• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

First time grower looking for input.

Pepper Merchant

Pepper Merchant

Full disclosure until December of last year I have only ever grown two cacti that refuse to let go no matter how long I forget them.

I decided that after purchasing a dehydrator and smoker not in that order that I was tired of paying top dollar for mid level peppers at the food store. In December I went out to buy a Aerogarden and some seeds from pepper Joe's. Thinking before doing research I went ahead and just let my peppers grow using nothing but the settings on the aero garden (feed with their mix every 14 days , 12 hours of light, keep full of water). Seeing that my herbs could clearly not compete with my peppers I removed them so it just had pepper in it.

Now I need some advice on where to go from here, I have a few problems that I think you pros can answer.

Setup: Aerogarden
2 reaper plants (yet to flower)
1 Jalooka plant (dropping flowers and partial pods).
Planted for 73 days.
12 hours of light, since my house is around 23c during the day and cooler at night I have the light turn on from 10pm to 10am to try and keep them warm.
I keep it topped up with water that I let sit out for two days prior to adding.
I use the generic food that comes with the Aerogarden two caps every 14 days.

Recently I noticed that I was getting flowers so I started manual pollination using a qtip as a co worker reccomended. I noticed little power fall from the flowers when I started. That flower turned to a pepper that when I turned to inspect fell off, obvious my plant needs some space.

In the last few days I have noticed the flowers on it and the one that have fallen off have a lot of visible pollen compared to the first set of flowers. I also have a nice pod forming but I am loosing about 80% of my flowers and my pods that are forming where they touch the stem.

Reading around here I have added a small 80mm PC fan to have the air circulating around the plant 24/7 as there are no pollinators and I am scared to manually pollinate it.

So here are my questions:
-How can I reduce flower / developing pods from falling off. I have seen the 7 rules of preventing falling flowers and will not Mesa about with the plant and hop the fan adds proper pollination.
-My reapers look like they are getting flowers going but I am not sure, will having them so close be an issue?
-I live in Ontario and don't have full sun as I rent so indoor growing is my best bet will this work? Should I move these to pots?
-I never trimmed / fimmed the plant is this something I should do now?

I will attach some photos below when I can get to my desktop. Your site is very informative and I look forward to getting to know you guys and gals.
 
drathag said:
Possibly more light? 16hrs on and 8 off is what I normally see recommended for indoor grows.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the reply, I just checked the settings and I did have it set for 17 Hours from 10PM - 3PM daily.
 
 As a rule of thumb, the root ball and leaf canopy have to be large enough to support pod production to bring the pods to maturity or the plant will respond by dropping them. With a hydroponic system the root ball doesn't need to be as large, but while your plants seem healthy, they look stunted by being crowded into too small a container for them. Are you planning on continuing to raise them hydroponically? If so you might want to get the plants into a unit or units that'll give them room to stretch out and more light for the leaf canopy. http://www.fatalii.net/Growing_chile_peppers/Hydroponics
 
Do you have a place to transplant them to outside? Spring is coming. :)
 
stickman said:
With a hydroponic system the root ball doesn't need to be as large, but while your plants seem healthy, they look stunted by being crowded into too small a container for them. Are you planning on continuing to raise them hydroponically?
 
Do you have a place to transplant them to outside? Spring is coming. :)
Click to expand...
 
I was thinking eventually they will get too tall for the Aerogarden, that and I would like to put other herbs in it again for use in cooking. The issue is that I only have a small window I can place the potted plant into It would be enough to fit a 1 gallon container with room for the plant to grow or a 2 gallon with the size of the plant now. That and I would have to remember to water it, any high tech solutions for that?
If I were to move it to the window I know it would get less light that the hydroponics setup for sure, this is why I have left it in so long.
 
Spring is coming but from what I have seen I need to keep them above 12.7c (55) and below 26.7c (80) is this about right? For my area that looks like I can put them out from June to August, but again I dont have anywhere with full sun outdoors where I rent.
 
If I were to move all 3 plants out of the aerogarden what are your thoughts on one or two of these:
 
https://www.amazon.ca/Garden-Greenhouse-Hydroponic-Indoor-Cultivation/dp/B016CZJW2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488974428&sr=8-1&keywords=Grow+light 
 
Im not a super fan of how pink it is as I can currently work with the Aerogarden light on and it does not bother me in the office. But if I am lacking a area outside / something to get me by until I can put it outside I would want to know what you guys reccomend. 
 
If I were to pot them, what is the recommended pot size, soil type? Reccomendations for how often to water, how and what kind of fertilizer to apply and how often. And when potting should I attempt to spread the roots intot he soil or just place the roots in a carrot like shape in the center.
 
Thats the biggest loss with the Aerogarden is it makes it so easy to get something grown that once it becomes unmanageable you dont have the soft skills to move the plant. 
 
