First UC Grow!

[hogan400]

monster
I meant to mention my ionic freebies sent with uc were fucked. I mixed a measured gallon w r.o. water, the ec/ppm was way off and my ph would not stabilize no matter! For over a week the plants were frozen, all my other parameters besides r.h. were great.

GF,
I bought one at targe' and it sucked. Bought a 5 gallon at ace, it barely worked. The easiest thing for me is veg bigger in a tent and txplant to uc when they are 18-24" tall next rd.

Also

 

[Shane20]

I just ordered this one for my room. Hope the link works for ya.

 

[MonsterRobot]

I have a ultrasonic humidifier that I got from costco... it was like $95 and it works great...




I got the humidity up to 60-65%, dropped the PPM back to 250, and turned off one of the lights for now... Hopefully they perk up in the next few days... The roots are still looking great and there is more and more white popping out of the bottoms of the net pots every day so I guess that is a good sign...

I also cut covers for the tops of the 13 gallon modules so that no light can get in and they also stay cooler...

Thanks for all the input!

 

[MonsterRobot]

monster
I meant to mention my ionic freebies sent with uc were fucked. I mixed a measured gallon w r.o. water, the ec/ppm was way off and my ph would not stabilize no matter! For over a week the plants were frozen, all my other parameters besides r.h. were great.

GF,
I bought one at targe' and it sucked. Bought a 5 gallon at ace, it barely worked. The easiest thing for me is veg bigger in a tent and txplant to uc when they are 18-24" tall next rd.

Also

I bought Ionic from the store and my PH is really really stable... And the PPM seems to be right on based on how much I mixed up... I wonder if you got a bad batch?

 

[hogan400]

Totally possible, who knows what happened my ionic. It was free...lol. If your roots are looking good thats really good at this early point!

good luck, ima be watching as i really like vert.

 

[GeneticFreak]

How's everything going Monster? Have things started to turn around yet?

 

[MonsterRobot]

Well, I killed one of the 3 lights and raised the remaining 2 a bit... Humidity has been at 60% and I lowered the nute concentration a bit for a few days and things got worse... The roots are still growing like crazy, but the plants above the water look awful and were starting to yellow and the stems and veins are turning purple... So two days ago I decided to bump up the nutes... I bumped them up to 350 ppm and things haven't changed much but they didn't get worse...

When I get done working today and make it back to the girls I am going to check on them and see whats up... If they haven't got any worse then I am going to add more nutes again and go up to somewhere around 500 ppm and see if that fixes them... I am also going to give them a dose of Cal-Mag... I really think they are deficient and just need more food...
I figure that worst case I have 6 backup Super Lemon Haze clones that are in my aero cloner right now so if I kill these ones I can put new ones in and I will have only lost 2 weeks...

What I don't understand is why a RDWC system only uses around half of the nutrients as any other hydro system... It is not that much different than a DWC or an NFT or Aero setup really so how could it only use half the nutes? Is this more of just a guideline to start from or what?

Thanks,
MonsterRobot

 

[GeneticFreak]

Well, I killed one of the 3 lights and raised the remaining 2 a bit... Humidity has been at 60% and I lowered the nute concentration a bit for a few days and things got worse... The roots are still growing like crazy, but the plants above the water look awful and were starting to yellow and the stems and veins are turning purple... So two days ago I decided to bump up the nutes... I bumped them up to 350 ppm and things haven't changed much but they didn't get worse...

When I get done working today and make it back to the girls I am going to check on them and see whats up... If they haven't got any worse then I am going to add more nutes again and go up to somewhere around 500 ppm and see if that fixes them... I am also going to give them a dose of Cal-Mag... I really think they are deficient and just need more food...
I figure that worst case I have 6 backup Super Lemon Haze clones that are in my aero cloner right now so if I kill these ones I can put new ones in and I will have only lost 2 weeks...

What I don't understand is why a RDWC system only uses around half of the nutrients as any other hydro system... It is not that much different than a DWC or an NFT or Aero setup really so how could it only use half the nutes? Is this more of just a guideline to start from or what?

Thanks,
MonsterRobot

Yeah I'm not sure how accurate that is about using half nutes. I tried it and I swear they were under so musc stress because of deficiencies it was ridiculous. My plants were on the brink of death and when I upped the nutes it was like a new breath of life. I also am finding that higher ph is helping. 6.0 to 6.2 has greened em up a bit. I still haven't seen explosive growth but I have learned a lot about this system. Keep trying to make small adjustments man and hope for the best. Goodluck!

