lighting Lighting and photoperiods for red bell

[purzurples]

Hello!!! :-) And I thought I was the only hydroponic enthusiast who isn't growing youknowwhat.lol!
Anyway, it is awesome to have found this forum and I have a question that has
probably been addressed here already. sorry if thats the case.

I veg'd my first peppers: 3 red bell plants and 3 red hot chilis.
started from seed on october 31st. In three weeks they have become
just ultra-healthy, nine inches tall, green and bushy.
They are ready to bloom, as the chiles have about 50 little flower pods present,
and the red bells have theirs too.

My question is what to do with lights in order to induce and/or make it
optimal for fruiting.
I'm using a good hydroponic nutrient three-part,
so changing thr fertilizer has already been done.

I grew them so far on 18/6 using a 400Watt MH.
My ballast will also work with this 400 Watt HPS.

Should These peppers be put onto 12/12 with HPS ?
stay on 18/6 with the MH?
12/12 with the MH?
help me?

Mike

 

[POTAWIE]

Welcome
With peppers, basically the more light the better although at least a few hours of darkness is advised

 

[cory_huck]

you need to go to the HPS on a 18/6 if you are ready to fruit. MH will Vedge and flower, HPS will fruit bro.

 

[POTAWIE]

Some studies say 20 hours is optimal for chiles although 24 is best for the first ?8 weeks or so. It doesn't really mean that you need 20 hours but it has proven by some to be optimal

 

[PIC 1]

you need to go to the HPS on a 18/6 if you are ready to fruit. MH will Vedge and flower, HPS will fruit bro.

Believe it or not, I've gone full circle with MH 7200k. I also ended up with shorter less wild looking, stockier plants that flowered, fruited and ripened,.....indoors......
I do have a few 600w HPS, but I don't bother using them for vegetables anymore...

Greg

 

[willard3]

Chiles are day-neutral, so changing photoperiod will not induce fruiting/flowering.

I have varied lighting times from 12 to 20 hrs/day and results were pretty similar.