leaves dropping and not growing

[rangebob]

I have about 8 pepper plants, mostly bell but 2 sweet banana. They are constantly dropping leaves. The plants are all a nice green. I don't see any bugs on them and they are budding and I have a small banana pepper on one of the plants. I have them in a 24x36x8" concrete mixing tub with pea gravel. They have a bell syphon in the bed. I have 2 tomato plants in the same tub and they are growing and I have a few tomatoes on them already. I have a seperate jalapino plant that I started later in a different location a constant flow pot and the plant has almost doubled in size already.

[bretthogan]

Just curious is the tub metal?

[bsfman]

I have about 8 pepper plants, mostly bell but 2 sweet banana. They are constantly dropping leaves. The plants are all a nice green. I don't see any bugs on them and they are budding and I have a small banana pepper on one of the plants. I have them in a 24x36x8" concrete mixing tub with pea gravel. They have a bell syphon in the bed. I have 2 tomato plants in the same tub and they are growing and I have a few tomatoes on them already. I have a seperate jalapino plant that I started later in a different location a constant flow pot and the plant has almost doubled in size already.

I've never had success growing peppers aquaponically. Don't know why. Dirt? No problem! Grow bed? Dead pepper plants.

[rangebob]

No they are plastic. It is a very heavy plastic.

I'll keep trying with them. I'm going to pick up a few other plants from another location and give them a try in the same bed. I may have to place them in the same pots that I have the others in but my try to use a wicking cloth so I don't have as many tubes running in the area since I have extra water in the bottom of the bed. I did have a problem with water flow in this bed early on as I was trying to get the syphon working properly so I'm wondering if that may have stressed the plants some.

[badflash]

What is your cycle time? Pepers need dryer roots. One flood an hour is more than enough for them. The barrel ponics quick flood/drain works well on plants like that. You can set up multiple plant systems on a signle fish tank & pump.

[FloridaChris]

I am trying to grow peppers AP too, but am running into problems as well. The leaves are all curling and turning brown on my Bell and Banana pepper plants. My jalapeno is looking ok, but it hasn't even grown an inch. I am thinking I will have to try my luck with pepper plants in soil. Was thinking of leaving them in another part of the yard that has a little more shade, but it is covered by a large oak tree. Worried about the rain water and leaves falling on the pepper plants may be detrimental.

[davidstcldfl]

Badflash made a good point...maybe they are too wet.
My buddy had hot peppers growing in media beds on timers. His seemed to do pretty well (untill some other plants started to shade them too much)
I don't think they got as wet, as in a media bed with a bell siphon set up.

The other thing to think about...how mature are your systems ? Peppers and tomatoes seem to do better in a very mature sysytem, especially the peppers.

You might try spraying them everyday, or every other day, with some maxi crop and molasses. Worth a try, It might help..."?'

[FloridaChris]

Dave - My system is only 12 days old, so I know I am going to have plant growth problems. On top of that I have no green thumb and not much growing experience. Just trying to learn as much as I can from reading and the forums. You've been a excellent help Dave.

I added some maxicrop to the FT today.

[JCO]

rangebob, go to your profile and put in where you live. It could help us help you to know what neck of the woods you are trying to accomplish the feat of growing peppers.

[Basil1]

I have a bell pepper that is flowering like crazy and currently has at least a dozen bells on it. This is in my pond setup. I also have a ghost pepper in the aquarium setup that has dozens of flowers but no fruit yet, probably my pollinating skills, that both sit in water constantly.