Just my expereince, but PH is extremely important, it can make plants grow more in less than a week than a month of sustained life. I use much less nutes when the PH is on point.
Regulate PH with about 50/50 dependant, with rainwater/city water. I've used lemon juice, vinegar, ph up/down ect. ect. And have had the best results using high ph city water mixed with rainwater, even used algae laden pond water to mix with non evapted chlorine water. Algae settles and cannot thrive once exposed to higher ph-d water, when the mix is right.
The main problem with using up, down, ect is you add more variables. It's easy to control 3 items, like 1.city water(has evaporating 2.Chlorine) and 3. Rainwater.
This year I'm using DWC outdoors with the sun as the light source, keeping my pumps covered and letting the rainwater have its way with the hydroton if it leaks in, I'm dealing with low PH after rain vs the usual high PH of indoor. No pests very fast growth and the plants take up nutes much better than the high fluctuating ph of indoor water.
I only ck the PH with cheap test strips bout every week and a half and the reason I posted this is, with a proper or slightly low PH I've not have to guess the plants problems or over feed them, because they are growing like crazy, and I dont wast time or money trying to fix them. Usually i grow indoors and ck them every 4 days or so, definitely wasted money on nutes and slow growth.
But....I havent flowed a pepper on hydro yet, I'm guessing again it will be easier. as i've got some small flowers and none have fallen off yet. I'm thinking I won't need a flowering solution, just up the standard solution, which is --general hydroponics--and raise the ph.
Anyway if anyone has anything to add about going from indoor to outdoor , I'm all ears.
Re-read my post after i posted it, it should have read, But.. I havent flowered a pepper plant outdoor on Hydro yet....
