IMHO, its no contest....UC all the way!
but I must be honest.....The MPB seems like a very wasteful over complicated design.
until you actually try and run a recirc dwc grow with vertical lighting. then you appreciate things like top feed, quick discos for cleaning and the placement of inputs and drains.
bro, love him or nitpick him, dds laid out a step-by-step how-to for growers wishing to maximize yield with a limit on plant numbers and who want to build it themselves.
DDS's design alludes to heath robinsons design. do some research on that poster online and see what true innovation is.
under current makes complete sense if peeps just want to buy it, assemble it and get growing. I built out an mpb system but cut the rwdc at the last minute and went top fed 100% perlite DTW as i realized i needed to get a few tree grows down with a bit more safety and can't risk rookie screwups. I would modify the spacing to suit my needs on UC.
ultimately I would drop the coin and work with jalisco kid if a) i felt I could handle RWDC and b) he would work with me.
i am very comfortable with perlite and if I was going to recirculate I'd emulate Janus. MrDizzle made a very GOOD case against RWDC over time. It's sweet for experiments and/or a small portion of one's activities... but for me I'm under a gov't restriction (40) and those (40) gotta produce!!! I'm under a time frame too b/c we maybe have a year or two max here before tha program changes.
what made really reconsider RDWC (and I have the passion, budget and ability to live with the plants if need be) was that as time passes (4 or 6 crops down the road) the chances for catastrophic loss increases. Is it because things wear out? environment shifts? pathogens build up in the system that are hard to totally eliminate at cleanup?? (thank you MrDizzle for the wake-up call!!)
MrDizzle has been instrumental. Jalisco's writings (all the way back to the discussions with Reeferman re: Krusty buckets) have been another guiding light.
A clincher was Coxie. That guys room with the custom fab stands was insane. It's hard to spend more money than he did and obviously the grow lacked nothing in terms of environmental control, solution temp control and ability to clean the whole unit. Despite an unlimited budget and the willingness to spend as much time as necessary, he switched to media and away from RDWC!!!! if that guy makes a decision like that.... what chance do I stand??
If I were at work with my fellow team of engineer's and we were presented the design of the MPB to scope as we do with so any different projects....I could see us scrapping about half the parts and ending up with a redifined efficient design that would prolly end up looking alot like the UC design I imagine.......efficiency...just cant get past that part and how IMHO the MPB design lacks it......and the UC system is superior at it.
hopefully, in your theoretical scenario, your crew of engineers would figure out how a tree grows in water, how to get it to yield and how not to kill it and then actually setup and grow from start to finish at least a crop or two. Think of starting a small plant or rooted cutting in the system. Don't forget how important res changes, flushing and cleanup are.
then taking your experience into consideration, start trying to simplify the MPB setup. seriously what would be, say, the top 5 things you do away with to simplify it?
PS- I would also love to see one of these elusives JK systems but have given up after seeing so many folks denied when asked....I wonder how a person who wants to buy one gets one???....seems damn near as bad as trying to get a med card...ROFL.....as a builder/designer/engineer for the past 28 plus years of RDWC designs I cant help but be curious....pretty sure all the trade secrets are either already known by now or are in no fear of being stolen...rofl..some peoples kids...lol...how much harm could some pics do anyhow......I dont get the secrecy but then again I dont get alot things....hehe
what RDWC systems were you designing in 1983?
if you want to see a jalisco kid system, figure out your space and wattage parameters then begin the process. It costs more than rubbermaid (or similar) tubs hooked together with pvc from home depot. you can do so many things cheaper. Hell, buy an under current and rip it. they are awesome for what they are: a competitively priced system with adequate consideration given to most/all aspects of RDWC **PLUS** awesome customer support!! on the other hand if you have the license and budget, or balls and budget, to run huge trees with huge wattage and you don't want to DIY... who else is there but Jalisco Kid???? who do you call??
why do people who will never actually grow on a large-scale using RDWC always want to see pics of JK's work??? the real value is not as much the equipment (although big tough tanks CLEARLY ROCK) but the fact you don't have to build it yourself, it's customized for your space AND you are going to get some serious guidance as you run it.
it's kind of disheartening to see someone critical of DDs system. by extension that is a knock on Heath Robinson. Knocking Heath is a great way to demonstrate that the commentator has no clue what they are talking about. His vertical innovations, along with DDoc (coliseum and cage inventor) are beyond reproach. (see my photo album for my vertical work).
Do I think it's possible to hit 3 or 4 lbs on 40" centers? Of course not!! is the system valid? Fuck yeah!! Is an MPB better than UC? the answer is always: it depends!!! I like how they (CC) are trying to continually improve their system! I also REALLY like the flexibility of MPB's but ya have to want to get really involved in the build process.
the following pics (and my album) show a little bit of some of the things I've done to date. I'm not trying to jack this thread as these pics have nothing to do with UC or MPB grows but pics have a way of validating the author of a post to some extent.
prep for my first tree run:
(40) cuttings vegging up pre-transplant
looking ok before putting them in to harden off under HID:
Transplant! (1 gallon hempy's to get roots out into the 100% perlite. later it'll be into the big containers)