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

Newbie at growing and DWC!

Hi All,
 
First let me say I'm SUPER new to growing peppers and have never done any hydroponics before. Any tips, tricks, critique are greatly appreciated. I'm basically winging it and hoping for the best! I'm doing this 100% indoors as I live in an apartment. I love peppers, and love cooking. I am a big fan of making salsa and always wanted to make my own hot sauce! This is what inspired me!
 
My background is in IT and Electronics so this grow will be supplemented by many electronic projects.
 
My current setup is as follows.
 
Two-3 Gallon buckets.
2x4x5 Grow tent special off EBAY.
1x126 LPHx2 Air pump.
1 AgroBrite FL24 2ft 4 Bulb.
Arduino powering a LCD display with temp/humidity.
Ph meter I had already had!
 
Already after setting this all up Im going to make some major changes. I plan to setup an external res, with a pump to pump it into the buckets in the tent. This will make changing and refilling the solution easier.
 
I need to get some air moving in the tent. Currently it hovers around 29C.
 
I also need to replace the airlines with black lines. For now I've taped it off.
 
I have a timelapse setup in the tent as well, this should make tracking the project fun!
 
Probably going to have a ton of dead plants and disasters along the way but thats all part of learning! 
 
 
The starting plants.
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Power/Air
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Lights/Temp/Humid
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Burning Bush
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Jalapeno
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I hope this is clean enough and this guy survives...
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Full view of the setup.
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Two plants on their own.
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Next project. Wireless monitoring.
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Simple solution with circulation is the clip on fan .. they are relatively cheap from the Internet ... don't face then directly at the plants as they can cause wind burn ... expect to make mistakes we all did starting out but a chilli is a forgiving plant that accepts some abuse ... all the very best for your grow
 
Hey I have a question for anyone who wouldnt mind answering! What do you think of my light distance, and would it be feasible to add more plants? I see such a mix its hard to say. Some people have less lights than me yet have twice the amount of plants. Others have more lights and similar plants.
 
Saw some fresh white roots on my checkup this morning! Exciting!
 
Decided to work on a few things. I've been setting up a recirculating system. Hopefully this will make changing out the nutes easier.
 
Part of this will be a relay that controls the pump. Default will be on, the relay will be held open to turn the pump off. This way if the arduino has an issue, the pump will just stay on.
 
Arduino powered box for the water pump.
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Printing a cover
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Worked on getting my recirculating going today! Few minor hiccups but its basically done! Holds the level exactly where I want it regardless of if the pump is running or not.
 
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Also got my control box working! Cycles the water pump on for 2 minutes every 15 minutes.
 
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So both plants seem to be growing nicely! Second one started growing roots!!
 
Anyone have any advice what to do with the flowers that have started growing? I see plenty pf posts talking about removing them but others say dont bother...
 
Wow!
 
I see you're a techy for sure ;)  I'm in IT as well, but certainly don't have your knowledge regarding building the homemade goodies you have going.
 
Me, I just leave the plants to grow. But that's me,  I feel if they set flowers then they're ready to do so.
 
I really like the printer! Our tech class at school has several and they make some amazing projects.
 
Good luck in your endeavors!
 
Devv said:
Wow!
 
I see you're a techy for sure ;)  I'm in IT as well, but certainly don't have your knowledge regarding building the homemade goodies you have going.
 
Me, I just leave the plants to grow. But that's me,  I feel if they set flowers then they're ready to do so.
 
I really like the printer! Our tech class at school has several and they make some amazing projects.
 
Good luck in your endeavors!
 
Hey! Thanks!!
 
Yeah I was on the fence but I think since its my first plant I will just let it do its thing. Maybe once Im more comfortable I will start playing with it!
 
I have started on my 2nd half of my control box. I finally got my order of PCB boards in so I will combine the relay switching, with my wireless and humidity/temp/water sensor!
 
Im really tempted to add a PH sensor into the mix as well... I'd love to be able to see at any point what it is, and could watch it go up or down over time!
 
Root update....
 
Looking great! Havent gotten any darker and tons of new roots coming in!!
 
PYv6vSb.jpg

 
Should I remove this flower? Im worried the stem its attached to isnt big enough to hold a pod and it will just be a waste of resources or do you think itll thicken up before it grows to any decent size?
 
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So nothing to crazy to report on my first 2 plants. They dont seem to be really growing... or really dying... I have no idea what to think! Some more flowers opened up over the last two days as well. I noticed a weird white cloudiness in my water... its not slime.. its like a white coating... that just drips off. Im gonna monitor and keep changing the fluid and just see how things go.
 
Anyway on to bigger and better things!! Due to my constraints of living in an apartment I wanted a better system that I dont need to worry about flooding. So I've begun to piece together an ebb and flow kit. I've also started a bunch of seedlings.
 
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Did some work on designing a table... I was gonna just use this red one I have but I'd like everything to line up and fit better.
 
Some connecting!
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Table in 123D
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Final Dimensions
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