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Edition Quattro

Your -Original- Paperless Hydroponics Publication

iLLegitimi NoN CaRbORunDum

Mastering Lighting Cycles

The Seed

When Knowing Less is Better

Ask Erik

More!

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contentsFrom

the Edi

tor

Serious About Seeds

Ask Erik

FLOW-Knives

Light Cycles

HYDRO-Scripts

-Click- Tags

Lighting-Who Says?

Straight

Dope-Re

views

Custom Grow Rooms & Water Wise

Coming Next / Thank

s & Praise

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A Fish Stinks from the Head Down.

So, the next time your first instinct is to point a finger at what you perceive to be a problem, or barrier in our indus-

try’s growth and survival, pause and take a second looking upwards: the problem is usually over top, attached to the

other end of the strings.

It really wasn’t until the last couple of years or so that the saying really took on any significant meaning . And I would like to share with you what it means to me, in terms of our community and industry, here in global hydroponics.

A saying I first heard long ago, working for a buddy’s greenhouse fabrication company-the owner was fond of that one. At the time, I didn’t quite get it. Perhaps still being a little naive and wet behind the ears. Through the years, the saying stuck with me, and I would hear it in other places.

Erik Biksa-Editor erikbiksa@grozine.com

If it’s not redundant to define a saying with another saying, to me it’s about “passing the buck”, i.e. Not taking responsibility or ac-cepting where a problem or situation is truly rooted. All too often, it’s easier for us to blame someone down the line-usually a per-son that’s closer to the happening...yet, as with many battlefields, the generals who are calling the shots are somewhere back in the distance.

Our scene appears to have it’s head in the sand on a good many issues-we are in a time of consequential change that seems to war-rant some discussion about the way we choose to move forward Yet, there appears to be a concerted effort to maintain status quo. The way our industry is structured may not stand up to the types of changes that have been and will continue to come in the hy-droponic industry from societal, economic and ecological trends and triggers. It seems The Industry is built to funnel proceeds up to the top: to the established controlling bodies who will not want for anything, even if our marketplace as we know it dries up and evaporates because it was not adapting to the realities of the world we live in

For me, it’s sad to see former “renegades” become complacent FatCats. And besides sad, it’s hurting us. Making a profit from growing an industry is cool. Protecting your own profits at the expense of industry growth or positive change is not. Growing taught me about nature. And to survive in nature, you have to be able to adapt and diversify. If you don’t, you die. Very simple.

From the EditorErik & Mr. Wendal

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flowering plants package a young plant e

mbryo com-

plete with stored nutrients in a compact seed, which

develops from the ovule after fertilization.

Development of the embryo following fertilization is

possible because of the constant flo

w of nutrients

from the parent plant into the developing seed.

A mature seed contains an embryonic plant and

food

stored in either the endosperm or the cotyledons

. En-

dosperm is the nutritive tissue that surrounds the

embryonic plant in the seed. The seed, in

turn, is sur-

rounded by a tough, protective seed coat, deriv

ed

from the outermost layers of the ovule.

The mature embryo within the seed consists of a short

embryonic root, known as the radicle; a

n embryonic

shoot; and one or two cotyledons or se

ed leaves. Mono-

cots have a single cotyledon, and dicots have two.

The short portion of the embryonic shoot conn

ecting

the radicle to the cotyledons is the

hypocotyl.

The shoot apex above the point of att

achment of the

cotyledons is the plumule. After the radi

cle, hypo-

cotyl, cotyledons, and plumule have formed; the young

plant’s development is arrested, usually by desicca-

tion (drying out) or dormancy.

When conditions are right for continui

ng the devel-

opment, the seed germinates, and the embryo resumes

growth. Because the embryonic plant is n

onphotosyn-

thetic, it must be nourished during germination until

it becomes photosynthetic and therefore self

-suffi-

cient.

The cotyledons of many plants functio

n as storage

organs and become large, thick, and fleshy as they

absorb the food reserves (starches, oils, a

nd proteins)

initially produced as endosperm.

