AJ Drew said:
That is about what I read for another crop. But that crop is daylight sensitive. Are you sure it is the same for peppers? Part of this is trying to figure out what puts them into flowering / fruiting mode. If it is size of plant, I can see hydro speeding it up cause it speeds up growth. But if it is age then I am not sure what would cause the shift from veg to flower.
There are numerous ways to induce flowering. One of the easy ways, is to drop N. A lot of growers make the mistake of dropping it, and keeping it down, though. Since we're not growing a once-off crop, we don't want to do that. If you use the N-drop trick to induce flowering, it's good to get it right back up, once those flowers appear. When the hormones for flowering are present, no amount of N that you add is going to make it stop flowering. (just as it's a common misconception that keeping N levels constant will prevent flowering) Dropping N during flowering can lead to Nitrogen deficiencies down the road, however.
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The truth is, most plants are pre-programmed to flower when certain conditions are met, or else when they might be dying. Personally, I don't like hydro growing peppers, for numerous reasons, but I'll definitely not tell you that it takes longer. When your process is dialed in, you'll definitely get fruit faster. You won't need to "induce" anything. If you're growing so many peppers, as a commercial venture, that your wallet is bursting, you might want to use tricks to decrease time to market. But you will most likely find that results in an inferior product, overalll.
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I always found that my hydro grown crops had a nasty metallic taste/feel to them, as well as a general diminished flavor. Not really sure what that was about, but in soil or containers, never noticed it.
