Growing peppers in the north! Hydro all day everyday.

Hi all pepper enthusiasts. 
 
I live in Scandinavian, or more precisely in Denmark, where unfortunately the weather can be pretty brutal. Ironic we currently have the hottest sommer I can remember. However, I can't rely on the weather all year round, especially because I don't have a garden. 
 
So I decided to upgrade my old windowsill garden, to a better hydro setup. This way I can grow year round . 
My setup consist of: 
Grow tent: Homebox Vista medium.
Light: Quantum board 260W LED. 
Drip irrigation system with drain to waste. 
Air intake: Black Orchide Ø 150mm
Air circulation: Secret Garden Monkey Fan 30W
Water pump: Micro-Jet MC 450 Oxy Pump
Medium: Rockwool 
The brain of the system is my Sonoff 4channel Pro with this I control everything by my phone, both light timers, water and circulation timers. 
 
Plants as of 12th July: 
Lemon Drop
Tabasco 
Thunder mountain Longhorn
7pot Primo (seeds from Troy).
Peachgum V3
Numex Vaquero (Jalapeno). 
 
Then I have a tomato plant and just started some strawberry seeds. 
In the next days im going to start a different tomato plant (Yellow pear) and plant seeds for Bahamian Goat(to replace the Longhorn)!
 
Now, to the exiting part, pictures! 
 
First picture is my whole setup. Grow tent, plants and water bucket. 

 
Next we have a closer look to the plants. 

 
Here we have the left part of the tent, with the lemon drop, tomato plant and Vaquero, you can also see the circulation fan.

 
Right side of the tent. With Thunder Mountain longhorn, Tabasco, Peachgum, Primo 

 
Closeup of the Lemon drop, I just harvested her today. Love this pepper. 

 
Here is the Scoville King in the tent, the Primo 

 
My Jalapeño (Numex Vaquero) I hope he produces more later, this is his first set of fruits. 

 
Thunder Mountain Longhorn. Easily the best producer in the tent (contested by the lemon drop) but most fruits ripen up to be soft with black seeds :/ To be replaced by the Bahamian Goat in the future. 

 
And my tabasco 

 
This is my "tools"

 
Some fitting decoration of the grow room 

 
And lastly the system all works because of this little box. 

 
 
My plan for this Glog is to hopefully grow peppers all year and I have some crossing ideas (Hello mr. Bahamian Goat) im planning to do here as well. Maybe some can assist with future hydro problems as well, as this is my very first time trying to grow this way . 
Here is the first few peppers from today going in the dryer! Along with some Gengish Kahns brain from the freezer. 

 

[PaulG]

Glad im not the only one have trouble with this variety. I have mine under a HLG 260W. Im trying to increase the plants "sun" hours a little by the day. Patience is the name of the game sometimes

I wonder what would happen if lights were
adjusted to the local hours of sun conditions,
changing a bit each week?
 
So on March 21, it would be 12/12 here,
increasing slowly to 16/8 summer solstice.
 
Ohhh 

 

[Mildfruit]

I wonder what would happen if lights were
adjusted to the local hours of sun conditions,
changing a bit each week?
 
So on March 21, it would be 12/12 here,
increasing slowly to 16/8 summer solstice.
 
Ohhh 

 
Well I know for some plant types, the 12/12 induce fruiting, and the 16/8 is better for vegetative growth. Dont now if peppers could benefit from it, but interesting! 
 
Time for an update! 
 

My so-called fire flame are quickly fruiting! Cant believe it's not even march and I almost have a pepper
 

Picture of the whole plant, it already have many small peppers growing
 

Here is the Biquinho, and the small sprout is the pasilla - which took very long to germinate. The almost sprout is my very first C. pubescens Rocoto mini. Also very exited for this plant!   
 

And lastly the Andy Kings BOC. Now permanently in the grow tent, and seems to tolerate the full "sun". 
 
Now I didn't include a picture of my Aji Amarillo, because I accidentally killed it during cleaning (seems cleaning is a dangerous practice in my tent). This is the second plant I have killed during cleaning -.-  Luckily I had extra seeds, so right now I am germinating the two plants I killed, again. The Aji Amarillo and the Murupi Amarela. 

 

[PaulG]

No kidding, Rasmus, pods already?  
 
I'm enjoying watching how the Grodan
RockWool works for you. Do the roots
totally fill the successive blocks?

 

[CaneDog]

Great to see the fire flame fruiting, and your rocoto above ground and on its way.  And glad you're restarting the Amarillo and Murupi; I'm a fan of both.
 
