hydroponic Pepper flower keep dying. Hydroponics

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papaloukas

Hello,this is my first post here and a first pepper grow.So lots of questions and confusion...
 
My Habanero red savinas are 45 days old from seed.At day 40 started to grow flowers (at least i think so) but its so early ,so i started to think its not flowers?
The problem is they all grow ~2 days then starting to brown and fall...They are very small only few millimitres.
 
Growing conditions:indoors,coco coir.
temperature is up to 80F/27C
humidity ~50%
only problem i could see is nutrient solution.I can see some unusual high PH and low EC at run off water.But reservoir is big will need time to fix it.
Sorry for poor pic quality,flowers are only on the tops of plant.
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Your plants' leaves are telling you something - "stop with all the excess ferts!"
 
Pepper leaves are typically fairly smooth. Yours aren't. If you can, flush out all the current water and just give them plain water for a while to let them recover. Then when you do add ferts again, use less. A lot less. Plants as young as those don't need the full strength on the labels.
 
geeme said:
Your plants' leaves are telling you something - "stop with all the excess ferts!"
 
Pepper leaves are typically fairly smooth. Yours aren't. If you can, flush out all the current water and just give them plain water for a while to let them recover. Then when you do add ferts again, use less. A lot less. Plants as young as those don't need the full strength on the labels.
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Thanks,
seems legit...
Thats from too many reading...Some say a little curling leaves is normal.Fert was not too high on textbook too,midstrenght - 1.3EC/700PPM.
Will flush them tommorow,will see how it goes and i will let u know..
 
Hope flowers are browning only from overferting.But is this normal to flowering habanero so young?
 
Another way to put what Gemee is saying is that the puffy leaves are a sign of calcium deficiency and I would bet the dying flowers are too. When the plant gets too much nitrogen ( and look how dark green your leaves are) is stops the uptake of nutrients because it can't handle any more. This first shows up as a calcium deficiency with puffy leaves. Dying growth tips and shrived deformed new leaves are next. flushing the soil and lowering your nutes will help this.
 
I usually use 1/2 strength nutes for drip systems with free flowing media like hydroton. Ones that hold moisture like peat and coco should use less. The recommendations for drain to waste type applications (which is what you should be looking at since you retain so much moisture) are 1/2 of what you would use for a drip or DWC system to start off with. Using my thought that nutes should be about 50% of the recommended strength for peppers, you should try running 1/4 strength of the DWC amount and see how that goes. 300-400 PPM.
 
Keep tabs on my glog since all of my overwintered plants are in a mixture of peat and perlite. I'm doing something similar to what you are and my nutes are at 25%.
 
Good tips...
Already flushed media with 250 PPM.
One more thing bothers me with this big reservoir,when i add water PH at 5.6 and on run off i have PH 6.6 . I flushed with 4 gallons PH'd water...But some say with coco i should only care what i put and not what comes off,but thats another story.
 
Already saw your glog Jeff
 
Ask and ye shall receive........
 
 
Flower drop probable causes:
 
1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F or too high >85F
3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer
4. Too much water
5. Low light levels (reduces fertility).
6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility)
7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to pollination).
8. Lack of pollinating insects.
9. Size of pot 
10. Too much mineral in feedwater.
11. Too much grower attention/anxiety.
 
I don't think your plant is big enough yet to be producing pods. My hungarian black outside was making little teeny tiny buds/flower pods like those ones in your picture. They kept dieing so I decided to pinch them off. Now, about 2 - 3 weeks later its made proper buds with proper flowers and set many pods.
 
Let the plant grow some more.
 
Thank you all.
Seem Red Savina responded well,dark green leaves lightened up a bit ,new flowers are green so far.
 
I grow in very limited space.Maximum 2.5 feet for a plants height.But it cant be too bushy sideways too,because of other peppers.
Now plants are 8" tall,and low side branching just started.Plants filled my container nice,so the only problem would be height...But how much height it will reach,anybody has a clue?
Question: would it be reasonable to TOP it before Y?
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The size of the plant will grow relative to the size of the root ball. You can trim it before the Y but that will encourage growth outwards. The plant will still grow outwards, you can leave the Y fork and monitor the height. The bigger your pot, the bigger your plant. You can also trim the root ball so it does not become root bound and also limit its growth but that probably isn't suggested if you haven't done so in the past.
 
