Hi, I'm new and came across this site a few days ago. I've been running an aquaponics system indoors with goldfish and koi and half of my grow space is dedicated to hot peppers. I'm familiar with plant stress techniques from outdoor growing but was unsure of techniques for plant stress in a fish-based nutrient system. Over the past nine months I've accumulated through trial and error a couple of things I've found have helped with plant stress, and none of it drastically altered the growth of my non-pepper plants either. I've seen many tips about this topic when dealing with regular hydroponics but not a lot regarding aquaponics. I can't exactly go messing with my system chemicals drastically for the sake of my fish. Hopefully my experiences might help someone and I can learn something as well if anyone else has some experience.
I'm using a flood and drain CHOPS rig (constant height one pump system) with one large fish tank constructed out of a horse stock tank and one sump tank with an internal swirl filter. The pump runs and splits to the grow bed in one direction and into the fish tank in the other, both drain back into the sump.
A few things I've noticed have helped with piquancy due to plant stress:
*Faster than average flood and drain times. Typically I had been running the cycle at about 15 minutes, I increased the speed of my pump and the siphon starts about every 6 minutes. It's a little on the annoying side when I'm in the room but it hasn't seemed to harm anything.
*Emptying my swirl filter less frequently. the swirl filter catches fish poop and uneaten food and can cause a sharp rise in ammonia levels when neglected...in this case it could be a good thing as long as I still am emptying it for the sake of the fish health. The types of fish I'm using are more resistant to ammonia but I still regularly test my water. I was empyting it once a week, now I'm waiting every two weeks.
*Overpruning has definitely made an impact, especially after my second round of peppers/third round of blooms. One of my thai plants I pruned down to the point that it looked like it was a stick with some flowers and two or three leaves on it. The plant grew back leaves eventually but I noticed the fruits were smaller and spicier.
*Crowding the plants. My most recent batch of habaneros were crowded out by my planting of some fast growing lettuces nearby and it caused them stress from lack of light. This experiment is still in the works but they have taken almost twice as long just to bloom as they normally do and they've remained dwarfed since the lettuces shot past them. I'm hoping this will work out because it's another tip for me to add to my notes. The lettuces will be removed soon and I'll see what happens.
I'm using a flood and drain CHOPS rig (constant height one pump system) with one large fish tank constructed out of a horse stock tank and one sump tank with an internal swirl filter. The pump runs and splits to the grow bed in one direction and into the fish tank in the other, both drain back into the sump.
A few things I've noticed have helped with piquancy due to plant stress:
*Faster than average flood and drain times. Typically I had been running the cycle at about 15 minutes, I increased the speed of my pump and the siphon starts about every 6 minutes. It's a little on the annoying side when I'm in the room but it hasn't seemed to harm anything.
*Emptying my swirl filter less frequently. the swirl filter catches fish poop and uneaten food and can cause a sharp rise in ammonia levels when neglected...in this case it could be a good thing as long as I still am emptying it for the sake of the fish health. The types of fish I'm using are more resistant to ammonia but I still regularly test my water. I was empyting it once a week, now I'm waiting every two weeks.
*Overpruning has definitely made an impact, especially after my second round of peppers/third round of blooms. One of my thai plants I pruned down to the point that it looked like it was a stick with some flowers and two or three leaves on it. The plant grew back leaves eventually but I noticed the fruits were smaller and spicier.
*Crowding the plants. My most recent batch of habaneros were crowded out by my planting of some fast growing lettuces nearby and it caused them stress from lack of light. This experiment is still in the works but they have taken almost twice as long just to bloom as they normally do and they've remained dwarfed since the lettuces shot past them. I'm hoping this will work out because it's another tip for me to add to my notes. The lettuces will be removed soon and I'll see what happens.
