Bahamian goat pepper scrog

Here is the start for my Bahamian Goat Pepper Scrog (or Scrop, as someone else suggested). I just received the seeds in the mail today, but I will probably start germinating the seeds in a couple of weeks due to the fact that my current grow is not done.



So in that time, I want to discuss the best possible way to do this! I'm thinking of using a chicken wire fence, but I'm also considering building a wooden frame and tying strings to it. I have a lot of room to work with (I'm not going to use my DWC, but instead I'll be using a DWC/ Bubble bucket). Just as a frame of reference, the DWC in my picture is about a square foot in size.

The parts list is as follows:
1. DWC Bucket (1)
2. Hydroton
3. Rapid Rooters for germination (1)
4. Bahamian Goat pepper seeds (3)
5. Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow (1)
6. Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Bloom (1)
7. Superthrive (1)
8. Sunblaze 23" 23 watt T5 6500K (1)
9. 18 watt CFL 6500K with reflective fixture (2)
10. 250 watt MH with reflective fixture and ballast (1)
11. 250 watt HPS with reflective fixture and ballast (1)
12. Ponics Pump (1)(A testing unit graciously provided for me by Zero Mile Farms)
13. Nikon D40x and photoshop (1)
14. iPhone 5 and Snapseed (1)

My grow space looks like this:



Any suggestions are appreciated!!

Now, lets talk about the pepper that I am growing! The Bahamian Goat Pepper's scientific name is Capsicum chinense, and has a scoville rating of 500,000 +. This is a seriously hot pepper with Caribbean origins, and takes about 80-120 days to mature. This pepper loves a lot of light and heat. I haven't found a concrete source about germination times, but from what I've heard it is about 20-30 days.

Here is a picture of the pepper plant that I found on thehotpepper.com:



That's it for my first post in this glog, I'll keep you guys updated as things progress! And once again, any critique/tips on light and my growing setup pertaining to this situation is greatly appreciated!!

I've been thinking a bit about doing some sort of SCROG-setup with hydroponics as well, the main problem I've come up with is how to attach the screen.

If you're doing a non-recirculating DWC-system you want to be able to remove the lid with the netpot to throw out old nutrient solution and clean out the bucket easily, thus you'd need to either attach the screen to the lid or have it standing on its own supports.

It could be a bit easier with an ebb-and-flow system since you can build the screen and attach it directly to the grow tray without having to worry about how to change nutrients easily.

Yeah I might end up attaching the screen to the lid of the bucket. I also have the ponics pump, so that is going to make things a hell of a lot easier.

So when you scrog a MJ plant the buds grow up through the scrog and this gives them more tops and more light. If you scrog a pepper plant, what will this do? I would think it is just going to be more of a support for the pepper plant once the branches grow up through the scrog.

It's going to give more support. But the most important thing here is that I will have a lot of large leaves covering the screen. This will give me a really large surface area for photosynthesis and there should be a lot of great peppers as a result. It will also allow me to bring the lights closer to the plant so that they can have the maximum amount of energy available.

At least that is what I think will happen, but I guess we will find out once I'm done with the grow!

I think a major benefit of using a scrog technique for other plants would be as an effective way to limit their growth without having to prune them, great if you have limited vertical space!

UPDATE: I have officially started germinating as of today. I think I'm just going to go with a single plant this time around and have it cover an area of 2X2 or 3X3 ft.

I also bought a 250w MH + HPS combo kit on ebay yesterday which should be coming in on Friday.

hahahahahaha... good luck keeping your plant 2x2 or even 3x3 with that hps light! you will be doing some pruning, and soon.

UPDATE: My seeds have officially sprouted! Expect more regular updates on this now! I'm super excited for what lays ahead in the future.

Any recommendations on how big the holes of the chicken wire fence should be? I'm considering making a "U" shape with the fence so that I'll have a huge surface area to work with and to better use the capabilities of my lights.

I'd probably go with some rather large holes to make it easier to guide the peppers up. Too small holes will probably make it a hassle and risk snapping the branches or pods.

I don't know the max size, but I'm assuming a 2"x2" hole should be fine. I don't think I will have peppers growing above, but if I keep pruning the new growth I think that new flowers will form on current growth (correct me if I'm wrong)

UPDATE: Its 12/28, 4 days since my seeds have sprouted. I thinned out my other two seedlings, and I am left with just one. Here are my plants after 4 days of growth:



And a top view:



Sorry for the low quality iPhone pictures, it will get better once I start using my DSLR again

UPDATE:

Here are my peppers as of 1/16:




And here they are as of 1/19:


You can see the second set of true leaves coming in, however I am worried that this is growing too slowly. I know that hot peppers, especially chinense grow a lot more slowly than other plants such as basil, but should they be growing this slowly? There are no roots poking out of the cube yet. I try to keep it moist, however I'm not home all the time so it does dry out a lot.

Any suggestions on making it grow faster or is this considered a normal rate of growth for something such as this? It's about 2-3 inches away from a T5 light.

How much nutes do you feed them?