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hydroponic Hydroponic - Nutrients plants need

B

bryen813

Hey all i'm new to this site & to growing hot peppers! I've grown fruits and veggies outdoors and I live in Washington State so its COLD! im going to grow some boonie peppers indoors in a hydroponic system but I need to know what nutrients these plants thrive off of so I can give my girls all they need. Thanks so much for any info you have!
 
http://www.hydro-gardens.com/111140mixing.htm if you're just doing peppers. I'm doing tomatoes and peppers this winter so I using the tomato one.
 
i cant speak for other plants but for peppers i find that the following nutrient profile works well.

this profile is from a book called hydroponic capsicum production by Dr. Lynette Morgan and Simon Lennard.
supposedly it is for hot peppers specifically.

nitrogen:302ppm
phosphorus:103ppm
potassium:364ppm
magnesium:96ppm
calcium:330ppm
sulphur:174ppm
iron:4.9ppm

and this is what i arrived at using GH flora 3 part, and Magnesium sulfate hepahydrate(Epsom salt).


nitrogen:339ppm
phosphorus:129ppm
potassium:347ppm
magnesium:158ppm
calcium:292ppm
sulfur:139ppm
iron:5.4ppm

this is ... 18ml micro, 18ml bloom, 8ml grow... and 2.5grams of mgs04


edit:
i wasnt clear when i wrote this, but the above profiles are NOT actual ppms you would measure with a meter. this is what you would mix into a gallon of water and dilute to w/e you want.
 
I've seen that recipe before, and I think it's excessive for C chinense. When I did hydro, 5/5/5 or a combination with total ppm under 500 worked throughout the grow.
 
Always err on the low side with chiles......way low.
Chiles are not very genetically engineered plants and can't make use of a lot of fertilizer.
 
Until I see Dr. Morgan post some pictures of giant 7 pods, be careful with her advice:

"Seedlings can be given a half strength (EC 0.8 - 1.0) vegetative nutrient solution from the time of the development of the seedling leaves until a week before planting out. Full strength nutrient (EC of 2.0) should be given to seedlings before planting into the hydroponic system to assist with hardening the plant off.

Running moderately high EC levels in a chilli hydroponic system will have a noticeable effect on the fruit, as will maintaining a slight moisture stress in media based or flood and drain systems. Both high EC (above 3.0) and moisture stress, which can be maintained by allowing the media to dry slightly between irrigation's of nutrient solution, have the effect of concentrating the flavour and heat in chilli fruit and this technique is well worth the chilli connoisseur experimenting with." (Maximum Yield 2002)
 
thaichillihead said:
Until I see Dr. Morgan post some pictures of giant 7 pods, be careful with her advice:

"Seedlings can be given a half strength (EC 0.8 - 1.0) vegetative nutrient solution from the time of the development of the seedling leaves until a week before planting out. Full strength nutrient (EC of 2.0) should be given to seedlings before planting into the hydroponic system to assist with hardening the plant off.

Running moderately high EC levels in a chilli hydroponic system will have a noticeable effect on the fruit, as will maintaining a slight moisture stress in media based or flood and drain systems. Both high EC (above 3.0) and moisture stress, which can be maintained by allowing the media to dry slightly between irrigation's of nutrient solution, have the effect of concentrating the flavour and heat in chilli fruit and this technique is well worth the chilli connoisseur experimenting with." (Maximum Yield 2002)
Click to expand...

i take it you disagree with that advice? i know ive given my seedling Tabasco plants like 800ppm nutrient w/o any problems.
 
I'd warn against boonies indoors. A long wait for fruit and so big. There are some Thai varieties that are smaller and more productive, and the flavor might be close enough. Super Chili F1 might be good too. As far as nutrients go, I use a balanced hydroponic formula, usually in the bloom variety. I let the pH and EC fluctuate but try to keep EC around 0.8-1.2.
 
I know it sounds bad but I just eyeball the nutrients. Out of the 5gal bucket I only mix one gallon with the nutrients I have at the moment.

My first attempt at hydro I applied nutrients as the instructions suggested. I haven't noticed any change in the rate of growth.

I wonder if someone were to grow a hydro pepper running with just decent tap water and a great light source how it would compare with the use of added nutrients?
 
About the tap water... I've just had my first chilli hook pop up out of a rockwool cube and I'm faced with filling and running some newly made hydro systems. I am a complete hydro newbie and everyone talks about reverse osmosis filtering etc.. Would it be disatrous if I just used regular tap water? Is there a way of conditioning or filtering a large amount of tap water without buying an expensive filter?
 
megamoo said:
About the tap water... I've just had my first chilli hook pop up out of a rockwool cube and I'm faced with filling and running some newly made hydro systems. I am a complete hydro newbie and everyone talks about reverse osmosis filtering etc.. Would it be disatrous if I just used regular tap water? Is there a way of conditioning or filtering a large amount of tap water without buying an expensive filter?
Click to expand...

I try to filter my water with a normal faucet filter, but not always. Sometimes I forget. I haven't seen any ill effects. But in the beginning I had pH tested my water finding it just fine.
 
megamoo said:
About the tap water... I've just had my first chilli hook pop up out of a rockwool cube and I'm faced with filling and running some newly made hydro systems. I am a complete hydro newbie and everyone talks about reverse osmosis filtering etc.. Would it be disatrous if I just used regular tap water? Is there a way of conditioning or filtering a large amount of tap water without buying an expensive filter?
Click to expand...
tap water is usually just fine for plants. my muni water starts at 250ppm, all i would do back before i had an ro unit is subtract 250 from my target ppm and the plants loved it.

the only reason i got an ro unit is because it was only 60 bucks, and it makes me feel better to start at 0ppm ive noticed nothing else. i suppose in theory building a nutrient solution from 0ec/ppm is good practice, but i would not spend money on one until you have the other more essnetial equipment like a ph pen or ec meter.

however some peoples well water is really terrible for plants... very hard lots of metals etc.

this is the ro unit i bought if anyone is interested.
http://cgi.ebay.com/0PPM-Portable-50GPD-Reverse-Osmosis-RO-DI-Water-Filter-/380275848364?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item588a34f4ac
 
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