For starters, don't grow these cultivars together in the same bucket. Each has drastically different EC requirements. I'll leave a link to a page with several growing charts so you can check out the pH and EC requirements for whatever you decide to grow.

Using DWC, the trick is to house the plants in a "net pot" using either expanded clay balls or perlite or some other 'open' substrate to hold the roots. The net pots are suspended in the lid of the thing so the bottom of the pots is 4 or 5 inches above the water level.

Compressed air is fed into an air stone that sits on the bottom and runs 24/7. As the bubbles burst at the surface of the pool, they give off a little 'mist' of nutrient and that's what feeds the plants.

Make sure your bucket is light proof, otherwise you'll grow more algae than tomatoes or peppers.

FYI, sooner or later the roots hit the liquid and the plants take off like there's no tomorrow!

Here is a link that might be useful: EC & pH Growing Tables

Good advice there. All I have to add is that peppers - at least the kinds I've grown - almost hate nitrogen. The less nitrogen I gave them the happier they were and the more peppers I got.

Oh, and I have had better luck with peppers in flood and drain rather than DWC. Could just be me, but I don't think the peppers like DWC.

I have been growing Peppers for two years in DW. They love it. Right now I have a huge Tabasco Plant with over a hundred hot peppers on it.

I would agree with Freeman, in that Peppers hate Nitro. If you want good looking and lots of peppers on your plants, start and finish them using Bloom, and not Grow.

I have been using G.H. Flora Nova Bloom and had fantastic luck. The key is to start seedlings at about .32 EC, and when they get about 12" tall up the EC to .40, and when 24" tall go to .50 EC, and then to .60 when they reach about 2.5' tall. When they reach 3 foot and over: .75 EC (MAX) works fantastic.

I set the PH at 5.8, which will creep up to about 6.5 in a couple of days when the plants get older. I change out my Nutes every 5 days max, or if the plants are larger (3' tall), I then change out every 3 days.

With DW aeration of the water is key. I use 4" airstone and lots of air throughout the process.

I realize this post is a bit old, but maybe help you and others in the future. Good luck.

Hi Mr. pepper, thanks for the reply, i have a couple more
questions i would like to ask you. i have a blue lab ppm
meter and i do not understand how to read it right as you
may know it has ppm,cf.ec,colums on it. for seedlings i
start them at 700 ppm, ( flora nova grow ) after the get
5 or 6 true leafs i up the ppm to 1000 and at the first
sign of budding i switch to flora bloom and up the ppm to
1,300. what should i read on the blue lab ppm,cf,ec ?
what should the blue lab read in ppm,cf,ec, ? thanks
for any help you or any else can give me on being able
to read my blue lab right les matzek

mrpepper - I'm a bit confused over your EC readings? Are you sure you mean .32 to .75 EC in your post. That would equate to 150 ppm to 350 ppm on the x500 scale (approx.), that's quite a low amount.

lesmatzek209 - what scale ppm are you using, I'm assuming the x500 as that's what the GH chart uses? It's far easier to measure using EC, it's a simpler number to work with.

You are using seedlings at 700ppm (that's quite high, probably around 400 would be better). Your bluelab can do a variety of readings, if you want 700ppm then look at the flashing light next to 700ppm (using the x500 scale) - the light next to 700ppm is 1.4 on the EC scale, they mean the same.

If you are following the GH (General Hydroponics) ppm chart then stick to that. If you are not familiar with EC then there is no point in confusing matters more. As stated, GH uses the ppmx500 scale (there are two!), whatever the chart says (700, 1000, 1300) then look at the ppm x500 on your bluelab when you measure - set your mixture to that.

I notice on another post that you don't know how to use your bluelab as you have lost your instructions. Have a look at the manufacturers instructions as posted, it's pretty simple to use.

If you divide ppm(x500 scale) by 500 you get the EC
EC multiplied by 10 is CF

700 ppm therefore equals 1.4 EC which equals 14 CF :-)

thanks mrpepper and peato one more if you will. when i put
blue lab in the test solution ( 1500 ) it reads between 2.0
and 2.2 on the ec side it reads between 1000 and 1100 ppm
on the other side the cf reads between 20 and 22 and the
ppm is between1400 and 1540 witch is right ?? thanks.

les matzek

They are all right.

Whatever light flashes, say EC 2.0, then all the readings CF (20 on the meter), PPMx500 (1000 on the meter) & PPMx700 (1400 on the meter) on the same line mean the same.

It's just another way of measuring the same thing, but with different terminology.

Remember, if the light flashes between EC 2.0 and EC 2.2 then the reading is EC 2.1

Your test solution is 1500 PPM, working that out for EC will give you 2.14 - so your bluelab is reading perfectly.