DIY 1200watt Under Current with DJ Short Bluberry, Sweet Island Skunk, Sour Diesel

You'll love the PE! congrats on your current harvest I will be tuned for the next.

Disposition, how'd the harvest go? Mine just over grew the height and caused major loss.

This shows the size and height I am working with. They can't get more than 3' high with buds. I am wondering, should I top them once or not at all?

RemeberMe said:

Disposition, how'd the harvest go? Mine just over grew the height and caused major loss.

This shows the size and height I am working with. They can't get more than 3' high with buds. I am wondering, should I top them once or not at all?
View attachment 1403430View attachment 1403421

Click to expand...

I'd recommend you top, creates more of a bush vs a tall ass plant. When your height limited LST or ScrOG can work wonders, look into these techniques. Also check out supercropping and lollipoping... Strange names but I didn't make them up lol

Every bust of indoor growers I see on TV are always single, never scrog, supercropped or lollipoped. I've tried supercropping before and they almost always broke. I was going to keep them super short as well, like maybe 18". I may try topping them but that's going to add another week onto vegging.

Topping is great for creating a bush effect, but doesn't mean your plants wont grow that tall. I had topped
several times on each plant and with the exception of my indica heavy Blueberry they all still stretched to high
hell and many were over 6' tall after only vegging for a month. Harvest went well got plenty of buds for myself
and my patients for the next few months. Here are some 2 week cured bud pics of the three strains.

Blueberry:
http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/4944/imgp0448f.jpg

Sweet Island Skunk:
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/150/imgp0454g.jpg

Sour D:
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/2676/imgp0455.jpg
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/7731/imgp0456y.jpg

The blueberry put out crazy amounts of weight, but the smell isn't really there, smells
almost like my late grandmas basement for some strange reason. The
smoke is really good and a nice put you on the couch wondering WTF is going
on high.

The SIS has a great flavor/smell but grew like a retard on steroids. Very inconsistent
growth patterns and very fluffy buds. Had a ton of budsites for just one plant and even
after the ultra fluffy buds, still got quite a bit of weight for one plant. Tastes and smells
very sweet and has a nice uplifting high to it.

Sour D - Has an ultra sweet flavor and somewhat citrusy, very well developed nugs
but a bit whispier than I had hoped for. Some very nice yields for what I was expecting
and the buds smoke great. My favorite of the three.

Vertical system is in the works and should have up by this weekend, sorry for the delays at
the end but had things going on as well as harvesting what came out to be just shy of 3 lbs
with a ton of lower buds and trim for some BHO fun.

Disposition props to you for posting a great thread that has hopefully given several people great ideas for building their own DIY undercurrent.

Thanks to this thread I was able to build my own UC DIY system. I made a few updates to your system and will post pics in a new thread when I find the time but I'll share the details here. I used 4 homer buckets from Home Depot that I painted black. After covering the buckets in reflectix I realized there was no need for the black paint and wont be using black paint in the future, I also wont be using the Homer buckets. In the name of keeping costs down I used a 27 gallon tuff tote for my reservoir and 4 5 gallon buckets like Disposition used. I had hoped the 27 gallon reservoir would keep the water temps at a decent level but it didn't and before I knew it the room lighting and 700 GPH pump was heating the water up to 80 degrees; needless to say I'm now running a chiller and would not run this system without one.

I followed Dispositions lead and went with a SCROG setup under a 1000W light. The SCROG has been going 2 weeks in flower and to say I am impressed with what I am seeing would be an understatement.

I plan to build 2 more of these systems and each will be under their own 1000W light. I am going to use a bit smaller reservoir to cut down on the cost of nutrients but will still beusing a reservoir larger than the 5 galllon bucket due to the rate that these plants are consuming water. I havent measured the water consumption yet but I would estimate my plants 2 weeks into flower are drinking around 3-4 Gallons Per Day.

Size of plants definitely determines the size of the reservoir you want to use, after a month
of veg the 5g buckets were draining in no time like you mentioned. I found myself adding about
5g a day of RO water to the mix just to keep up with the rate they were drinking. If I ever re-do
the system I would probably use some square roughneck containers or simply buy the UC style buckets.
The uniseals were kinda a PITA with the rounded sides of the bucket but nothing a big of silicone
and some elbow grease couldn't fix.

Another big change I would make to my system (that i've already made) is getting real air pumps. Those
bullshit 10g aquarium pumps from walmart and petco really don't do shit. I've since upgraded to an ap-40
and some other serious air pumps and have seen quite the difference. So now I've got a box of shitty pumps
which probably added up to more cost than if I had just bought a real pump to begin with. Oh well live and
learn.

Sounds pretty cool some pictures would be awesome.

Wow, good to see you again. Those are some huge buds!

