UC: Light setup and reservoir question

  • Thread starter MarcoTC
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M

MarcoTC

16
3
Hello guys,

New user here but a grower for quite some time. I hope I can become a part of the family and help where I can. Up until now, I've always done Drain to Waste but I am going to try the UC system.
I've ordered one of the 16XXL13's to try it out. Space, cooling and everything else is already there.

I have 2 questions that I’m struggling with:

1:
I’m debating between either growing trees using 21 x 600W (12.6KW) bare Verticals or keep it simple and go with 8 x 1000W (8KW) horizontal Gavitas and SCROG as wide as I can.
I think the amount of maintenance for the SCROG setup is a little higher but it shouldn’t be that much different. I'm wondering if the yield with verticals is really that much higher compared to horizontals and SCROG. Is the extra Wattage for verticals justified? What's your preference?


2:
With DTW, maintaining the reservoir is easy because the plants always get what’s in the reservoir. However, with UC, I don’t understand how to keep thing balanced in the system. I can only measure the total ppm/ec but not each individual nutrient type. How do I know what nutrient type is depleted and what’s still plenty available? Without knowing that, how do you guys top off correctly?
I assume it's ideal to keep things constantly balanced out. Or do you hook up RO until the ppm's are down and then top off?

Thanks so much,
Marco
 
UCMENOW

UCMENOW

1,095
83
Welcome to the party MarcoTC.

1: I've worked with both approaches you've mentioned and can say with confidence it's six or half a dozen when it comes to what's better. Choose the method which you feel drawn to and make the most of it based on your experience. I'd say go with the method your current lighting is already set up to do so you're not incurring additional expense.


2: Plants uptake the solution as a whole, assuming you're using an appropriately chelated synthetic nutrient. As the plants uptake the solution simply top off with more of what the plants seem to be responding well to. Key will be to avoid running EC in excess of target as this will inhibit uptake and cause cascading issues to develop. Use the parameters set by the CCH2O Cultured Solutions feed schedule.

The process of uptake is simple when you keep it that way. Don't over complicate the process and your plants will thank you.
 
M

MarcoTC

16
3
Thanks for the welcome Ucmenow.

I always assumed the solution became out of balance when recirculating. The plants uptaking as a whole simplifies things quite a bit.
Learning all the time. Thanks!

As for nutrients, we always tried to keep it simple with H&G aqua flakes as the base. Before that, we used old-skool Hesi. Would you recommend switching to the Current Culture line for the Under Current?

Also, I noticed a lot of people mentioning that the standard 40" center spacing isn't wide enough when using 600W verticals.
In your experience, what do you think is the ideal spacing when also using 1KW MH overheads above every 4 buckets? I guess parabolics are needed to cover more footprint then.
 

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