Still getting used to the look of the stacked Grodans.  Seems very efficient though!

 

[Mildfruit]

No kidding, Rasmus, pods already?  
 
I'm enjoying watching how the Grodan
RockWool works for you. Do the roots
totally fill the successive blocks?

Eventually they do. Last year some of my blocks got taller, from all the roots poking out underneath.
 

Great to see the fire flame fruiting, and your rocoto above ground and on its way.  And glad you're restarting the Amarillo and Murupi; I'm a fan of both.
 
Still getting used to the look of the stacked Grodans.  Seems very efficient though!

I have never tasted them, but people seems to like them so im really looking forward to them! 
 
Time for a weekly update! 
This week zero plants were killed. So far so good. 
 

Top left Aji Amarillo, Top right Mini rocoto
Bottom left Murupi, Bottom right pasilla 
All 4 are growing steady. 
 

This plant is loaded with pods, +15 already, and as I suspected the pods are not quite the size of a normal fire flame.
 

My Biquinho is soon ready for a transplant, the roots are starting to go through
 

This plant (Jamaican mushroom yellow) is a little special, as in a slow learner kind of special. I have tried to show here how dense the plant grows, the pods are struggling to even be there because the plant is very slowly branching out. I fear the grow have been stunted, but I can see very slow grow process in this glog. So I just have to be patient. 
 

Here is another picture from the same plant. Its loaded with flowers, and early pods inside this very dense growth.
 
EDIT: 

Forgot my Andy's King BOC. It have made its final transplant, and the roots are responding quick. The first flowers have been developed, not opened yet but within a week or two  

 

[PaulG]

Everything looks really good, Rasmus, the
little seedlings are really healthy and strong
looking.
 
The Yellow JA Mushroom is quite a plant.
I guess it's doing what it wants to do 

 

[Mildfruit]

Everything looks really good, Rasmus, the
little seedlings are really healthy and strong
looking.
 
The Yellow JA Mushroom is quite a plant.
I guess it's doing what it wants to do 

 
I guess you're right   Hopefully the plant will branch out a little, I have placed it a bit from the light, to force some reaching. 
 
I find my self adjusting the pH each day (something I never bothered with before), and at this rate I will quickly run out of pH down from GHE. Does any one know if I can use some other acid? Its a bit expensive 

 

[lespaulde]

 
I guess you're right  [emoji14]  Hopefully the plant will branch out a little, I have placed it a bit from the light, to force some reaching. 
 
I find my self adjusting the pH each day (something I never bothered with before), and at this rate I will quickly run out of pH down from GHE. Does any one know if I can use some other acid? Its a bit expensive 

Acetic acid (you can just buy the stronger dilution at e.g. Netto or Rema) works very well, without significantly altering NPK ratios. I find 5ml in 10L of our tap water water drops pH by a whole unit almost. Citric acid is what most pH down mixes seem to be using, but acetic acid works well for me.

And fully agree with Paul, plants are looking happy!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[PaulG]

Acetic acid (you can just buy the stronger dilution at e.g. Netto or Rema) works very well, without significantly altering NPK ratios. I find 5ml in 10L of our tap water water drops pH by a whole unit almost. Citric acid is what most pH down mixes seem to be using, but acetic acid works well for me.

And fully agree with Paul, plants are looking happy!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

Could you also use a drop of lemon juice?

 

[Mildfruit]

Acetic acid (you can just buy the stronger dilution at e.g. Netto or Rema) works very well, without significantly altering NPK ratios. I find 5ml in 10L of our tap water water drops pH by a whole unit almost. Citric acid is what most pH down mixes seem to be using, but acetic acid works well for me.

And fully agree with Paul, plants are looking happy!

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

I read up on different acids, and I might give acetic acid a try, at least its very cheap compared to what I use now Thanks for your input! 
 
 

Could you also use a drop of lemon juice?

Citric acid could easily be used, however, it doesn't hold pH for very long (according to my brief internet research) 
 
Another update! 
 
So I faced a dilemma, I didn't have enough grodan blocks for my new seedlings (pictured in previous post), and im too cheap to buy 3 small blocks and pay triple that amount in shipping. So I had to get creative! Luckily I had one extra big block.. 
 
 

Here im trying to cut a big block into the something like the block on the left. 
 

Working... 
 

Well, its not pretty, but it works   
 
Also, my macro lens from china arrived, and I had some fun.
 

