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soil Switching from soil to DWC

SadisticPeppers

SadisticPeppers

eXtreme Business
OK, so my plants have had flowers develop for several weeks now, only for the flowers to fall off within a week or so of opening, and I've even gone so far as to put them into 3-gallon root bags. Thus far however, I'm batting zero. All the flowers I've had, have fallen off well before any peppers develop, and I'm still in the VERY low double digits for flowers, across 15 plants. I've been watering them diligently every couple of days, giving them plenty of light under the grow lights, keeping them in a room that's 77-80 degrees during the day, and I've added fertilizer with micronutrients that peppers love (calcium, magnesium, sulfer, etc).

I've actually given a fair bit of thought to switching over to doing hydroponics from a soil-based medium for some time now, and only in the last couple of weeks have I found a place that isn't cost prohibitive for me to pull the trigger on it. My main question is, am I being WAY too impatient with my plants. Seeing as they've been flowering for several weeks now without a single pepper between them, am I just doing something wrong, or should I switch the existing plants I have, along with the three new baby Carolina Reaper, which I plant to put into a DWC as soon as I can.

And here's part 2 of my question... I found a DWC system, where there's 4 netpots in a 5-gallon bucket for only a couple bucks more than a 5-gallon bucket with a single netpot. My question is, with the 4-shot netpots in the 5-gallon, will the plants continue to thrive, despite sharing space with 3 other plants, or should each plant have its own 5-gallon DWC?
 
Been trying with my fingers, as wella s a couple soft-bristle brushes. However, the flowers just fall off after a week or so, sometimes less...
 
A certain amount of flowers drop, fact of growing. What the goal should be is to promote the overall number of flowers to increase the chance of pollination. You are doing the right thing using a brush, q tip or fingers.
Pepper plants can get huge in 5 gallon dwc, 2 mature plants is usually the max for a five gallon reservoir.

Try a six inch bucket basket for one plant, a ten inch for multiple....
alphahydrodwcstretch.jpg
 
Many thanks!

I've kinda debated doing DWC/hydroponics for a while, but up until I got my new job (and the pay increase which will kick in later this month), the cost of doing DWC or any kind of hydroponics for that matter was pretty cost prohibitive for me with the number of plants I currently have. I'll definitely start with the Carolina Reapers I have, all three of them, and see where it goes from there

Oh, and I will likely have some questions regarding the potential of repotting the plants from the grow bags their currently in, into the netpots for the DWC system. I know I will probably lose a few, but I wanna try to get it right. Not yet, as I obvoiusly need to get the system first before anything else...
 
Flower drop probable causes:

1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F
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.
 
Just rinse the roots out with water to where there is no soil present on the roots. The roots may be a pain to pull through the net pot if the plant is big.
You can also clone in hydro very easy, its so easy, you almost feel guilty. Also, plants are easy to overwinter in DWC buckets, as they can just be brought inside to a sunny windowsill.
If it was me and the plants are really big, I would cut clones as the cones will likely still flower out if the flowers are young. And, also keep the soil bound large plants. If the plants are small, by all means, put em in DWC. As for bucket size: the bigger the bucket, and the more room for roots, the bigger the plant and yield.
 
willard3 said:
Flower drop probable causes:

1. Day temp too high >95F
2. Night temp too low <65F
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.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid I'm very guilty of the last one. 7 & 10 are possibilities too since I have the indoors and under grow lights.

But as for cloning them, that may be a more viable option, now that I think about it sinc the plants are all between 14-18 inches tall and had a nearly full root ball when I transplanted them from the 6" pots to the 3 gallon root bags lat month. If by any chance, Spce 8, you could PM me some pointers or at least send a link my way of a good site, I would appreciate it. Knowing my luck and tendency of involuntarily invoking Murphy's Law, any help would be appreciated. :)
 
I messaged AlphaHydroponics, and as soon as I get paid this Friday, I'll be ordering some of his DWC stuff. I've got some good vibes that this is gonna work out really well, especially with the cloning thread I found from '07 (which looks shockingly easy and all but idiot proof). I'll also be putting one of my ZeroWater pitchers to good use, since as fate would have it, they sent out a report to my apartment complex a few days ago, and there does seem to be quite a lot of trace minerals in the water, especially iron.
 
I just pulled the trigger on getting some DWC stuff from AlphaHydroponics. As fate would have it, a coworker of mine happened to have an extra bottle of Clonex that he doesn't need so I bought it off of him for $10, seeing as 16oz goes for around 25-30 everywhere.

My coworker also told me there used to be a hydroponics store not too far from where I currently live, but it's since closed down because the feds were scaring away their business.
 
Most impressive, Alpha! I can only hope my stuff looks half as good as that when I make the switch :)
 
The DWC kits from Alpha came today in pristine condition. He even threw in 4 extra airstones for good measure. Many Thanks, Alpha!! I'm in the process of slowly but surely filling the buckets up with filtered water, and once I'm done, I'll begin doing cuttings and transferring the plants over...
 
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