Hey disposition84,

Great setup, implementation and harvest!

The AP 40 air pump that you upgraded to, does it make a lot of noise?

Thanks, it doesn't seem nearly as bad as one of those metal commercial pumps that
my friend has but isn't exactly silent. Definitely puts out a good amount of air and
i'm looking to get an ap-100 for future upgrades.

Yeah, I hear you. I went from the small aquarium pumps to a medium sized metal commercial one but then ditched it due to the noise. Even after building a serpentine noise suppression box, it was still too loud. The 60gal whisper airs are what I use now. There's more of them but waaaay quieter!

Noticed that you've done some vertical, any plans to try the vertical with the uc?

I really like the UC system, but for now I want to move to a system where I can have a perpetual
variety of buds coming in. Harvesting every 2-3 months leaves me bored with the bud after the
first month and a half or so of the smoke and wanting some more variety. I toyed around with the
idea of using a cooler DWC vertical style with 8 plants but it still wouldn't be as manageable as
I want the system to be. My current design lets me dismantle mid grow if need be in a matter of
minutes for any kind of adjustments without effecting the plants. I feel like I have a lot more control
if something were to go wrong with my new style, and harvesting every 2/3 weeks should give me
the variety I want. No more monster 2oz nugs in the vertical I have now but I've managed to have
really great product come out after my first trial run and the clones are preparing for things to go full
swing soon.

I'm digging your vertical btw, reading thread now Just needs more pics.

disposition84 said:

I really like the UC system, but for now I want to move to a system where I can have a perpetual
variety of buds coming in. Harvesting every 2-3 months leaves me bored with the bud after the
first month and a half or so of the smoke and wanting some more variety. I toyed around with the
idea of using a cooler DWC vertical style with 8 plants but it still wouldn't be as manageable as
I want the system to be. My current design lets me dismantle mid grow if need be in a matter of
minutes for any kind of adjustments without effecting the plants. I feel like I have a lot more control
if something were to go wrong with my new style, and harvesting every 2/3 weeks should give me
the variety I want. No more monster 2oz nugs in the vertical I have now but I've managed to have
really great product come out after my first trial run and the clones are preparing for things to go full
swing soon.

I'm digging your vertical btw, reading thread now Just needs more pics.

Click to expand...

I'm using the system and running perpetual. Once I have everything completed I'll post some pics but here's how the system works.

Clones start their life a tray of rapid rooters.

After roots pop the clones are moved to flood trays where they will spend 1-2 weeks in 6" pots of hydroton under a 225 watt T5. I do this because the plants get very little vertical growth under the T5 and stack several very tight decks.

I move the 6" pots into 3 gallon buckets where they veg under a 400W mH for another 1-2 weeks

After the plants reach their desired height I move them into the DIY UC system. Currently I have 1 system in my room and I am going build the second today. I am going to have a total of 3 system in the flower room and each one will be under a 1000W HPS. This is going allow me to have 3 strains in bloom at a time and pull every 3 weeks.

That sounds bad ass, if I had more power UC is definitely what I'd be doing but without
modding my stock electrical system I simply can't afford that much power.

Sounds awesome though would love to see some pics!

disposition84 said:

That sounds bad ass, if I had more power UC is definitely what I'd be doing but without
modding my stock electrical system I simply can't afford that much power.

Sounds awesome though would love to see some pics!

Click to expand...

You're in Denver as am I. If you need some help installing a few breakers and running electric let me know and I'd be glad to help. when I first got into this I asked the local hydro shop if they had any grower friendly electricians. The hydro shop reffered one of their regulars and he royally f*cked me over. I spent $1,000 on electrical work that the guy installed in about 1 hour. It kept the house from burning down but it wasnt what I wanted and I've since learned quite a bit about electrical. Needless to say all of my ballasts are running on 220 that I wired myself, installing a brealer in the panel is much simpler than electricians would like you to know.

I appreciate the offer but the wife doesn't like the idea of getting bigger. She wants
me to work with what I have for now

great thread, your the only other person i can find using the 5 gallons to do this... im doing the same exact setup but with 1 1/2 inch unseals. btw rubbermaid roughnecks get very bulged out and arent as durable as these buckets...i tried using them but they are very flimsy

Yeah I've had that thought about the rubbermaids as they start to flex real bad with
more than 10g in them. Those "kitty litter" style buckets I guess are just the way to
go with this style.

disposition84 said:

Yeah I've had that thought about the rubbermaids as they start to flex real bad with
more than 10g in them. Those "kitty litter" style buckets I guess are just the way to
go with this style.

Click to expand...

yeah... just another thing you cant get at home depot though

how do you feel about the looks of the buds? is it just me or does it seem like hydroponically all strains finish out looking similar?