Undercurrent DWC Grow Journal

[farmer.ed]

Hi everyone, sorry for no updates, I had another procedure on my back and have not been doing much other than dealing with mites. I have picked up some predator mites from Biotactics, 3000 mites for $75. They seem to be doing the work for me. I found the carrier, it was a strawberry plant from home depot, they spread like locusts throughout my room. Anyway, fogzilla does the job applying some Bud Nurse every 3 days and the predators are eating the rest. I will get some videos of it with my budscope. I do have some sad looking photos to share, they look like a battle field with the predators running around and their deliver dust attached to the webs. Anyway they seem to be very healthy otherwise, I don't want them stressed this early into flower.

Hey medicine, as far as the start up of the new system, I would use hot water to run through the system with 10% bleach, run for a day, drain. Add new water and your starting tea from Heisenberg at warm temps (75+ is best) .Canna is great, you should not need much aqua vega / flores to keep the system running with prime uptake. Once you start as an organic biosystem, you find better ways for feeding the bennies, they in turn feed the plants. I would not want to spend the Canna type cash to feed my microbes. I would look more towards staying totally organic with compost teas and microbial feeds (Heavy 16 is launching a new product it is called Prime, a complete microbial feed that does not attract fungus gnats , look for it available soon if you can't find it PM me for details on how to order direct)

If you want to run Canna, I would recommend only running the complete Canna system and not mix microbial colonies and types, they will work against you. Their system is a complete package that does not require any other additions (H&G Roots Ex, bud candy etc). I have run the whole line up in a journal on weedgrower.com before the forums were taken down. I was using a more primitive RDWC running 1" pipe between 5 gal buckets from HD. I followed the formula to a T and had overwhelming results. I was encouraged by this grow to go back to my dutch growing roots and ditch the chems. Now with shooting powder you have some issues to deal with nutrient wise with the microbes, you will have to increase temps for the first few days of use to increase the stability of the colonies with the shooting powder floating around in its biosphere. If not adapted correctly your plants will finish pretty light and your 2nd growth spurt will be wispy as well. I would run it in a controlled second bucket till you dial in the powder/nutrient mixture.

Hi Silent Bob, sorry for the delay, no I have not tried them (yet) I will pick some up and see how they work. I am always in favor of strips over sprays. I also like liquid ladybug, that stuff is awesome, works great for being in full bloom stages. I was looking for an excuse to build the fogzilla so this seemed to fit the bill with Bud Nurse. I will let you know how the strips work, I have some smaller areas which I keep <20% humidity so I cannot fog or spray. So far they are clean, but prevention is in mind here.

 

[medicine21]

Sorry to hear about your back. Hope you're all patched up now. Yeah, mites are a bitch. I got rid of mine with Azamax 3 time application every 3 days.

Thanks for the info and advice! Sounds like if I want to keep it simple to start in UC, your recommendation is to stick with the full Canna line, rather than start brewing teas. I looked at their full feed chart for Light Feeding, and the full line includes Vega/Flora, Rhizotonic, Cannazym, Canna Boost and a one week PK 13/14 boost in week 3-4.

I would guess some of this stuff would still give me some beneficials, although Canna's official statement is that there are no living organisms in their products.

BTW, what's your opinion on Mykos Drops?

 

[NEPharmer]

From what I've read, it seems like the bennies can't really survive in the non organic salt based nutes, am I correct in this?

 

[farmer.ed]

Hi Medicine, if this is your first UC grow I would suggest sticking to a simple regime set out by Canna or Heavy 16. I prefer Heavy 16 since I know that I can still add to the formula and not have to worry about the formula breaking down. I worry about that with Canna since it is created to blend best with it's own other products. I tend not to mix Canna with other additives since it does such a great job on it's own.

Biobizz is certainly the best in organics I have run in the RDWC (dirt and Coco also), their whole product line rocks and my water seems to stay much cleaner all the way through, less root staining as well.

I have done extensive testing with Heavy 16 since they are local to me here in SoCal. I use their AB as a base, I run 2ml per gal of A and B, I add it to my spare res and mix in some beneficials and let them munch on it before adding to my system, I sort of brew it for a few hours. I also add my organics, sea kelp, chitosan, moss extracts and microbial feed etc. I mix up 20 gallons at a time and add 4 gal to my system over a period of a week, it is my make up water.

