Bleu's 2009 Hydro Garden
- Thread starter bleubeard
- Start date
I do not use a silica additive. However the medium im using is mostly silica stone, with only a top layer of hydroton. I'm not sure why they are falling off either. Last night, not sure what I was thinking but I chopped out a lot of the plant thinning the canopy. I figured that the plant was putting too much energy on new growth and not into budding, so i cut of alot of the new growth.
Dude, you've got lots of research ahead of you. Those ball things are called hydroton. I actually used mostly silica stone in this net pot with only a thin layer of hydroton on top. The seed was germinated in a rockwool starter cube and placed into the silica stones. (look at the earlier pictures in this thread). Inside the bucket is just hydroponic nutrient solution with an air stone connected to an air pump that runs 24/7. Probably one of the simplest hydro setups around. Keep reading the forums theres plenty of info around, though the gardening forum probably isn't where you want to be.
Its been a while since i updated. The plant has been pissing me off and doing nothing except growing out of control and dropping just about every bud. After talking to some of the pepper forums they agreed that I was feeding the plant way too much and not giving it enough light at 12hrs a day. The heavy nutes were more than likely causing a lot of the bud drop, and krinkly leaves. So I gave the plant a chop (omg wtf did i do?) and it is currently flushing with FloraKleen. Once it is done I will mix a weak veg solution and let this thing recover a bit before I start feeding it bloom nutes. When I say weak solution, im planning on going 1/2 of what I had been using.
Peppers are "day-neutral" aka not photosensitive. So I suppose theoretically you could keep them under 24/0 if you wanted to. I think 16 should be a good middle ground, i I will start there and maybe go up to 18. But even at only 12 this thing was growing like crazy.
