Re: [CH] Hydroponics
The Adair's (adair@onyx.digisys.net)
Thu, 31 Dec 1998 17:51:46 +0000
Hello again all,
I've done a little research about flower droppage. It turns out to
be a very simple thing. Flowers that aren't pollinated fall off the
plant. Because plants grown hydroponically aren't subjected to
mother natures pollinators (bees, wind, other bugs moving
from plant to plant etc...) we need to help them along a little.
Simple pollination techniques include an electric toothbrush (or
other vibrating device of your choice) applied to stems and branches
a couple of times every day while plants are flowering or a fan set
up to blow gently around your plants. I've just been giving mine
a shake every now an then when I walk by them. I guess with this new
knowledge I'm going to be much more diligent about pollination.
Hope this helps!
Tim Adair
> > I've been wondering the same thing about hydro and habanero's. I am waiting
> > to see if any replies to the other question posted recently about hydro
> and
> > flower droppage..... :-)
>
> I too experience flower drop in my jalapenos, Namaqua's, and others... I
> thought it was just shock as they experienced some leaf drop as well, but
> when they returned to health I saw I was still getting drop, when I tried to
> hand pollinate, an apparently healthy looking flower would just fall off at
> the joint where it met the stem, and I'm not sure why.... by the way, can
> anyone tell me if infestations of whitefly and of aphids are linked in any
> way? I seem to have gotten them both at the same time, and lost a few plants
> rather suddenly to what looked like a wilt brought on by the <it seemed like
> overnight!> army of bugs that moved in. I used the usual Safer-type soap
> spray combined with physical crushin' of the lil' buggers, and I'm almost
> the victor, but I'd love to know what I can do to PREVENT this from
> recurring, as I want to start my seedlings soon and I don't want to lose
> them as well. Chiliheads, comments?
> Diane
>
>