If you want to be able to play around and optimize your feedings, you may want to start with the heavy 16 or BioBizz, if you want to assured a great grow and stick to a basic schedule then Canna is for you. You do have the ability to change your mind anytime you like, just make sure to really clean the system before changing over to new nutes.

I have run Heavy 16 on this grow to start, then added organics to stabilize, then drained half the water, filtered the rest with 100mesh and changed it over to DutchPro without any hiccups. So I am running DutchPro with beneficials and enjoying the best of both worlds. Mykos Drops, they are great, I just sent NEPharmer a Xtreme Gardening tea sampler, I like them very much. I just started using their line up a few months ago for a small controlled test and all their products performed beyond expected.

Hey Pharmer, certain strains will not make it through the salt based nutes, others will thrive. In Socal Biochar bugs (liquid) there are minerals from the dead sea, very high salinity and in the new formula, they have added Hawaiian Deep Sea minerals which is not desalinated either.

Certain strains will thrive in this environment as will the ones in my saltwater pool, I have colonies that survive chlorine pool shock and a 60 gal per hr ozone generator.

It is really hard to say in my own opinion what they can withstand and still be beneficial. I have had great success with maintaining the colonies within the biochar, this seems to add a protective area which colonies could most likely survive any sort of chemicals added.

As long as there is some sort of organic materials in the system, the beneficials will survive and breed. They can also turn against you at any point through chemical mutation and create some sort of swamp beast that lives on your roots, I have not had this happen but anything is possible with the chemical hormones in nutes.

 

[NEPharmer]

Hmmm, just when I thought I was getting a decent handle on this stuff I check out where your at and realize I've got SO much more to learn. I just picked up a book called Teaming with michrobes, is there any other books that you would recomend for me to get a better handle on this type of growing? Its all VERY interesting to me, but I'm still really new to organics, and am allways looking to step up my game. Thanks bro! I apprieciate all your help, and I think your knowledge can really benefit all the members of this site! Were lucky to have you here!

 

[medicine21]

If I go with the full Canna line and no bennies/sterilizers, do I risk slime/bad bacteria? I have never done DWC, but I see most issues related to this...

Almost time for a pic update?

 

[QuadZilla]

Just sat down and read through your grow, very nice. I'm about to start a similar style grow using 16 5gal buckets connected by a res in the middle, forming a figure 8. I'm gonna run 1'' tubing with 1 pump at the end of each loop feeding back into the res. The reason being that I'm going vertical with octagonal screens and 1000w cool tubes, so I cant accommodate the standard undercurrent method. I'm also going to have 2 plants per bucket. With all this, what time frame would you veg to achieve 3.5'ft plants at harvest, assuming a pure Indica?

 

[NEPharmer]

Whats up Ed, hope your all good bro!

 

[Bruce Wheelman]

Is this grow still alive?

If so, please update us with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read the photo gallery tutorial:
Photo Gallery Guide - How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

I am moving this to abandoned journals until we get updates.

Thanks and hope all is well in your world!

Love and respect from all of us here at 420 Magazine!

 

[Mark30g]

Thats awesome m8 fairplay LOve it , I'm waiting on an oxy pot dwc so this thread should be useful lol, besides i'm speechless fockin AWEOMSE PIC's. loking forward to reading more

 

[Mark30g]

Just sat down and read through your grow, very nice. I'm about to start a similar style grow using 16 5gal buckets connected by a res in the middle, forming a figure 8. I'm gonna run 1'' tubing with 1 pump at the end of each loop feeding back into the res. The reason being that I'm going vertical with octagonal screens and 1000w cool tubes, so I cant accommodate the standard undercurrent method. I'm also going to have 2 plants per bucket. With all this, what time frame would you veg to achieve 3.5'ft plants at harvest, assuming a pure Indica?