Hi,still no peppers :( Flowers keeps droping.
 
 
Plants grows strong, 2'/60cm high, but something is wrong.
First, its way too overcrowded.How light peneteration directly to flower/pepper influence? Because its completely dark below canopy.
 
 
Other peppers i started later not so overcrowded,keeps flowering,some peppers are forming,but biggest peppers are the ones that getting more light,so that is the answer to my previous question i guess :( But even on this plant today i noticed plant droped some flowers.
 
Only one thing comes to mind.Too much nitrogen.Can you suggest nutrient NPK ratio? im feeding now with 3-4-6 
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My hydroponic peppers are sensitive to nitrogen levels, and I find that nitrogen is often left behind unused until it finishes a flowering cycle or just begins one. I finally got past this by flushing my peppers and cleaning my reservoir once every other week. I only use a 5 gallon res to reduce waste and for ease to work with. A small reservoir comes with its own challenges though.
 
Hi slade112,
can you say how much ppms do you feed them?
Also what nutrients NPK do you use during flowering?
 
I already flushed them again...Interesting how much nutrients is enough for them? Because EC 1 / PPM 500 is too much for them.Even PPM 350 was too much in coco.
 
papaloukas said:
Hi slade112,
can you say how much ppms do you feed them?
Also what nutrients NPK do you use during flowering?
 
I already flushed them again...Interesting how much nutrients is enough for them? Because EC 1 / PPM 500 is too much for them.Even PPM 350 was too much in coco.
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When I have grown in Rockwool, I fed them 100-150PPM of fertilizer at around that size. My tap water is right around 200ppm, so that makes for a total of 300-350ppm At a year old my Jalapenos are only consuming 700-900PPM. At 700-900PPM I have noticed that my jalapenos are nearly rock hard, are full of juice, and are generally quite hot. I use foxfarm tiger bloom on pretty much all of my plants, NPK 2-8-6. I try to float my PH around 6.3-6.8 as well just for reference. I feed tiger bloom throughout the flowering process as well as during vegetative periods, and even to seedlings. Excess nitrogen will shut those flowers down quite quickly.
 
Just as a little blurb, When I started out with hydroponics I thought that changing the reservoir out completely was a little over-rated. While I don't do it as often as most, I have found that it does help keep your NPK ratio in check. The more heavily I feed, the more often I change the reservoir as well. I often dilute my left-over fertilizer from reservoir changes and feed it to my soil plants.
 
I included a link to the fertilizer that I have been using for 4 years now for pretty much everything. I have had good results with everything from citrus trees to peppers, tomatoes, squash, greens, etc.
http://www.amazon.com/FoxFarm-FX14019-1-Quart-Tiger-Fertilizer/dp/B0049XGL0W/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386689397&sr=8-1&keywords=foxfarm+tiger+bloom
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Thanks for good answer.Explains a lot of things.
Just wonder why you keep PH at 6.3-6.7 range? 5.8-5.9 seems optimal in hydroponics for most nutrients uptake.
 
Also how do you think,since its completely dark under the canopy ,will it produce peppers? They got all the energy from leaves,but still interesting, maybe i need i implement custom lighting down below,but it would be not so easy...
Nice plants and a car you have by the way...
 
I just decided to stop fighting my natural PH in my area. I was fortunate to find that after I moved the PH of my water comes in around 6.7-7.0 PH (much lower than my previous dwelling). My hydroponic nutrients then drop the PH down slightly after being added to the level that I had stated earlier. Yes, a lower PH is optimal for most plants, however I have found that a steady PH that is slightly high will always be better than a PH that fluctuates even if the PH is perfect. I live in Texas, and during the hottest part of the summer, water levels can fluctuate quite a bit over the course of 24 hours, therefore causing the PH and nutrient strength to change as well. By sticking with a higher PH, I can also add water more frequently (top off the tank daily) without causing the PH to fluctuate outside of what the plant is already comfortable with.
 
Finding what works best for you, and keeping things simple is always the best route to go. There are no right answers, only good results, and bad results.
 
I'm not sure on the type of lighting you have, but by color alone it looks like an HPS light. HPS lights should easily produce enough light for you to get some kind of harvest off of your plant.
 
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