Seeds that store nutrients in cotyle

dons have little

or no endosperm at maturity, an example is a sunflow-

er seed.

Other plants, such as wheat or corn, have a thin coty-

ledon that function primarily to help the

young plant

digest and absorb food stored in the

endosperm.

In flowering plants, seeds vary greatly in size

, shape,

and appearance, from the microscopic, dust li

ke seeds

of orchids to the giant seeds of the

double coconut

which can weigh up to 27 kilograms.

Despite this variation among species, seed size and

appearance is remarkably constant t

rait within a spe-

cies, making it easy to distinguish seeds fr

om differ-

ent species of plants.

Serious about Seeds By Brandon

PillonYour Growing Starts De-Constructed

EB NOTE: It’s very easy to take for granted all the magic that is stored inside of a seed.

When you understand it’s parts, you under-stand the complete picture much better.

An expert lesson in seeds structure and function awaits.....Challenge Yourself to Understabnd What You Grow for Rewards You Can Weigh!!

Tap Root-clones don’t

have

thirsty and aggr

essive tap

roots

Don’t Inherit Problems-when you grow from clones you often start with problems like spi-der mites or PM

Advantages of Seeds:

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QOver the last several years, we have been successful with our indoor soilless garden. The grow mixes we pot in are blends of either or both coco coir with some additional perlite, worm castings, etc.

Our marketplace is changing, and it’s getting tougher to stay profitable. To keep our growing efforts going ,we need to be getting more out of our set-up or spending less time in cropping due to the cost of space, electricity, water and supplies. The trouble is the strains that are in demand don’t yield well and take an awful long time to get to a good size-we don’t want to have scores of smaller plants around for our purposes, so Sea Of Green isn’t an option.

We have some experience in hydroponics and have heard growers comment that they can get faster growth rates and often bigger yields with “water” methods. One of the rea-sons we grow in “dirt” is because we worry about crop failure, which is one of the rea-sons some people say “stay away from hydro”. I actually started growing hydro a long time ago, but on a much smaller scale. When things got big, I hit the dirt. What do you think, is the potential pay off worth the risk and what can you recommend?

Your story is a familiar one, with a lot of veteran growers having originally started out in hydroponic set-ups like bucket system, flood and drain or drip tables-and as the market exploded both from the inside out and the outside in, a lot of growers traded their tables, nutrient monitors and spaghetti lines for bales of dirt and containers as they ramped up their growing efforts. It became about keeping it simple, re-liable and repeatable as investments into growing were cultivated.

And here we are today-with the situa-tion as you describe. Something needs to change to make it work for you in staying ahead of the curve.

An active hydroponics system can be the ticket to what you are after be-cause you simply can’t beat the levels of DO (Dissolved Oxygen) that you can deliver to the plants roots through active hydroponics over soilless culti-vation methods. And that rush of oxy-gen combined with the precise control

over nutrient and pH levels you gain can be a real game changer.

For example, if you need to grow plants to bigger statures before flowering them, you might find you only need five weeks of strong veg instead of eight or even ten in hydro over soilles. Even notoriously slow growing varieties gain some legs when they go hydro.

Some growers may have yet to try a real hydroponics system, because “dirt” has been the trend indoors in recent times. If you have a basic understand-ing of plant needs already or are se-riously willing to learn (which means time spent) operating a plug and play hydroponics system shouldn’t prove to be a quantum leap.

If you have more at risk than a few salad greens, reliability is a critical factor to weigh-in on when choosing a system that will work. What will hap-pen if the power goes out, a pump fails or a emitter clogs-is the system design

going to keep things from overflow-ing or going bone-dry before you can discover and correct any issues? And most of all-look for systems that get good reviews of having no issues to begin with.

Of course, price is always a factor, and sometimes building your own doesn’t really save anything if your crop suf-fers or you spend all of your waking hours ironing out the problems or fix-ing leaks.

