• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

I was about to give up, when...

I had been trying real hard for months now to get my gorgeous plants to stop dropping all their flowers... I tried hand polinating every flower, shaking my plants like a madman...

I flushed the hell out of them, and added 6 more 100 Watt Eq. CFLs, this time three above and three hanging below the canopy.

I tried giving them lots of P and K, and even Mg and S.

but still they would all drop...

It seemed it was all to no avail, and I was about to give up when...

The other day I noticed on one of my Orange Habanero plants the petals on a flower was dead, and the stem was neither yellow or shriveld at the end... I crossed my fingers and forgot it for a few days, but tonight I went in to water them, and spray them with distilled water and I decided to check on that flower to see if it had fallen off like the rest and the stem had gotten HUGE, and pushing out the dead petals was a Pepper! SUCCESS!

Then, out of the corner of my eye, on one of my Caribbean Reds, a pepper about a 1/3 inch in length and twice the diameter of a pea.

Looking around more, I discovered four more flowers setting fruit, and another pepper about 1/3 an inch in length...

Then, out of nowhere, on one of my Orange Habanero's stairing me dead in the face, in PLAIN SIGHT was a Green Habenero Pepper the size of a Quarter!

Fianlly, about 13 Pots, huge bushy, gorgeous plants with miles of canopy (it seems) surrounded on four sides by thermal blankets, 19 - 100 Watt Eq. CFLs, mulch, fertilizer, spraying every day and I have something to show for it :)

You CAN grow and set fruit under CFLs Indoors! Thank you guys for all your help.

I hope to take some pictures later to show you :)
 
The "equivlent" thing means nothing to gardeners. it's how much light compared to a Incandescent bulb.
When we talk about wattage, we talk about real consumption/output.

Anyway, glad it worked well for you.
 
Omri said:
The "equivlent" thing means nothing to gardeners. it's how much light compared to a Incandescent bulb.
When we talk about wattage, we talk about real consumption/output.

Anyway, glad it worked well for you.

Yes I know, I was just trying to point out that they are the 23 Watt 1600 Lumen 2700 K bulbs and not real 100 Watt incandescents.
 
Here are some Pics I just took.

Top_All.jpg


Peppers.jpg
 
RichardK said:
It's only like 430 something Watts, hell some of my PCs draw that much and I leave them on 24/7.

:)

yea, that's comparable to an HID tho... when i approach 200 i'll think about switching over...it sneaks up on you...
 
I agree what a clusterfk of lights! I bet you that all of those lights would not mach the light intensity of 1/4 of a 400w HID light also hoes your electrical? I would be thinking with all those lights you would be pushing the limits of the electrical system that can lead to flash fires
Omri said:
Dude, it would have been cheaper to just use a HID bulb. :shocked:
Looks like a monster, though!
 
He says it's just 430w.

While they may not match the intensity of a 400w mh, they beat the light spread of a single 400w mh. Even with a good reflector you can't cover the growth he has. Maybe T5 would work well though. I'm supremely interested in LED myself but I'm glad the poster started this thread :)

(ps - I have a background in saltwater fishtanks, not grow lights, so take my comments with a grain of salt!)
 
With good reflection and basic upper reflector a MH/HPS bulb would do a better job, still a mean lookin' setup. :)
 
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