New to growing peppers - got some problems

C

crazyspade101

So in the quest for finding hot peppers available to me locally, I've decided to grow my own.
I am growing indoors in a 5x5 tent running a single 2x4 ebb and flow table, and a 600w MH.  My lights are on 16 hours a day, watering 4 times a day for 10 minutes, first when lights come on and then in about 5-6 hour intervals until lights are off. I am using MaxiGro nutes currently in a semi mild solution ~1tsp per gallon.
 
My pepper plants currently growing are tabasco, ghost pepper (hopefully), cayenne, and habanero. 
 
Anyway I am having a severe problem with curling on a number of plants, even completely curled together on some. I am thinking over watering but I am unsure. Any help would be nice.



 
That is some really bad looking curl.. TBH I've never done ebb and flow but I'm wondering a few things.. First off what's your pH? I'm guessing your in the right zone having all the right equipment and such.. Secondly are you adding any calcium? Cal-mag perhaps.. That kinda falls into the comment I made above though. Then Idk what the directions are on those nutes cause I've never used them but I'm kinda wondering if that isn't to high of a dosage. Your cotyledons should provide quite a bit of nutrition in the beginning and I really wonder if your not giving them too much. What's your ppm?
 
Thanks for the extremely fast responses.

MaxiGro was recommended to me at the hydro store, and I've only read good things about it online. The Maxi series was introduced in order to reduce the amount of additives to your water, being just MaxiGro for veg and growth stages, and MaxiBloom for flowering.

Here is the label for the Gro, so you don't have to follow a link.



I just checked the PPM, which is a little startling and may actually be the issue. I started with about 160ppm, I have great city water. The current PPM is 1490. So I am going to be changing out the nute solution today as soon as I figure out how to pump 27 gallons of water out of my basement, sump doesn't work. Also the PH is 5.86.

I wonder if the PPM could be affected by the dust left over by my hydroton, I rinsed it out as best as I could but as you can see in the pictures above there is a nice brown stain on the tray walls.
 
I also think pex uses maxibloom from start to finish. If I was you that's what id do also.. I started my plants with a grow formula this year and soon as I switched to the "bloom" my growth increased substantially.. In my situation I'm going to continue to do it the same way exception being I'm cutting out the "grow" and going with "bloom" instead next time.
 
Wow, ok a few questions first. What's the PH of your water? Are you using any RODI (reverse osmosis deionized) water?

I prefer rockwool cubes in an Ebb & Flow system. I would also consider a different nute program, but let's get some of questions answered. Curling can be under or over watering too.
 
The PH is currently 5.86, and just tap water, my county has some of the best tap water in the country, 140PPM from the tap at an even 7.0pH. The plants were started in rockwool and then covered with hydroton.

When I change out the nutreints I think I'm going to try the MaxiBloom
 
Changed out nute today, the reservoir had a lot of hydroton dust caked to the bottom of it. I cleaned it out good. Filled it back up used MaxiBloom this time, as

smileyguy697 said:
I also think pex uses maxibloom from start to finish. If I was you that's what id do also.. I started my plants with a grow formula this year and soon as I switched to the "bloom" my growth increased substantially.. In my situation I'm going to continue to do it the same way exception being I'm cutting out the "grow" and going with "bloom" instead next time.
Click to expand...
I've seen multiple posts discussing the feeding cycle of the gro vs bloom, and yes a lot of people are cutting out gro and using bloom start to finish.

Checked pH and it was at 5.77, I am aiming for 5.8 pH for growing.

Watering times: Lights come on at 5 of at 9 (total of 16 hours), water starts at 5, 10 , 3, and 8. I am never available to check to see if the leaves start sagging between the current cycle times - Depending what you all think I may even switch over to 3 watering times.
If curling continues I will be switching down to 3 water times: 5, 1, 8
 
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