If you are used to soil, you are likely getting away with warmer grow room temperatures than you can with hydro. Roots can’t overheat in hydroponics, or root disease can become a harsh real-ity. Knowing how to keep a healthy root system, which includes maintaining op-timal temperatures (sometimes with a reservoir chiller) is critical to have great success and help to avoid prob-lems in hydro.

I say “go for it” jump into the pond-

although, not above your head, well not at first anyways. If possible, look for a system that serves your needs that you can get familiar with that’s scal-able. This way, once you have a suc-cessful crop under your belt from your hydro system, it won’t be such a risk for you as opposed to converting over your traditional soilless garden all at once-it will simply be a matter of ex-panding by adding additional modules.

Once they get it right, a lot of growers marvel at the superior growth rates and often bigger yields hydroponics can deliver-just be prepared to spend some time monitoring the system if you can’t afford automation. Finally, shop around: there are LOTs of great choices to be had and see what fits you and your growing style best.

Cheers, Erik Biksaerikbiksa@grozine.com

AsK ERik

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Current Culture H2OFresno, CA. 93722U.S.A.

web: www.cch2o.comemail: sales@cch2o.com

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Flow-Kniveswww.facebook.com/FlowKnives

Just about anybody appreciates a good knife. For those of us who just adore our ripest and best tomatoes, there is almost nothing worse than going in for a slice to find that the knife is dull, and the tomatoe is simply mush after-what a waster..the horror, the horror.....

Same holds true with cutting a piece of twine, or even your take-out bucket of chicken n ribs that you grabbed on the fly: a good knife comes in handy. For those in the habit of carrying a pocket knife or a fixed blade on their belt they often feel “naked” when they forget to grab it with them on their way out the door. You really would be amazed at how often you use it when you first start to get into the habit.

A lot of us wind up with our knives in the form of special gifts. Re-ceiving an heirloom quality knife has long been the symbol of “you’re allright buddy, and thanks”. It’s a gift typically not forgotten and often cherished for generations. The qulaity and uniqueness of your knife can also refelct a lot on you-especially if it’s been custom made to your purposes and specifcations.

Like a lot of the finer things in life, so to speak, you often get what you pay for. Mass machine-produced knives can be a good buy if you are looking for “utility grade”. However, they will never perform or feel as good as a hand-crafted blade, whether folding or fixed because a machine doesn’t know how the knife is going to feel in your hand or what you are doing with it. On top of that, you never told the machine how big your hand or grip is, and whther you are a rightie or a south-paw.

Flow-Knives are hand made in Austria by a budding young master knife creator called, well,,....Flow! Flow has been hand-crafting a variety of blades for several years now, and while it’s tough to improve on a great thing he just keeps getting better and better.

The designs, their compoenents and their function continually evolve, although the bottom line is a rock solid knife that moves like it was a part of your hand; no matter what the job you have intended for one of his completly -original- (like Grozine!) designs.

If you are interested in a superior quality, one-of-a-kind knife to call your own or even better as a special gift, for example to a valued em-ployee or team member, you can contact Flow via his Facebook Page (linked). While you are there, browse around at the variety of designs from Tool to Tactical-he’s got some ideas for you to get your imagi-nation going. Prices for the types of knives featured here start at around 250 Euros, and can typically be shipped world wide.

Customize:

-metal type

(tool or

fighter)

-function

-shape

-size

-handle mate

rial

-type of hols

ter/

sheath

-color

-finish

-personalizat

ions

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Light

Cycles By lb.Email: lb@grozine.com

Do you know what signals your plants into flower or how to maintain your plants in their vegetative stage?

Well typically people would answer 12/12 (12hrs. light/12hrs. dark) will set their plant into flower and 18/6 (18 hrs. light/6hrs. dark) or 24 hour light will maintain vegetative growth.

While that is correct, why do most people answer that way?

What if, for instance, a grower provided 12 hours lights on 5 1/2 hours lights off, 1 hour lights on and 5 1/2 lights off to maintain the plant in vegetative growth; would that work?

Yes!

This is because plants are classified as: long-day (LDP)short-day (SDP)or day- neutral (DNP)

according to their developmental responses to photoperiod.

