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Question for Pubescens growers

C. pubescens are notorious for needing cooler temps to set fruit. Don't know your growing season length but trimming plant is a debatable solution. Trim too much and you'll seriously reduce fruit production when temps cool but too short a growing season and you will have a lot of immature pods.  Ya makes ur choices & suffr da results! In other words, "No crystal ball"!

 
 
I always prune my Pubescens plants back that are indoors. They start taking up way too much space otherwise. Plus, trimming them makes them bushier. I don't like to prune them while they are flowering though. That seems to stress out the plant, and make it drop the flowers, based on my experience. How hot is it right now there?
 
The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
C. pubescens are notorious for needing cooler temps to set fruit. Don't know your growing season length but trimming plant is a debatable solution. Trim too much and you'll seriously reduce fruit production when temps cool but too short a growing season and you will have a lot of immature pods.  Ya makes ur choices & suffr da results! In other words, "No crystal ball"!

 
Thanks for your answer!
I think it's enough time to grow back until temps cool down.
 
Thegreenchilemonster said:
I always prune my Pubescens plants back that are indoors. They start taking up way too much space otherwise. Plus, trimming them makes them bushier. I don't like to prune them while they are flowering though. That seems to stress out the plant, and make it drop the flowers, based on my experience. How hot is it right now there?
It's about 35-37C right now.
They drop flowers and even smaller pods.
Some of them stopped flowering .
Aji Oro is the only one that set pods now.
I don't want to prune very much, only some branches without pods.
Thanks for answering!
 
And which manure use ?
 
Last year in czech republic was 35 - 40 degrees during the August but my Rocotos maturing well on direct sunlight.
 
Manure is very important. For maturing you need some with ideal N-P-K (15-5-30).
 
lobo said:
And which manure use ?
 
Last year in czech republic was 35 - 40 degrees during the August but my Rocotos maturing well on direct sunlight.
 
Manure is very important. For maturing you need some with ideal N-P-K (15-5-30).
I use some with NPK 6-15-3 and 6-8-15
The plants are very happy with them.
 
Thegreenchilemonster said:
I always prune my Pubescens plants back that are indoors. They start taking up way too much space otherwise. Plus, trimming them makes them bushier. I don't like to prune them while they are flowering though. That seems to stress out the plant, and make it drop the flowers, based on my experience. How hot is it right now there?
 
Curious as to whether or not you grow them to fruit indoors? From the sounds of it, they would do well indoors, outside of the space requirements. 
 
lobo said:
And which manure use ?
 
Last year in czech republic was 35 - 40 degrees during the August but my Rocotos maturing well on direct sunlight.
 
Manure is very important. For maturing you need some with ideal N-P-K (15-5-30).
 
 
az1000 said:
I use some with NPK 6-15-3 and 6-8-15
The plants are very happy with them.
 
I got very good results in a less than ideal climate, with very different (much lower NPK numbers, and no need to change for grow vs flower).  You need to keep them fed, but ideal is a very debatable topic.  Don't get carried away with that.  Just know that they'll use up more resources in the warmer, and become way more efficient, and less needy in the cool.  Warm temps speed up the metabolism, cooler temps slow it down.  Simple...  It's so easy to feed a pepper.  Conditions are far more important than numbers.
 
I'm going to try a large Kratky setup for them this year. It'll be my first attempt at growing pubescens. Hopefully having constant access to nutriants, they will do well regardless of the hot temps.
 
I'm biased. So take this with a grain of salt. For me, without a really good reason for doing so, I think Kratky is just about the worst method to grow peppers. For a rocoto, might be even worse. They have extremely long grow times. The original Kratky method was a reservoir full of stagnant nutrient solution, that draws down over the course of the grow cycle. It took me about 9 months to get my first pods, in a less than ideal growing situation, with a very well built media, and a proven feeding regimen. So for you to grow this way, I think you'll be needing to do less Kratky, and more Kratky-ish. You'll have to get clever, and it might actually end up being more difficult.

I might suggest to do a side by side grow a bit more conventionally, first. Or, at the very least, have a safety net in place. That being, a container ready to transfer into, should the Kratky go tits up. It's a hard hit to lose a rocoto.
 
Also... Nutrient access isn't the limiting factor for plant success. Environmental conditions dictate nutrient access, even if nutrients are abundant. All plants have inherent environmental limitations, and the almost universal constant for rocotos, is that they don't like humidity. (and the jury seems to still be out on temperature - although there seems to be little disagreement about temperature delta)
 
This will be a side by side test. I've got two different types of pubescens that I'll be growing this year. Both will have a Kratky setup and an in ground plant as well. I will say though that in my very limited experience, the few indoor Kratky grows I have done have far out stretched the none hydroponic plants. Unfortunately I lost the pictures showing this.

After watching Peter Stanley's videos, I really wanted to try to do a large scale, outdoor kratky grow. I've got 4 55 gallon food grade plastic drums I'll be using for a small mixture of plants.

As far as the nutriants and environmental factors are concerned, my hope is that the nutriants in the water will solve that particular issue. Also, I live in a fairly dry climate so humidity will not be an issue. Our summers average in the 90's so I was hoping for some input on how much sun exposure would be best. Ill be growing Costa Rican Yellow and Melon Rocoto's both of which came from pepperlovers.

I appreciate the input, Solid7. If kratky isn't your thing hopefully you have found or will find the best growing method that works for you.

https://youtu.be/_MCTymqiMqY
 
FITN said:
I appreciate the input, Solid7. If kratky isn't your thing hopefully you have found or will find the best growing method that works for you.
Well said my man![emoji106][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]
 
skullbiker said:
Well said my man![emoji106][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]
LOL @ Skullbiker. Of course, I was waiting for this. Even if I don't directly blaspheme Kratky, this one will hate me for saying anything contrary to his own opinion. #patterns

For the record... Never said it wouldn't work. I simply said, that of all the methods, I think it's the least best option, barring circumstances. And rocotos are not the beginner model. Have a plan B is what I said. Nothing more.
 
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