Alan
 
Great pics and welcome to the forum! Seeing pics like that makes me think about trying out a hydro plant. Plant looks very happy.

jacob
 
Looks great! It can only get better with more light. How does the pump work? Does an air pump move the water through the column?
 
Thanks for the comments everyone

Zander - yeah the air moves the water up the column, at the bottom is the T fitting which has the air input on one side and is left open on the other. I suppose the bubbles find their way up before finding their way out the side. It's a pretty neat system, but I've found it is still dependant upon a certain water level. If its not deep enough then the water won't come up.
 
Nice job--the plant looks great! I've got an habaƱero seedling that I'm planning on putting into a DWC bubble bucket as soon as it's large enough.

For anyone looking for something similar--your bucket sounds like a version of the GH Waterfarm. Nice little systems--you can buy them complete or just the bubbler mechanism that you can install in your own buckets. I've also seen DIY instructions.

Sun System makes a nice little 150 watt HPS light that sells for $90 or less.

31s1wf1jx%2BL._SL500_AA280_.jpg
 
Great pics!! I am impressed that your CFLs did so well. If I were you though, I would consider an LED grow light instead of a MH or HPS. The 90watt UFOs are where it's at. I am using a 45watt grow panel in a similar hydro setup to yours, to grow Bhut Jolokia, with great success. The HID lights put out a lot of heat, so I feel safer having the LEDs in my apartment closet! :)
 
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