While there are some growers growing out the day-neutral varieties, typically most of us in the community are growing out Short-day plants (SDP). Here is a chart that should help bring some clarity to the subject.

This graph (left) focuses on the differ-ences between short-day plants and long-day plants and how their effected by light cycles. I am leaving out day-neu-tral plants because day neutral plants are not as much effected by light cycles but more so with the length of time meaning the plants are going to flip into flower after a set point amount of days even if the dark cycle is less than 10 hours. (Plants will flower under 18/6)

SDP LDP. Day-Night light cycles (Graph Breakdown)

A- FLOWER VEG. A- 8hrs. Light/ 16hrs. DarkB- VEG. VEG. B- 8hrs. Light/ 8hrs. Dark/1hr. Light/ 7hrs. DarkC- VEG. FLOWER C- 8hrs. Light/ 6hrs. Dark/4hrs. Light/6hrs. DarkD- VEG. FLOWER D-16hrs. Light/ 8hrs. DarkE- VEG. FLOWER E- 6hrs. Light/ 2hrs. Dark/8hrs. Light/8hrs. Dark F- VEG. FLOWER F- 8hrs. Light/ 8hrs. DarkG- FLOWER. VEG. G-16hrs. Light/ 16hrs. Dark

*(A-E) Normal 24 hour light day-night cycle*(F) Artificially shortened day-night cycle*(G) Artificially lengthened day-night cycle

Did You Know?

Circadian rhythms can be modi-

fied for potential treatment

of disorders. Studies have re-

vealed the cellular mechanism

by which circadian rhythms --

also known as the body clock

-- modify energy metabolism

and also have identified novel

compounds that control this

action. The findings point to

potential treatments for dis-

orders triggered by circadi

an

rhythm dysfunction, ranging

from insomnia and obesity to

diabetes and cancer. - See

more at: http://en.da-vinci-

learning.com/node/28453

EB Note:

<+25% more light and still flowering? Never thought of that before!

*

Are YOU still in the Dark?Savvy growers are reaping bigger

yields and cutting down on power

bills. Here’s how....

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ConT D

SDP flower in response to long night (A) whether the light period is short (A) or long (G) Interrupting the long dark period with a short or long light break suppresses the flowering response (B,C) Most LDP. flower in response to short nights (D,E) even when the light period is also short (F) and remain vegetative under long nights with (B) or without (A) a short light break even when the day is also long (G) but a longer light break in a long dark period will induce flowering (C) a dark break in a long light period does not modify the response to SDP's or LDP's (compare D&E)

So by looking at the graphs, you can see how SDP are effected by light cycles. Hopefully you notice there are many different light cycles that can be used that are much different then the old school light schedules of the past(18/6)(12/12) This information is meant to be used wisely by the savvy grower to have a great ef-fect on how they do there growing from this moment forward. Un-derstanding light cycles and developing light schedules can have a great effect on yield, quality and at least a savings in elec-tric. Which in this day and age everything counts when it comes to over-head. I wanted to give some examples on how these light cycles can be used to your advantage.

For instance the outdoor grower:

(B) 8hrs Light/ 8hrs Dark/1hr Light/ 7hrs Dark

Hopefully you notice here with light schedule (B) you are only giving the plant NINE HOURS of light and FIFTEEN HOURS of dark-ness (TOTAL) and both LDP and SDP both stay in VEG. This means a huge savings on electric for those outdoors who are getting plenty of light during the day but want to make sure there fin-icky varietis stay into veg. Typically outdoor growers are run-ning generators at night with incadecents (usually) or some other source of light in efforts to keep there "clone only" varieties from inducing into bloom to early, now using this light cycle the generators are only on 1 hr as opposed to 2-6 hrs. Same results less money!

* 12hrs. Light/5.5hrs Dark/1hr Light/ 5.5hrs Dark is another light cycle that will keep SDP's in VEG.

