Thanks for the replies. I will make the switch over to the Vigor/Bloom combination now, leaving out the Grow per the manufacture.
I am really curious on if I should pinch off these first few blooms. I have read a few good posts that talk about doing so, which seem to make sense. I have personally experienced (in soil) just letting the first few blooms grow and then tons of others fill up at the very tops of the plant where it is weak, just to end up falling off. While that first pepper or two is growing all other blooms just shed. Just curious if any of you have any feedback to the following posts or have tried anything like that to increase yield.
Veg & Fruit Cycle: Peppers - Hydroponics Forum - GardenWeb
In the crotch, or fork between your 2 stems, pinch off that flower. Likewise, going up each stem you pinch off the flower (if any) at the 1st node above the fork.
What you want is to stagger the first 2 peppers on each stem & allow the plant to definitively transition into a continuous (not flushes) fruiting cycle. The plant is made to "work" to replace the lost flowers & this helps condition that response. It is not a question of giving it more time for vegetative/root development to make a better plant; it is a tactical sacrifice that means more total productivity.
So, after pruning the 1st flower that develops above the fork, let the next higher flower grow & set fruit on the 2nd node of each of both main stems. Then, get rid of (prune) the flower at the 3rd node of each stem.
Hydroponic Gardening-Sweet Peppers
It is tempting to allow your sweet peppers to produce as much fruit as they will, but this can result in poor quality fruit and unhealthy plants. The first flower on each plant needs to be removed. This creates stronger fruit in successive blooms.