'
Closeup of my mini rocoto, hairy little one. 
 

And a flower . 

 

[PaulG]

Wow, macro lens is awesome.
Beautiful flower shot!

 

[CaneDog]

Great closeup pics MF!  Looking forward to many more!
 
Be mindful that the cut-block might loose moisture much faster than a fully wrapped one.  At least that was my experience when I cut one up for germinating and fully removed the wrapper.  Probably won't matter nearly as much with a larger block, but I almost lost my sprouts a couple times.

 

[Mildfruit]

Great closeup pics MF!  Looking forward to many more!
 
Be mindful that the cut-block might loose moisture much faster than a fully wrapped one.  At least that was my experience when I cut one up for germinating and fully removed the wrapper.  Probably won't matter nearly as much with a larger block, but I almost lost my sprouts a couple times.

 
Thanks! Its a 1dollar lens, but fun to use  
And you are absolutely right, I need something to wrap the cube in, my fan keeps drying it out. 
 
Quick photo of the Jamaican mushroom to show how weird it grows. 

Thats way to many pods for a very small and dense plant/branch... Wish it would grow bigger  

 

[PaulG]

That is a trippy bud cluster, alright, MF!

 

[wizwor]

This way I can grow year round . 

 
Do you have to pollinate the plants?

 

[Downriver]

Nice pic mildfruit. So what are you feeding the JM? I've seen compact plants / gnarly budding like that in the past and it turned out to be a nute problem. Love your grow setup.

 

[Mildfruit]

 
Do you have to pollinate the plants?

I don't, but I sometimes do it when its the plants first flower. But with all the aircirculation I haven't had trouble with polination .
 

Nice pic mildfruit. So what are you feeding the JM? I've seen compact plants / gnarly budding like that in the past and it turned out to be a nute problem. Love your grow setup.

 
Thanks! I think you could be right about this being a nute issue. I feed my plants with 4ml of Flora series pr. gallon and supplement cal/mag. Maybe I should try to flush it for a while and only give normal water? 

 

[Mildfruit]

I have read up on the nute issue, and one of my plants seems to have a calcium deficiency. I think this problem is related to nutrient lockout as I feed plenty calcium. 
Do anyone have experience with nutrient lockout in the flora series?
 
I can see both the micro and gro bottle contains nitrogen. Do I cut the strength in half? My plan right now is to water with water for a week, then start half strength. Does this sound reasonable?  

 

[CaneDog]

Hey MF.  Is it the Jamaican mushroom yellow you suspect of Ca deficiency?  I would generally expect a calcium-only deficiency to be water-based (as Ca is a non-mobile nutrient) and a pH or salts lockout to manifest with additional deficiencies, but that's just a general thought.  I'm a soil grower so I'd expect your situation could be different than my experience.
 
Because water alone won't mobilize and remove all the salts from the growing media, a flushing liquid (either commercial or a pH-balanced weak nutrient solution) is recommended to carry all the built-up salts. One pours roughly 2-3 volumes of solution through the media allowing it to saturate and lift and carry out the salts.  Then after allowing the media to dry properly, plain water or a progressively less diluted nutrient solution can be used for the next couple waterings before resuming regular nutes.  That's my take on it anyway.

 

[Mildfruit]

Hey MF.  Is it the Jamaican mushroom yellow you suspect of Ca deficiency?  I would generally expect a calcium-only deficiency to be water-based (as Ca is a non-mobile nutrient) and a pH or salts lockout to manifest with additional deficiencies, but that's just a general thought.  I'm a soil grower so I'd expect your situation could be different than my experience.
 
Because water alone won't mobilize and remove all the salts from the growing media, a flushing liquid (either commercial or a pH-balanced weak nutrient solution) is recommended to carry all the built-up salts. One pours roughly 2-3 volumes of solution through the media allowing it to saturate and lift and carry out the salts.  Then after allowing the media to dry properly, plain water or a progressively less diluted nutrient solution can be used for the next couple waterings before resuming regular nutes.  That's my take on it anyway.

 
Well, im not entirely sure what's wrong with the Jamaican Mushroom yellow, it does have very almost dark green leaves. Its my Andy's King BOC that have its upper leaves all curled up. It also have dark green leaves. 
 
Its also just a guess, as my other plants are doing fine with the same nutrient concentration. However, I went ahead and poured pH adjusted water through both plants, and not they are left to dry for a few days in my windowsill (to minimize stress). 
 
I'll try to give them half strength nutrients when they need water again, thank you very much for the detailled instruction