*For Indoor growing the same schedules apply for veg. If the grower is trying to maintain varieties vegetating and at the same time save money.( Pay attention to how plants are growing in effort to reduce stretch from lack of light. Indoor lighting is different in many ways than the light people get from the sun outdoors, might need to play with schedule to meet your specific varieties need)

Now that you have some understanding of how light cycles effect SDP's growth pattern, I wanted to share with you a light schedule that i've ran with success for some time now that links to my last article for the "Bottle Rocket" varieties.

Indoor Bottle Rocket Bloom Light Schedule

*36 hrs. Dark (lighting transition from Veg to Bloom for SDP)

Week1- 11hrs. Light/ 13hrs. Dark

Week2- 6hrs. Light/1hr. Dark/ 5hrs. Light/12hrs. Dark

Week3- 12hrs. Light/12hrs. Dark

Week4- 12hrs. Light/12hrs. Dark

Week5- 8hrs. Light/1hr. Dark/4hrs. Light/11hrs. Dark

Week6- 14hrs. Light/10hrs. Dark

Week7- 13hrs. Light/11hrs. Dark or 12hrs. Light/12 hrs. Dark

Week8- 6hrs. Light/1hr. Dark/5 hrs. Light/12hrs. Dark

Week9- 11hrs. Light/13hrs. Dark

I am by no means stating that there is anything wrong with run-ning a 12/12 light cycle for bloom because there isn't, this is just a refined light schedule that has been ran for some time now that is catered to the bottle rocket varieties I wrote about last month. EB Note-and that is a rocking schedule! see it in this Gro-zine Edition: http://www.grozine.com/GrozineEditionSan.pdf

Well I hope this article has opened your eye's and shed some light so you as a grower have a better understanding of how one can play with light cycles to increase yields, save electricity and grow a healthier plant. At the very least hopefully this ar-ticle dropped some knowledge to the fact there are other light schedules other than 18/6 for VEG. & 12/12. for Bloom. As always turning clones to zones... EB Note-Heck YES! This goes waaaay be-yond the same old. Final Note: If you grow strains that are very light sensitive and have hermaphrodite tendencies, try it on a test garden first to avoid sex reversal that may lead to pollina-tion.

Check in and stay tuned for next month.

* Graphs and information: “The Molecular Life of Plants-Click-

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Hydro-Scripts so, a guy walks into a hydro store... Featuring: Ca

sey Jones Fraser

http://www.gardengroveorganics.comI do prefer my Hybrid Buckets over standard DWC buckets, but the pH would only be a bit more stable than in your system. Any hydro system with intense aeration will typically have a steady rise in pH levels.

How come your plants in what you are calling the Hybrid system look so much better than mine? During my last grow, my pH was all over the place, and the guy I was just speaking with who works here was commenting on how stable the pH in this Hybrid system really is.

When I harvested, it wasn’t bad quality or anything. I still wished it could have been better though, for example firmer fruits and flowers. Why are your blooms so dense compared to mine?

If you are hoping to grow dense blooms, DWC can be tricky. I’ve seen it work wonders with leaf crops, but fruits and flowers don’t always do so well sitting in water. In some basic DWC gardens, the plants bulk up with water, which goes away later. Leaves and stems get big, but the fruits and flowers are lightweight. However, I’ve also seen growers get top-notch yields and quality with well-de-signed (recirculating) DWC systems.

Those growers that are getting the top notch results-what are they doing different? Do you have any special recommendations for better results in DWC?

To get the best possible results with DWC, I recommend major aeration and circulation with a sterile nutrient solution. Too much microbiology will increase that upward pH drift. Use a big pump to move water through the containers. For aeration I prefer the Venturi method over air stones, because of the higher levels of dissolved oxygen, and less mainte-nance. Water temps should stay BELOW 72 degrees F. Get a good chiller. Finally, use a sterilizing product in your nutrient solu-tion. I would use Water Max or Clear Rez, or any Hypochlorous acid product. Do not use peroxide on living plants, if you can avoid it. Even with all of that, you should check and maintain pH at least every other day.Adjust the pH to 5.6 and don’t worry about it until it reaches 6.6. Think of it as a pH range, not a exact number.

