Undercurrent Culture!!!! looks like it really kicks asss!!!

just started learning about a system called undercurrent culture and was pretty amazed at what they say it can do.. especially the clones having maddd root growth in just 3 days... anyone else know anything about it or is anyone doing that system? seems pretty legit but quite expensive. anyone care to chyme in and give their opinion on Undercurrent culture?

bdt1981 said:

especially the clones having maddd root growth in just 3 days

Click to expand...

Sounds like bullshit?

Do you have a link to a specific system your looking at? Personally, I think it's better to clone separate from everything - that way you're not tying up your system. You can get a 95+ success rate just using rapid rooters, T5's and an E&F table; if you put them in a specific area it's easy to restart your flowering room with 8 week old clones - then just veg them in the flowering area for a week and take new clones off them.

Looks like a RDWC to me, just a different name?

Works like a charm! Not too expensive if you build a DIY system. Uses less than 1/2 of the nutrients as a DWC setup. Gets you results like this:

i cant find itmright this second. i may have been wrong on the rooting in 3 days. when i think about it the guy in the video said they came from a cloner into the pots so i guess they root them first and recomend bare root transplant instead of using rockwool for cuttings. it was three days and the roots were coming out the bottom of net pot.

The UC system is pretty damn rad but it's just too go damn finicky. Yes, some guys are absolutely fucking crushing it with UC and I mean better performance than anything. On the hand. There are lots and lots of people that get crushed by it. The moving water creates a negative pressure around the roots and very high oxygen levels. I have never seen plants grow so fast in my life! Right up until the point that they developed rot, then the roots got damaged, then I finally got
It cleaned up and the plants were totally on shock.

Swing on over to thcfarmer. That is UC central and you will see some fantastic grows. You will also see allot of grow threads just stop..just like their plants did

I want to try it again, the system is sitting in the garage. But I have a RDWC system that I have dialed so if its not broke don't fix it.

If your a hydro newb and start with a UC system you WILL get crushed.

UC system is bad ass. I use it if you want to know anything let me know ill try to answer.

I am so completely torn about firing it up again. Last time the failure occured due to brown slime. I finally, after a metric shit load of research, found out that I have the cyano bacteria in my water supply. So essentially I can't run a sterile hydro set up... EVER. No matter what it will come back. Or at least that has been my experience.

The only downside I see in the operation of the unit is the water change outs. A pretty decent volume of water stays in each tub so I have to add a bunch of water and rinse it out and then drain again..or I suppose I could just say screw it. The folks at UC also said I was running to much air. Never thought that you could have "too much" but apparently you can.

You have any pictures of your set-up?

cyano bacteria? Care to elaborate?

^ the brown slime. that brown mucus like looking substance that grow and then eats your plant roots.. thus sufficating your plants. Its not a mold or a fungus or alage. It belongs to a group called "micro-algae". It can switch methods for energy production and therefore does not require light. It is also unaffected by all but the strongest disinfectants. zone and h2o2 will do nothing to it. Physian 20 will eliminate it but since its in your water supply, it comes right back.

Nasty shit but using EWC tea will hold it at bay. In my case, I guess its the price I pay for municipal water that is barely disenfected and very tasty.. but has cyanobacteria in it.

At any rate. .thanks for the question as it spurred a whole new round of research on this little bastards that plauges so many hydro growers. I did however just stumble upon a possible cure. The borad spectrum anti-biotic used in aquariums.. eurthromyicin.

what temp is the nutrient? keep it 58f and that bacteria will not exist. that is a fact.

That is actually NOT a fact. Cyano bacteria is actually well adapted to live in cold or warm waters. It blooms in the ocean dude...and that is colder than 58.

Anyways, I've never read anywhere that people are running their water that cold. I dunno, maybe your right, but in the countless threads I have read on it most people are in the mid 60's

You have a grow journal or link?

hmm. maybe your right and there is a video that says something about it being colder. http://youtu.be/ABeuWGk_X5g
if it blooms in the ocean how did it get to you? i just watched video again and you are correct mid 60's as low as high 50's and i meant to say 68 degrees i heard that the pyth stuff is cannot survive in that water. so the slime stuff your talking about is or is not root rot?