Just out of experience personally growing 2Mj's in 1 pot regardless of how big the pot is the 1 will always be bigger and lol healthier than the other this stunting the growth making it awkward to flush the plants when the other is not ready besides that need the space to bush out properly not all crapped up like my current grow

 

[letsgrw]

Uniseal install method

Just a quick note. If you put your uniseals in simmering hot water and then take one out at a time, put in bucket, just a little soap, and slide the pipe in. You will have about 3 minutes working time which is plenty.
The pipe will just fall/slide in and there will be no damage to the seal or bucket. UC was suppose to include this in there instruction but it seems they haven't got to it. When you want to remove the pipe just warm the seal with a hair blow drier and a bit of soap an it will slide right out.
Try it you will be happy
Letsgrw

 

[hippyladie]

How did you make that water chiller, if you dont mind me asking?

 

[gangadoctor]

i'm loving this journal. it's right up my street. i too use dutch pro nutes and have just embarked on a compost tea journey too after getting root rot so i'm all ears and ready to learn. keep up the good work and don't stop teaching us!

out of interest, what temp are you running your water at with the tea as i understand it needs to run hotter to activate the microbes?

 

[Jimmy420YYC]

The negative flow aspect is what makes the system unique. The res drains the water into the bottom pipes connected to the first buckets on each side, the following buckets are connected via uniseal bulkhead, once the water has passed through all grow ares, it is returned to the res through the 3/4 pipe which separates the rows of buckets. The 3/4 line is attached to the 1200 gph pump which acts as a giant straw, drawing the water from the res, through the buckets, then returning the water back to the res from the pump as shown in the photos above. The only positive pressure in the system is once the water is forced from the pump back into the res. The water draining from the res is a negative flow as it is being drawn by the pump via 3/4" straw. I hope that answers any questions on the system flow.

What type of fitting are you using from the last set of buckets 2" to you 3/4" return line?

 

[Greenraiza]

I see a lot of people are still a bit confused between DWC and recirculating DWC. I will set up and run a negative pressure recirculating deep water culture system NOT standard bucket type DWC. I hope to provide a bit of info to show how easy it is to run one of these systems and to obtain optimum yields.

The system - 8 x 8 gallon EZ-Stor containers with lids, piped together with 2" schedule 40 PVC and bulk headed together with UNISEAL's. The main reservoir is a 13 gallon EZ Stor container with same footprint as the 8 gallon units. The pump is a magdrive 1200 gph, the air pump is an econo 22 lpm, will be replacing with an Alita AL80 when it arrives from backorder.

Grow Medium - Rapid Rooter (starter plug) Hygromite (Silica Rock) Biochar (Active Charcoal)

Nutrients - Clonex Rooting gel (for cutting), Rhizotinic (for first week of cuttings), pre-veg Heavy 16 veg A & B 2ml per gallon, full veg -Heavy 16 veg A&B 4ml per gallon, Flower Heavy 16 Bud A&B

Strains - Sour Diesel - Dr. Grinspoon

Other equipment - Swimming pool (chiller)


This is the system layout before it is wrestled together with lots of Dawn dish soap.

I will get back to the journal in a few days, I have some pipe to run to my pool.....

Here is a link to this system above running before delivery, you can see how much Dawn is needed to plumb the pvc. We always run the system for a few days to clean everything out of seals etc.

Our final rinse is with probiotics to coat all surface areas, this helps prevent any algae growth within the system. Further probiotics are used later on to create a large bio tank out of the entire system.


YouTube - Undercurrent recirculating dwc

Here are a few photos of the system and tents being dialed in, each tent is a 10 x 10 Secret Jardin Dark Room with a custom light rack which supports a solar revolution light spinner, a 3.5 rail light mover, 2 x 600w MH with full Extreme hoods, 2 Quantum T-5 badboys and 1 x 6" Icebox heat exchanger. The tents are also equipped with Full greenhouse controllers from CAP, nexgen digital ballasts, humidifier, fuzzy logic Co2, 1 x 6" 500 cfm fan with a 6" Icebox hanging off it to keep the tent around 78f.

I love this feed bro ..I’m currently building my own system well I’m gathering blue prints and plans from pro builds to get insperation I’ve got all my pipes buckets this that ect..I just need to get pumps and air equipment and them I’m going to start putting it all together I also have to source some bulk heads but that shouldn’t be to hard I’m gunna re read all this a few ti,es and take it in...cheers for the post