I’ll probably re-vamp my approach. Even though I have gotten a few good crops out of this inexpensive DWC system, I know for sure I can do better. Your Hybrid system is totally rawking man! Is there any other kinds of systems that you think might fit the bill for me, so to speak?

If you want to see an amazing DWC system, check out the Under Current from Current Culture. The Under Current is possibly the best DWC system for indoor gardens. Use a very clean nutrient line, such as General Hydroponics or Black Label. Avoid any nutrients or supplements that make the solution look thick, chunky, or dark. With DWC, clean roots are key!If you follow these steps, your crops will thank you. And FYI, I don’t work for any of the manufacturers mentioned here. I just know their products grow amazing gardens.

Image Provided by Google Earth

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Lighting is a nutrient for plants. Light energy delivers little pack-ages of “light nutrition” by way of Photons (see Grozine #3 for more on Photon Flux Density). These little packages can also differ in terms of their nutritional content due to the different spectra (wave-lengths of light, ie a prism) that light may come as.

Think of taking a multi-vitamin: there are different ratios of the listed vitamins (i.e. B1, C, E, etc) being supplied. As humans, we look at things like our Age, Gender, Fitness Level and LifeStyle in determining which multi-vitamin is most likely to work best for us. It also matter how these nutrients are getting delivered in terms of their effectiveness, for example as part of our food, as a pill or even injected.

While there are some similarities here, there are also some striking differences. One of the main ones being: we don’t really know doodley-squat about light as nu-trition for plants.

Next time you hear a “horticultural lighting expert” tell you impressive sounding figures about CRI, PAR lighting or Lumens or whatnot, take it with a grain of salt. The truth is most of what we know about lighting and how to best apply it comes from informal grower trial and error versus light laboratory engineering.

For example, according to lighting lab data a MH (metal halide) bulb should yield more crop going watt for watt with a high pressure sodium lamp because it has a spectrum that more closely follows the PAR (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) Curve.

Halt, say what?

Most of the strains you grow indoors clearly yield better with HPS lighting, which is incredibly disproportionate in spectral output compared to the PAR Curve we have come to hold as what drives plants as far as lighting goes. Don’t believe us? Look at it, and you will see: science says MH should give you better yields. Real world shows that it usually does not, in most of the plants we grow indoors.

For quick reference, a premium 1K MH horticultural lamps is said to have 581 PAR Watts, while a premium 1K HPS Horticultural is said to have 535 PAR Watts. Now

crop quality aside, 9 out of 10 times the HPS will yield better in your grow room.

The significance here is that we as indoor hydroponic growers have a lot to learn and share still. It’s easy to get caught up in debates about Lumens VS PAR, etc-and to what end? There are LOTS of different forces at work when it comes to artificial crop lighting that weigh in on the final results and what is going to work and be practical for you, as a modern grower-and they don’t they don’t seem to have names or solid theories for some of these factors yet.

So let’s get real, and drop the “we know crop lighting” act because it’s not help-ing anybody. Well OK, to be fair, we are quite a bit further ahead than where we were say 50 years ago on crop lighting-but we still have lots more road forward. For now, let’s talk philosophy and what we see is working in our grows.

A great contrast in examining some of the factors that are at play, but not nec-essarily documented to date, in our crop lighting is done by comparing how and HPS lamp performs compared to a good quality LED grow lighting fixture. BTW, this the author’s comparison, after working with these particular lighting sources side by side for over two years.

Findings:

600W of Quad Band (purple) LED Lighting Yielded similar dry weights to 1000W of HPS Horticultural Lighting with LED requiring significantly less cooling power to keep grow temperatures optimal indoors. However, to keep the LED grown plants at or near an equivalent rate of transpiration (water and nutrient uptake) ver-sus HPS, additional de-humidification and air movement were found to be nec-essary. The LED plants didn’t seem to produce as well lower down on the plant versus HPS, but overall, the harvest quality was much better on the LED grown plants

The most interesting finding is in the way one light source appears to BEHAVE over the other. After over two years of informal observations in the garden, you get to know about something; whether a light source, soil or plant type. Well, at least if you are keeping your eyes and mind open...

lighting The LESS You Know, the SMARTER You Grow!

