First try at hydroponics

November 10th, 2012 - Sowed pepper plant seed.
December 22nd, 2012 - Transplanted pepper plant (chocolate variation but not sure which one), currently at 6 weeks old
January 27th, 2013 - Saw first two flower buds, currenlty at 12 weeks old.

January 28th, 2013 - Two more flower buds have been noticed for a total of four buds

 

[scratchzilla]

Throw some pics up for us to see!

 

[trinidadPepper]

Here are some pics of the buds, however the pics didn't pick them up too good

 

[scratchzilla]

Nice work. What are you feeding it?

 

[trinidadPepper]

January 29th, 2013 - There seems to be some kind of insect affecting the base of the plant and it fell over. Plant still seems very healthy with lots of green leaves.

Thanks scratch. I'm using something called thumbs up that contains all the major nutrients with trace elements and calcium nitrate.
It's something that was recommended and seems to be working fine but I just have this issue with the plant falling over now

 

[trinidadPepper]

Ok so as millworkman has advised, it seemed that the medium is too moist and hence causing the stem to rot away.
Hopefully I will be able to save it as I am noticing some other shoots appearing at the base that may seem to help support the plant if the stem does rot away.
Also notice another flower bud today so I've got 5 buds in total thus far!

 

[trinidadPepper]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]January 31th, 2013 - Another flower bud has appeared for a total of 6 buds![/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Plants seems to be doing fine and the rotting seems to have been dismissed (fingers still crossed)[/background]

 

[Island_Dan]

You should definitely consider making those buckets light proof also. And whereabouts in Trini are you located? And where in Trini do you buy nutrients? I can't think of where in Lucia or Trini I would begin to purchase hydroponic nutrients... And also congrats to Trini on winning the T20.. I wouldn't let ya live it down if Guyana beat Trinidad... In fact I wouldn't be able to live it down either.

 

[WalkGood]

Nice grow mon, here's to listening to David Rudder & growing peppers in Trini

 

[trinidadPepper]

Thanks man!

 

[Dshlogg]

Nice! I like the fish-eye shots. Hope your plant make a full recovery. Good luck this year!

 

[trinidadPepper]

Thanks Dshlogg! The plant seems to be doing pretty ok. It's still green and shows signs of wanting to grow. Haven't had time to check up on it these past couple of days though but I'm still crossing my fingers that it comes back to full strength. I had to ensure that the plant was properly surpported (using strings) as it fell over a few days ago but now it seems to be supporting itself without the help of the strings

 

[trinidadPepper]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]February 3rd, 2013 - More flower buds have appeared for a total of 13 buds![/background]

It does look like it in the photos but I can assure you that there are 13 flower buds

 

[trinidadPepper]

February 4th 2013 - Two more buds have been spotted this morning bringing the total to 15

 

[trinidadPepper]

I notice that the buds seems to be coming up kinda fast but they're still taking a while to actually open!
So far it's been about 1 week (8 days to be exact) and the few buds I spotted those 8 days ago haven't open yet.

 

[trinidadPepper]

February 9th 2013 - Two flower buds have opened There is also a total of 20 flower buds spotted Hope all of them open and are pollinated!

 

[trinidadPepper]

February 9th 2013 - Some kind of insect seems to be under a couple of leaves, not too sure what they are.

Pics of the two opened flower buds

Pics of the insect:

 

[trinidadPepper]

February 21 2013 - Started noticing the flowerds buds dropping off. While other buds are opening, the flowers seem to drop off after a while

 

[kiddc]

i have the same insect infestation. Now i spray the underside of the leaf with pesticide every other day.

 

[trinidadPepper]

Well I was able to curb the infestation so I no longer have this problem