Bagseed etc. first grow

There is only one plant left at F71, the Blue lemon Thai x Black Widow. That plant has been flushing for a couple weeks now. I've found that the pH of the water in that DWC pail will drop from 6.5 to below 5 in 2 or 3 days if left unattended. The other plants also showed pH drop during flush, but none as extreme as this girl. She has always been the most finicky about nutes. Her trichs are getting cloudier, but a lot of clear still present, and some of the cola tops still show a few light colored pistils. I think this plant could go 14 weeks if I let it, which I won't. I'll give it the chop in the next week, as soon as I have my platform/reservoir completed for my next grow. Vortex #2 was harvested on F78. She has been showing fall foliage colors for a couple weeks but the trichs refused to get much more than partly cloudy. Clearly, the plant is done but I held off on the chop because there were so many clear trichomes. I've read that some modern strains simply don't get many amber trichs. We'll see in a couple weeks how the smoke compares to her big sister, Vortex #1. So, as this is likely the last entry in this diary other than harvest reports, here are my observations from my first cannabis grow: 1) DWC in separate 5-gal buckets makes for good yields but is a lot of work. Royal PITA managing and changing nutes in 6 separate reservoirs, especially when the plants get big and floppy. I'm going with coco hempy buckets on my next grow, and will start it as soon as I complete my grow platform/drain reservoir (see pic). I've also bought a 55-gal HDPE drum that will make life much easier during my next grow. 2) COBs are the way to go. Now that summer weather is here the local growers are complaining about high temps in their tents with MH and HPS lights, and they are buying and running spare air conditioner units to manage the heat. My tent, in my basement, has been running between 72 and 77, and I haven't had to buy an AC. I'm also using far less electricity and probably getting better yield in terms of g/W. 3) There's no substitute for experience. I've learned so much in the past few months, not only from reading voraciously but also from getting hands on experience. 4) Good things come from bagseed.