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And here’s an interesting thing, that the author has yet to see in a Science or Hydroponics textbook:

HPS light may work overall very well as a grow light because it BOUNCES. That’s right. Most of us know that HPS doesn’t give the “best” spectrum when we compare it to the widely-followed photosynthetic response curve, however, it seems to do very well at allowing lower parts of slightly taller indoor plants to produce decent quality. With most artificial light sources, quality drops quickly with distance travelled from the source of light.

Take a well engineered LED grow light as an example. Growth rates and crop quality can be phenomenal with similar yields to HPS, but only where the plant is receiving very direct light, ie. lower portions of plant doesn’t produce well with overhead lighting.

One idea here is that the spectrum of the engineered LED grow light is very good-plants simply “suck it up” through the leaves. While with the HPS light which isn’t as “clean” for plant growth, the photons ricochet through the canopy, and into lower portions somewhat, because the light energy takes longer to absorb, and may even change in properties as it is re-directed and deflected before absorption for photosynthetic purposes. There are a lot of factors at work here, including conversions from long waves to short waves, etc-possibly too much for our little brains to handle actually.

So here we are towards the end of our crop-lighting-deconstructed article, and are we any further ahead in our knowl-edge of crop lighting after this? The answer is YES if your recognize that there is much more going on than anyone has measured or charted to date; and the how the combinations that these factors get delivered can make such a difference in plant growth and ultimately, the life of YOU the grower.

When comparing light sources for growing, and discussing which one is “best”, realize there are many different factors at work, and in differing degrees dependent on the type of grow lighting and perhaps even more importantly how it is being applied.

Hopefully, this will also serve as a call to question and begin to re-examine what we hold “fundamental” as a group or in-dustry. Take for example the photosynthetic response curve we have been worshipping-we have only touched on it here, and it is clear that the “rules” don’t always seem to apply. Stay flexible in your thinking, and the rewards can be bright!

ConT D

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The Straight DopeHardcore Hydro Gear Reviews

Current Culture’s Updated Under Current XXL: Old Vs New

What was not to love? Most hydroponic systems don’t buffer very well against changes in temperature, nutrient uptake or pH fluctuations. Further, some sys-tem designs don’t take advantage of the accelerated hyper growth and yield rates that can be achived in a super-oxygneted root environment. They offer am-bient DO (dissolved oxygen) levels at best and aren’t very well suited to chill-ing the root zone, which can heat up quickly in shallow hydro systems as the grow room warms through a common daily cycle.

The UC XXL does not have all of those common drawbacks to hydroponics systems like flood and drain or NFT because it takes advantage of running a significant volume of solution supporting well anchored and bare rooted plants that have lots of room for developing big roots as well as buffering against changes in the root environment. A stable root zone is a productive one, afeterall.

We are pleased to report that it must have been to make a great thing even bet ter, in almost all respects. Heres the run-down on what’s new in Version Two:

We would be lying if we didn’t admit that we experienced the Original Under Cur-rent XXL Deep Water Hydroponic System as one of the best refined and thought-out hydroponics sytems avialble to growers; whether home hobbyists or commer-cial growing moguls.

So Why Would they Change It?!?!

#1#1

#1

The Drain-Flow Fittings. Being the biggest is nice, but squeezing into the old-style rubber grom-mets was not a small feat; a source of pain and frustration. The new threaded bulkheads use a very clever design to take the force required out of assembly. However, there is a bit of a technique to getting it right; so don’t fill your system up full right away.

#2

#2

#2The old LIDS fit inside of the containers, and under weight they could flex and fall in. when handled. The new lids are extra sturdy and fit tightly around the outside; helping to keep leaf-sprays out of the sytems too

#3

#3

#3

Access ports mean you don’t need to lift the lid up, so plants cant fall right into the system when you are doing root zone inspections or maintenance.

