DIY - Over, Under, Sideways, Down...Sky High builds an Under Current knockoff

[sky high]

I finished the trim last night. 5 days and about 50 hours of micro-trimmin'. Haaarrrrump!

A trimmer woulda made the job a snap, but then everything woulda looked like fuckin' BROCOLLI! All that time and effort deserves a hand job. At least that's what I keep telling the wife! LOL.

I'm prepping for the next round, and I believe A CHILLER is in my future. I'll only use it a few months out of the year.... and I could probably get by without it....but I'm right @ the critical point where things happen and to be safe....it's probably a worthy addition. Going into a VEG period @ this time of the year will certainly heat things up. If I were heading into 12/12 I could probably get by/deal with it.... but again...it's probably better to be safe than sorry.

I'm also planning on removing one of the AP-100's and see if there's enough airflow via a single pump.

gotta clean things up and then we should be back in action in a coupla days....

smoke report to follow...but I can already tell ya it's a 9. LOL

s h

 

[winta]

wow sky thats alot of hours! i second the hand job lol great work bro!

 

[starzandskarz]

SH you just turned a dirt guy into a hydro guy...putting my parts list together after reading through this entire thread :) what kind of weight did you pull out of that grow? Also i was curious if you were able to reuse those flex air disks or were the roots grown into them? Thanks lots for the inspiration and keep up the good work!

 

[fido]

a wonderfully informative thread
fido

 

[sky high]

'sup, folks?

Thanks for all of the comments throughout this thread. Much appreciated.

First things first.

The yield: just over 3 pounds of TOP NOTCH nug. No crap.

FWIW.... I trimmed VERY heavily on this go. I'm sure some folks would have saved some of the stuff I clipped off into the hash bags so the above weight could have been more (if I were selling it all it would got clipped up. LOL) . I didn't weigh the trim....but I have 8 "basketball" sized frozen lumps of trim in the deep freeze and have already ran 4 through the bubblebags. On top of that there's about 30z of dried trim for an oil project.

Not as good as I'd hoped for....but I will say that what I ended up with is simply >>>outstanding ganja<<<. Glistening. Stiicky. Dank. I don't think Blueberry is known for being a huge cash cropper/yielder...so that may have also played into the overall take. Dunno. What I do know is that sometimes less is more. Make sense? Quality over quantity! This one is up there in taste and high, folks!

I think my pH problem may have also set me back quite a bit on yield. Right when they shoulda been jamming they got hit... and IMO, once you interrupt the natural cycle of the plant you can never full recover to the "norm".

I also think the dual air pumps was too much. I found "roping"in the rootmass...and inside of that I found a bit of gunk/slime/etc. you know the shit. Surprised me because I didn't see any indications (smell) like I have before when I found it. The rootmass was also smaller than I expected. No roots in the tubes. Buckets about 1/2 full of root.

To combat any funk from here on out I'll be adding H2o2 to the mix as well as some DM "Zone" (found 1/2 price so I snagged it). Any advice appreciated. I'm wingin it with these new products and don't want to create a new problem(s) along the way.

I am also starting a formal nutrient feeding schedule using Nutri-Plus nutes. www.nutri-plus.ca This is something I've not done previously to any formal extent and in picking/choossing my own nutes, I think I may have caused/added to my pH swing/problem. We shall see. Either way my local shop is giving me a fairly good deal on the line so I'm gonna give it a try this go around.

the other thing I will certainly do this go around is to add in some enzymes/drip clean/etc. when I broke this all down and cleaned it I found scale in the pvc..... and worse.... a backup/backlog of gunk right around the "t" in the pvc where the pump pulls the return flow via the pump. Gotta be a loss of velocity and shit drops out there.... but either way... it was there. This is an area i'm gonna rethink and make some mods to on the next run. This run I'm going to concentrate on running a cleaner system than last time. (I added a few organics at one point and then realized it was stupid...but probably gunked it up then) Product advice appreciated here yet again....

Either way...live and learn.

Alterations for this run:

More cleaning up/trimming up front to encourage bud growth
Run a nutrient program start to finish
H2o2/enzyme addition
avoid pH swing (hopefully!)

I hope my mistakes help others to avoid doing the same. It sometimes hurts to be honest and reveal yer fuck ups...but i've read so many "perfect' grow reports and have had VERY FEW myself....LOL....I figured I'd bleed this thing out right in the parking lot on this go around...for betta or worse in hope that we could all learn a bit along the way.
(fuckin rookies!)

My plan is gto give this system another go in it's present form and then implement a few ideas I've had and see if I can improve on the design...at least for my own needs.

6 more girls are hankerin for a place to play....so off I go to answer their every beck and call.....

:sun shine on, all!

s h

 

[MediMary]

Great run sky high, those nugs look TOP SHELF!
do you think you could have a larger return to the pump, instead of the 3/4 inch tubing you used(stock on the UC)?

what modifications are you looking at doing?

 

[aSilvrHaze]

so would you say that having the air discs in each bucket was still a good idea, and there was just too much air from the two pumps?