HotHamilton said:
 
I was thinking eventually they will get too tall for the Aerogarden, that and I would like to put other herbs in it again for use in cooking. The issue is that I only have a small window I can place the potted plant into It would be enough to fit a 1 gallon container with room for the plant to grow or a 2 gallon with the size of the plant now. That and I would have to remember to water it, any high tech solutions for that?
If I were to move it to the window I know it would get less light that the hydroponics setup for sure, this is why I have left it in so long.
 
Spring is coming but from what I have seen I need to keep them above 12.7c (55) and below 26.7c (80) is this about right? For my area that looks like I can put them out from June to August, but again I dont have anywhere with full sun outdoors where I rent.
Click to expand...
 
The only pots I've grown chiles to maturity in were 3 gal. airpots and smartpots. Of the two, I liked the airpots better because they were more durable, but both root-pruning pots worked equally well. I'm not conversant with LED lights, but the Lights 101 thread in the grow tech section is a good tutorial for beginners.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/25876-article-light-101/
 
 
HotHamilton said:
If I were to move all 3 plants out of the aerogarden what are your thoughts on one or two of these:
 
https://www.amazon.ca/Garden-Greenhouse-Hydroponic-Indoor-Cultivation/dp/B016CZJW2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1488974428&sr=8-1&keywords=Grow+light 
 
Im not a super fan of how pink it is as I can currently work with the Aerogarden light on and it does not bother me in the office. But if I am lacking a area outside / something to get me by until I can put it outside I would want to know what you guys reccomend. 
 
If I were to pot them, what is the recommended pot size, soil type? Reccomendations for how often to water, how and what kind of fertilizer to apply and how often. And when potting should I attempt to spread the roots intot he soil or just place the roots in a carrot like shape in the center.
 
Thats the biggest loss with the Aerogarden is it makes it so easy to get something grown that once it becomes unmanageable you dont have the soft skills to move the plant. 
Click to expand...
 
If you're transplanting seedlings from the aerogarden to a pot, it's really easy, just hold the peat sponge and avoid handling the roots, leaves and stem at all. Don't wait too long to transplant either... I started my seeds in the aerogarden and transplanted into 16 oz solo cups when they'd only grown out 3 nodes.
 
I'm lucky to have raised beds to grow my chiles in, and I give them a warmer microclimate by using Infrared transparent plastic mulch to convert sunlight into heat to warm the soil underneath. Do you have access to a sunny balcony or flat roof? Lots of folks successfully grow outside in pots in places like that, but if your only option is to grow inside, then you'll have to supplement the light your chiles get to encourage them to grow larger. There's lots of information on the growing chiles threads. Just wade in there and ask lots of questions. Cheers!
 
Thank you all for your helpful replies. I managed to get the plant into a mid size pot with some major root reduction and back under the aerogarden light until my new light arrives.
I moved the plant on Sunday gave it a large portion of water since the soil was new and it looked fine until I got home today.
 
The plant now seems to be drooping heavily. The soil is still damp, not moist, and not wet but a cold damp would be how I describe it. 
 
The plant has been in 18c overnight 32c under the light during the day for 17 hours.
 
I have yet to add ferts and debated spraying with epsom salts instead.
 
Any suggedtions? I am thinking over watering with my conern of the dry soil. Reading online some people suggest using straws to allow oxygen into the earth to speed up the evaproation of water, not sure what to think. The photos were taken minuites after a 17 hour light on period. 
 
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2gLT
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2XtF
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2IJA
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2FhQ
 
HotHamilton said:
Thank you all for your helpful replies. I managed to get the plant into a mid size pot with some major root reduction and back under the aerogarden light until my new light arrives.
I moved the plant on Sunday gave it a large portion of water since the soil was new and it looked fine until I got home today.
 
The plant now seems to be drooping heavily. The soil is still damp, not moist, and not wet but a cold damp would be how I describe it. 
 
The plant has been in 18c overnight 32c under the light during the day for 17 hours.
 
I have yet to add ferts and debated spraying with epsom salts instead.
 
Any suggedtions? I am thinking over watering with my conern of the dry soil. Reading online some people suggest using straws to allow oxygen into the earth to speed up the evaproation of water, not sure what to think. The photos were taken minuites after a 17 hour light on period. 
 
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2gLT
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2XtF
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2IJA
http://nervesocket.com/pics/image/2FhQ
Click to expand...
 

There's always a bit of transplant shock when your plants make the transition from a hydroponic growing medium to soil. Usually it manifests as a wilted appearance for an hour or two, but after giving it an adequate watering it usually bounces back. Try not to damage the roots unless you're cropping them back to make a bonchi.
 
Air is as important to your plants roots as water, so try not to over water or compact your soil too much. A hydroponic setup aerates the nutrient solution,  but soil needs to be porous enough to let the air get to the roots. It's OK to add water until it runs out the bottom of the pot, but then let the excess drain out to avoid drowning the plants.
 
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top