first under current grow

[Glab120]

So this is my first grow, and my first time with a under current system. So ill probably need a lot of help.lol I belive i have everything i need to be successfull, i just need some help fine tuning everything.

im running four 5 gallon lowes buckets w/ a fifth bucket being my return.

A 350 gph pump moving water around. 1 1/4 pvc plumbing.

1/10hp chiller set at 66 degrees. w/ 186 gph pump powering the chiller.

4x4 grow tent w/ 400w mh/hps.

im 3 weeks in and everythin looks good. imo

ill post some pics as soon as figure out how to.

 

[hiboy]

sometimes posting pics is as hard to do as a first run with a DIY UC
jk good luck
h

 

[SkunKLeaF]

What kind of strains are you running? What's your plant spacing?

 

[Glab120]

ok heres the setup. plants are about to feet apart w/ a couple in soil filling out the space.

im growing green crack that i got as a clone sitting in soil.

two northern lights and two g13 that i got as seeds. these are in the uc buckets

 

[ALLegal420]

If you can drop water temps below 65 degrees then do it, try 62-63 degrees. Pythium can grow in 65 degrees or higher so you'll have a better chance of keeping that from happening by dropping water temps more (we run 59 main Rez and by the time it returns it's at 61 degrees).

Just do the KISS method...be concervative on the nutrients and you should be good... Low ppm / EC and let your ph swing some if it has a tendency to do so, no need to keep it rock solid at a set point.

Good luck
-ALLegal420

 

[Glab120]

thanks for the advice i set the chiller at 62 degrees.

i set the ph at 5.8 when i do water changes and will let swing to about 6.25 before i add any PH down. is that to much?

 

[ttystikk]

thanks for the advice i set the chiller at 62 degrees.

i set the ph at 5.8 when i do water changes and will let swing to about 6.25 before i add any PH down. is that to much?

This is looking good, brother.

The style of hydroponics you're running isn't UC or 'undercurrent', it's RDWC, for Recirculating Deep Water Culture. Kinda like calling a tissue 'Kleenex'.

System looks good, plants look good.

Low EC means 1.0 to 1.6 at peak bloom, max. The biggest advantage to these systems is their growth rates with low concentrations of nutrients.

I would advise against trying to work/converse in 'PPM', because unfortunately everyone likes to do their conversions differently. EC is the basic measurement and isn't subject to manipulation...

 

[Glab120]

3 weeks in veg

the four hydro plants are in there third week of veg and the soil plant is about 2 weeks older.

all 4 hydro plants were planted at the same time, the two on the left are the northern lights(that took off) and the smaller ones to the right are G13.

any advice or is this just the difference between strains?

does it look like im ready to flip the lights in another week or so?

 

[Glab120]

so after a pretty bad first week in flower im left with only 2 plants. 3 of the seeds were males so i think ill stick to clones and seeds i can trust.
i had to remodel my setup to only hold 1 plant. hopefully next run will be better:dull i took some clones off the green crack and will put them in the veg tent in a couple of days. hers a couple of pics incase anybody is actually looking at this.

 

[ALLegal420]

Sorry to hear about the males, sticking with clones seems to be the best way for RDWC from what I've read, not saying it hasn't been done though. Also a lot of people like to run 1 strain in the system so their plant heights and nutrients are the same, makes it easier. Are you still only going to be running a 400w HPS next round? I'd be curious as to how the plants would respond by dropping the light down vertical in the center of the 4 plants with a fan blowing straight up at the light. Also, the grow diary section seems to get the most responses. Good luck next round, KISS method!

-ALLegal420

 

[Glab120]

Sorry to hear about the males, sticking with clones seems to be the best way for RDWC from what I've read, not saying it hasn't been done though. Also a lot of people like to run 1 strain in the system so their plant heights and nutrients are the same, makes it easier. Are you still only going to be running a 400w HPS next round? I'd be curious as to how the plants would respond by dropping the light down vertical in the center of the 4 plants with a fan blowing straight up at the light. Also, the grow diary section seems to get the most responses. Good luck next round, KISS method!

-ALLegal420

I dont plan on getting anything bigger than the 400w but i am considering the vertical setup. next run should be much better, all green crack females.

im not too upset with the two plants that i have left atleast ill get to see what the green crack buds look like. and look foward to the next run.

ill probably start a new post in a couple of weeks whenever the veg plats get a little bigger. ill put it in grow diary section.

 

[Glab120]

two weeks in flower. hopefully the NL will stop sterching because im out of room!! the GC is doing amazing and looks a full two weeks ahead of the NL it should be ready around 45-50 give or take a couple of days.

sry for the quality of the pics everything is frome my iphone.

 

[benzo]

nice and clean grow bro. def should give vert a go next round, haven't done it myself though but know guys that are deadset killing it with vert. awesome yields that way. Good luck with it.

 

[HydroRocks]

I would not run your water that cold as it will stress the plants and actually slow growth down.

65F to 68F is plenty cold and you do not waste the extra power it takes to run the chillers.

 

[Glab120]

I would not run your water that cold as it will stress the plants and actually slow growth down.

65F to 68F is plenty cold and you do not waste the extra power it takes to run the chillers.

thanks for your imput but with the chiller set at 63 the bucket temps will stay at 65 degrees without struggiling. I also have a 12,000BTU A/C that keeps the room cool.

ive also had root rot problems with the chiller only set at 68 degrees. not only did i get the lovely brown sludge everywere but roots were dying falling off cloging up my pumps and just making a mess.

 

[Glab120]

heres a few pics of the veg tent, im using standalone dwc buckets and a 90w ufo led. the four clones are greencrack and luckily i have some experience with her now along with a couple of other farmers that have the same cuts as me.

plants are only 6 days into veg

 

[ALLegal420]

Looking good and I just got a taste of that greencrack and it's some good stuff! I agree with ya on the water temps needing to be low to avoid root issues. I don't believe it stresses the plants, were running 60-61 degrees and they look great! Your doing a great job, keep it up!

-ALLegal420

 

[Glab120]

Looking good and I just got a taste of that greencrack and it's some good stuff! I agree with ya on the water temps needing to be low to avoid root issues. I don't believe it stresses the plants, were running 60-61 degrees and they look great! Your doing a great job, keep it up!

-ALLegal420

Thanks alot for checking in on my grow, your 5k grow looks great and has shown the rest of us what a DIY UC can really do!!!

 

[Glab120]

day 25 flower

day 25 flower pics.

 

[ALLegal420]

Thanks alot for checking in on my grow, your 5k grow looks great and has shown the rest of us what a DIY UC can really do!!!

Your grow is looking awesome! I don't think we could have done it without this board and the people on it! Just gotta spend the time to do the research if you've never done it or been around it. Keep up the good work and looking forward to the rest of the show!

-ALLegal420