 

[GeneticFreak]

Oh yeah and I'm using about 3.5 ml/gal calmg, 6.5 a&b House/Garden with 1ml/gal zone and 1ml/gal h2o2.

 

[St3ve]

Maybe not wuite HALF, but definately less.

I used to flower in the 1300-1400ppm (.7) range in rockwool, and now if I get over 900 I see tip burn.

 

[MonsterRobot]

Cool, I was running these particular plants in ebb and gro and had them up to like 1700 ppm in flower... They are heavy feeders so hopefully the nutes are all they need and I can get this show on the road...

I guess I just need to stick with what I feel they need since that worked in the past... I was just worried because everyone says "back off the nutes and see what happens"...

Thanks for the help guys, will keep you updated

 

[farmseeker]

I dont post much and have 4 runs now in my undercurrent system... I read, did the half nute thing, RO water, Cal mag.... my plants always looked like anemic shit.... So I tried something... regular water, a little cal mag, increased the nutes over a period of time.... My plants look awsome... I a running DM Gold series with zone and my PPM's when I flipped was 1400 and they are at that right now and look great.. the strain is Chemdog D.....

 

[Shady]

Interested to see some Picts of a UC running @ 1400 PPM'S... The CO2 must be running up there as well... :wondering

Hope you get those girls turned around MonsterRobot... :nod

 

[MonsterRobot]

Things are looking way better! still not back to 100% but I have been bumping the nutes up by about 100-150 ppm every two days and they are really showing signs of recovery... I am only at 580 right now and will probably stay there for a few days and go from there...

I was doing a res change today because things looked kind of mirky and I noticed some filmy buildup on the uniseals and some of the airstones... You guys ever get this? I added more zone and cleaned it off... The roots look fine tho...

 

[farmseeker]

Here is a pic... 1400 ppm and green

 

[Shady]

Right on farmseeker! Those girls look perfect indeed... Do you notice a drop or rise in your PPM's between topoff's? I might try to push my plants a little harder next time instead of letting them cruise along... :thinking







P.S. I hope you post a journal cuz the more UC experience that can be shown and shared, the more we all benefit... :nerd

 

[farmseeker]

Hey Shady...I have found that 1400 ppm is perfect for me... No rise or drop in PPMs and the PH is stable.... I went to 1450 and found my PPMs began to rise, so the girls were drinking more than they were eating... so I dropped it down and it stays constant....

 

[woodsmaneh]

Hummmmm

I think PPM's are somewhat dependent on the strain your growing, I tried pushing my plants to 900 and they started to curl up and get crunchy and burn. I run them at 650ppm @ Ph 5.8 and they stay there for days and days. I drop it in week 9.

Now IMHO a little tip burn is not a bad thing as it tells you you are maxing the plants out. With the UC you just dial it back by 50ppm and the tip burn goes away, now it's dialed in.


Humidity was the cause of my first 3 screw ups, so I bought 2 of these and added an auto fill and hooked them up to a 45 gal res of RO. Ro makes the filters last longer.



One kept the RH at 35 to 48, when I added the other it's at 60+ all the time now.

 

[MonsterRobot]

Hummmmm

I think PPM's are somewhat dependent on the strain your growing, I tried pushing my plants to 900 and they started to curl up and get crunchy and burn. I run them at 650ppm @ Ph 5.8 and they stay there for days and days. I drop it in week 9.

Now IMHO a little tip burn is not a bad thing as it tells you you are maxing the plants out. With the UC you just dial it back by 50ppm and the tip burn goes away, now it's dialed in.


Humidity was the cause of my first 3 screw ups, so I bought 2 of these and added an auto fill and hooked them up to a 45 gal res of RO. Ro makes the filters last longer.



One kept the RH at 35 to 48, when I added the other it's at 60+ all the time now.

View attachment 188972

View attachment 188973

That float valve is an awesome idea! I was trying to figure out a way to make the tank bigger on my humidifier... Should have thought of a float valve seeing as everything else in the garden uses one...

 

[GeneticFreak]

Farmer, are you using co2? If so are your air pumps in the room and how high are your ppm?