#4

#4

#4

When roots have 100% humidity, light doesn’t bother them directly; but growths can. The new Pods are Black-Out and contain UV Stabilizers for durability and plant health.

#5

#5

#5

The mesh basket supports are now CC’s own design, and are much strudier and more durable. They now come in eight and ten inch diamter sizes. They even have a “step” built into the bottom to help keep stems from staying too wet.

Sure, there’s other refinements and options-even the tubing and packaging has been stepped-up...and it was great to begin with. If you are serious about growing, either generation of the Under Current is sure to please. For newbie,s, it may mean finding the earlier generation lightly used at an affordable price.

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Automation is certainly helpful in maintaining and operating existing installations It also helps to pro-tect an important investment. How-ever, having an automated growing system is really only helpful once it’s up and running smoothly.

A big saver on time and hassles that can get very costly if things don’t go together right and correct-ly when building a grow are Total Solution Grow Packages.

These can range from relatively inexpensive grow tents that come with a light, fans and a filter to ready-to-haul semi tractor trail-ers that have professionally been converted to multiple 1000Watt HID (high intensity discharge) lighting systems that come complete with air-condtioning and infra-red con-trolled CO2 (carbon dioxide) enrich-ment.

These are available from some hy-droponic retailers as well as com-panies that specialize in fabricat-ing and supplying mobile growth chambers. There is a big advantage in knowing that everything is gua-runteed to go together and work as a complete assembled unit, rather than guessing and scrambling for odds and ends that may not work as well together. By going for a pack-age, you often save money too.

However, sometimes a grower is go-ing to need to change their growing style-and it may not be in synch

with what is held as ““The Standard” in convnetional Total Grow Pack-ages.

For example, if you find some choice commercial space with very high ceilings (lucky you!), Are you going to be able to take advantage of all of that swell headroom for bigger yields in the same square footage due to increased grow room volume?

Most grow packages for example, aren’t especially well suited to growing giants-typically, they will lack the vertical height advantages and use a configuration of systems and lighting that is intended for more modest sized plants, whatever the number in total.

That’s assuming there is an ad-vantage at the location.. So, what about disadvantages? Say for ex-ample, you have lots of space, but the amount of electricity you can safely access is limited-an instance where you might want ot use power saving LEDs. And experienced grow-ers know that LEDs work best only with tweaks to a conventional grow-ing environment

So, if you are thinking about ex-panding, whether by a Total Solu-tion Grow Package or a Custom De-signed grow room, you will want to stay tuned.....we are going to give you the goods to make informed decsions and avoid common hassles.

Growers who have learned to manage their endevors so that they can ex-pand and build new grows as they operate their existing facilities prof-itably have serious earning potential.

Often, these growers have come to the conclusion or had the realization that you simply don’t have the time to do it all yourself if you want to think big and start to produce more hearvest than you can pull out of a closet or spare room dedicated to indoor gardening.

Custom Grow Rooms: Part One BE Water WiseOutdoors, if you water at night while DEWPOINT is occuring, it is possible to pick up moisture from the air, as your trickle feeds or sprinkler droplets fall through the air, on their way to contacting the soil surface. Free water.

Collect Rain Water. If there is any significant rainfall, you should be storing it for hot and dry days., especially in remote garden areas.

Roots need air. Don’t forget to give it to them along with all of that water. Take care not to overwater for pro-longed periods.

Darker containers can heat up really quick, so sometimes it pays to make sure the water is a little cooler when applied, helping to keep your crop’s feet nice and cool

A well planned and constructed HYDROPONICS SYSTEM can consume considerably less water than convention-al growing methods over a cropping cycle.

When it comes to different plant types or even varieties, your plants will have watering needs that change through the growth cycles to ma-turity. Some strains prefer sparse moisture at the roots, and do not re-spond well by sitting oxygewn deprived root environments from heavier waterings. Others can be water hogs-get to know yours!

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Forced-Flowering

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Special thanks to Tina, my partner. A lot of things wouldn’t be possible without her help and support. Tina handles the business end of GZ, and you can email her at: sales@grozine.com,