First Time 4XXL Under Current Grow - Banana OG

[skankymonkey23]

Hello Farmers,
I have decided to log my first hydroponic grow here on THCfarmer. I have been doing soil for almost a year now and after looking at Texas Kids Under Current grow I decided to try it out myself.

Equipment:
2 Quantum Digital Ballasts
2 Silver Star Hoods
2 600 W HPS Bulbs
Possible 4 ft. dual T5 Bulbs
Carbon Filter
CO2 + Regulator
1/10 Chiller
6" inline OUT fan
Small AC (Not sure power or anything about it)
55 G Res
RO Filter

System:
4XXL (36" Centers hopefully

Ladies:
Banana OG from PNC in Long Beach

Nutrients:
I will determine my schedule out when I get the system

Here are some pictures of my room almost set up. I will be taking pictures with my crappy camera and my friends really nice camera throughout the grow. Let me know what you guys think/ suggest.

Last picture is from my last grow of Larry OG

 

[squarepusher]

awesome bro, welcome to hydro. Think you gunna like the UC system

 

[Green Escape]

hey good to see someone esle rockin the system. you're gonna have fun with it. gl

 

[CAPO]

This looks like fun....grabbin seat!

The banana OG is a perty flower....do you retain any banana smell afta cure?

 

[mcpuffin]

wheres the uc? are you building or buying?

 

[Texas Kid]

Nice!!! glad i could inspire you to knock one out of the park...

Passion baby!!!

Tex

 

[moejammin]

Your jumpin right in with the big boys, commendable!

 

[skankymonkey23]

Unfortunately I don't know enough about banana OG. I'm living in Southern Cali so there are a lot of fakes and mis-labeled strains. I had some banana down at club meds in OC and it was just perfect. by far my favorite high. not too powerful but left you feeling like you were chillin on the beach in hawaii. real tropical feel AND smell. Then I had two more samples in LA and they were more OGish. Still really good, but not the same as before. We will see which one I end up with.

As far as the system. I'm buying that shit. If I tried to make this thing there would be leaks and floods daily, something I don't have the time or patience for.

I'm almost ready to get the system, still scrapin money together and waiting for it to arrive at the hydro store. Should be up and running by next week!

 

[skankymonkey23]

Banana up and running

Hello farmers. The wait is finally over (I was probably the only one waiting). I got the system last week but it didn't have the return hole and seal and I also got a manifold that was too big for my space. Every thing arrived on wednesday and I finally finished building the room friday. I just put my banana's in hours ago and I'm really pumped. Here are some pictures (tried to do a panoramic thing on photoshop cause my room is too small and camera is too weak). Hope you like it!

 

[CAPO]

off to the races......:)

 

[Rob1]

i am real interested if it smells like banana after cure? subscribed!

 

[UCMENOW]

Bananas fo your grow

Looking real sweet.


IMO..you'd be wise to externalize your chiller if at all possible.

Those little gems kick off lots of radiant heat.

 

[skankymonkey23]

yeah I'm in a shed so everything has to be inside, otherwise its out on the grass. I have some more questions for you UCMENOW and I didn't want to jack TK's thread. What do you or others suggests for a good ppm range in this system. I try to keep my additive ppm below 400 and then raise it up from 1200 - 1600 during flowering. what are your thoughts?
as for the res water. I would love to put a nice nute solution in my res so I could top off the system whenever needed, but that is the same res that I will be changing out the system with. Is it ok to have a "nuted" base and then add in my additives? I hope I'm clear about what is going on, let me know if you have any questions. Thank you so much for your input!

 

[UCMENOW]

SM23....I can give you my input but you'd be better off calling and asking Daniel @ CC.

He's got some good insight and could suggest a variety of strategies that will work well for you.

I'm sure what you are doing now should work great though, keep up the good work! We're all looking forward to seeing you rock your 4 site.

 

[billybadazz]

I second the motion of moving the chiller externally or at the very least figuring a way to exhaust the hot ass air that comes from it.

 

[skankymonkey23]

Little update. Its been a week since I put the ladies in. I kept my 600W's HPS at 50% and just kicked it up to 75% yesterday. my PH has been riding 6.0 - 6.15 but I think i finally got it at 5.8 for the time being. My temp has been fluctuating between 50 - 80 degrees. My humidity between 30 - 70. I haven't started pumping CO2 in the room until i get a better timer for the air. Im going to change res either Saturday or Sunday and induce flowering with 36 hours of darkeness... any ideas on the technique?

I know every one is a fan of root porn so I decided to give you a sneak peak. These girls barely had any roots shooting out 6 days ago. They are doing pretty well now.

 

[skankymonkey23]

Anyone have any suggestions for changing out the solution every week? The drain isn't low enough to get everything so I'm still going to have some left over. When I start to flower I'm going to be using big bud and overdrive and can't use them at the same time so I'm a bit worried about that. Any suggestions?

 

[Malachi]

Get a siphon from NAPA they are only like 10 bucks

 

[UCMENOW]

chubby roots lookin sexy

Looking good SM,

You should be able to just drain down to minimum capacity then add back pure water and continue to drain until you dilute what's left in the system to a very low ppm.

In regards to weekly change out you might consider a well balanced top off plumbed directly to your float valve...this will help create an equalibrium via top off vs. reinventing the nutes weekly....IMO.

If you've got nutrient compatability issues than you might consider nute combos that work well together.....water culture can be a little bitchy sometimes. :)

BTW those roots look beeeuuuutiful....

I like Big Roots and I cannot Lie, you other brothers can't deny:music

 

[mrdizzle]

I stopped changing my res weekly and the results are great. I stopped after reading a article about benies that start forming naturally in maxyeild