 

[sky high]

Yeah MediMary....I personally think a pump with a 1 1/2 intake/discharge hoooked into this 2" pvc would take this to another level. Not sure I'm gonna go for it this time out but down the road it will be a consideration, for sure. It's definitely something I would want to spend a bit of time finding the >right< pump to do the job.

Yo aSilverHaze. I think the 9" pond air diffusers are definitely the way to go and yes...2 pumps was too much. With just the one AP-100 hooked up @ present I'm getting a very nice bubbling action going on without the rolling boil I had previously. Time will tell what difference it makes but I think it should be a bit more root-friendly in there this go around.

s h

 

[Integra21]

Love the setup bro. Impressive run. Can anyone tell me the difference between the Undercurrent Systems and regular old RDWC. Looking at the setup it just looks like a regular recirculating deep water culture setup.

 

[sky high]

Those are nice, Garden. If they put out the bubbles like these discs do I can see them being a better choice because when you sit the disc on top of the pvc piping runnig underneath you create a gap where there's a lack of bubbles/etc below the disc. With the diffusers you are looking at you could very well minimize this gap, either by raising your pvc slightly and installing it underneath or by sizing the ring to sit in the middle of everything.

If I can get some better root development on this run I'll be able to see if the disc keeps the roots from entering the tubing as easily. this is my guess anyway.

I'm goin with what I have for now/til they wear out. LOL.
I'll be interested to see what you think though. Thanks for adding the link in the thread so folks have choices in products to use. ANYTHING is better than those blue aquarium stones. LOL.

We ain't raisin guppies here :character0053: :pimp:

fillin 'er up right now here. Plants will go in very soon for round #2!

s h

 

[Himself1205]

Amazing!

I just read about your UC grow journal and I must say...absolutely amazing man. The 3lb you yield, was that wet/dry?

Would you mind if I asked you a couple questions about the setup (I'm going to try and design a hybrid system that combines UC in about 1/3 of the buckets/containers and aero sprayers in the top portion to get the safety of DWC and speed of Aero and the recirculation for steady pH/nute mixes).

What were the dimensions of your grow area (If you measured the area the plants took up at the end there how much room would I need to match that). My ideal grow is about 4 of those setups in my basement but after looking at your journal I don't think I could do that especially with how damn large your trees went!

Props on the grow man!:bong2:

 

[sky high]

Dry. That number should easily be eclipsed by most folks. I fukked up more than once on this first go around as you read if you followed along well.

My 10' x 9' growing space was too crowded, IMO. I simply vegged too long for the size of my room. After experiencing the last grow I plan to train for height if possible, and if that fails I will simply flip them sooner this go around.

I would recommend going with a 12' x 12' space for each 6 bucket system, if possible. Use all 1K's. This would give you some room to walk around the plants without a machete' in hand!

good luck with yer build

s h

 

[Himself1205]

Thanks

Thanks man I can't wait to try it out! Any particular reason you went with the vertical lights as opposed to putting them in reflectors on light movers though?

I've noticed this trend lately with people just hanging the bulbs vertically with multiple bulbs as opposed to just 1 or 2 light systems on movers and wondering reasoning

 

[sky high]

The vertical lamps bask the sides of the plants rather than just the top of the plant like a top lit reflector set up does. This minimizes the popcorn bud down below. The reason is yield.

Light movers spread the light out wayyyy to much for this type (or any type) of pot growin, IMO. If you try to do 6 buckets this size with say...2K on light movers rather than 6K of stationary 1 ks your yield will (obviously) suffer immensely. IMO, the best thing you can do with light movers is to skip the purchase and put the $225 each mover will cost you into more lights. Ditto with buying a $200 reflector for each set up. Save the cash...buy more light!!

good luck on the design/etc.

s h

 

[Integra21]

If power is a big concern, you can always scrog to increase yields.I rin a flat scrog with 1200W and a 3'x8' screen and pull 2 pounds without having the system completely dialed in.

 

[Himself1205]

That's exactly what I was thinking to do instead of running all those 1000W...so much energy consumed :( How many buckets did you use and what spacing/grow area did you have if you don't mind me asking?

Were you using CO2 enriched?

 

[sky high]

He has a thread he linked to. Looks like a nice gig.

This isn't the place to ask him obvious questions about >his< grow.

s h

 

[budbrothers]

very informative thanks for your time and efforts posting regularly. this will help me alot as well as tons of others im sure.

 

[lilredwagon]

I also just want to say thanks to you, Jack, and the others who have taken the time to build such complete and informative threads on these UC systems- you guys rock, and the information has been invaluable!

 

[Socachi]

85 days of love. 25 or so of those in flush mode.

They are really comin in now. Clear, cloudy, amber, red and purp....

Get yer ukelele out :character0111:and yer Tiny tim wig and sing along with me!

"come tiptoe
through the trichomes
in the HID light
and get all goo-ooo-ey

Come tiptoe
through the trichomes
with me"

Great grow, wonderful shots and gotta love the song.
Your DIY grow is very impressive Sky. I'm lookin to go UC on my next run and takin in all the info I can find. Thanks... Socachi