Dutch master zone works great for brown slime (cyanobacteria). I have the same shit in my tap water, and always have brown slime on early clone/seedling transplants into dwc until the root system gets bigger. I use Zone and it clears that shit up.

legallyflying said:

That is actually NOT a fact. Cyano bacteria is actually well adapted to live in cold or warm waters. It blooms in the ocean dude...and that is colder than 58.

Anyways, I've never read anywhere that people are running their water that cold. I dunno, maybe your right, but in the countless threads I have read on it most people are in the mid 60's

You have a grow journal or link?

Click to expand...

It's not that pythium can't survive in cold temperatures it's just apparently less of a problem in hydroponic systems when the water temperatures are ~68F or, as you approach higher levels of DO in your res' solution since higher temperatures tend to correlate with lower levels of DO.

Lol, still if you're water itself is contaminated you may be fighting a losing battle on this regardless unless maybe reverse osmosis? Or fractional sterilization of the water.

swag

First time growing I bought an undercurrent 6 bucket DWC and had slime. I tried treating with 29% H2O2 and that didn't work. I bought a water chiller, set temp to 65* and still had slime. Was going to get an RO system next but than found Heis tea. Had a very successful grow with it. IMO the problem with UCDWC is that it's very expensive to run, in my case anyways with the water chiller and pumps. I am trying ebb and flow right now and they are about 3 weeks from harvest. I am pretty happy with the result thus far. Going to run the same strain that I ran with UCDWC to see how Ebb and Flow does. If it's the same density, trich production, and yield than I'm going to switch to ebb and flow for good.

legallyflying said:

^ the brown slime. that brown mucus like looking substance that grow and then eats your plant roots.. thus sufficating your plants. Its not a mold or a fungus or alage. It belongs to a group called "micro-algae". It can switch methods for energy production and therefore does not require light. It is also unaffected by all but the strongest disinfectants. zone and h2o2 will do nothing to it. Physian 20 will eliminate it but since its in your water supply, it comes right back.

Nasty shit but using EWC tea will hold it at bay. In my case, I guess its the price I pay for municipal water that is barely disenfected and very tasty.. but has cyanobacteria in it.

At any rate. .thanks for the question as it spurred a whole new round of research on this little bastards that plauges so many hydro growers. I did however just stumble upon a possible cure. The borad spectrum anti-biotic used in aquariums.. eurthromyicin.

Click to expand...

Where does your municipal water supply come from? The raw source.

If you had a mad experience with the Undercurrent and got root rot or any type of slime it was because 1. u didn't have a chiller or the correct size. 2. Were using nutrients you shouldn't be using in a RDWC setup. For your first time I would highly recommend running a sterile rez. meaning no bacteria. Use Zone or even better h2o2 (i mean the 30% or better kind u get at a hydro store. Your temp's had to of got to hot of u were using beneficial bacteria or some kinda of additive that with the worm water caused it. I always recommend for DWC, recirculating or not. Do a sterile rez, where everything is dead but the nutrients pretty much. You can still add amino's and stuff like that.

Dutch master gold and there add 27 and zone are pretty much a sterile rez and the results in the undercurrent are crazy. The root's will fill the buckets even the 12 gal totally full up to the water line. crazy how filled the buckets 100%. I couple believe it. Before u start doing a non-sterile rez with any kinda of organics, make sure the have a chiller that works 75-77deg. and plenty of air and water movement and you will have very good results.

I've been researching this and found a number of threads singing the praises of bleach in a 2-4ppm strength. An initial disinfection of 4ppm then maintaining a 2ppm to prevent infection. I was looking into this because the temperature of the nutrient solution is supposed to be warmer to maximize the effectiveness of CO2 injection. The warmer solution brings the pathogens that don't survive in cold back into the equation. Anyone had any luck with bleach?

Can you get the brown slime if using RO water?