Grape Ape DWC Cooler Grow

This is my first time using DWC. I am pretty excited to give a try. I have friends that run it and they have great results!! I built my own system using a couple of camping coolers. Didn’t want to go too crazy in case it’s not for me. I have a main rez (cooler) in the tent. It is a nice Coleman so it will help keep my water nice and cool. I installed an aquarium cooling probe so when things do get elevated it will bring it back down. I currently have the probe set at 66 F. It will kick on once the water hits 68 F. My top off rez (cooler) is located outside the tent and will feed into my cooler via a float valve (inside the tent cooler) when needed. I haven’t tied the feed line from the top off rez into the cooler in the tent yet as the little plant isn’t using much water at this point. Things have gone well thus far and the system is working as designed! DWC on a budget lol 🤪 As for what’s going on inside the cooler in the tent: PPM: 140 EC: 0.2 pH: 6.3 Temp: 66 F I am using Current Culture H2O nutrients. I use a Bluelab combo meter to keep things in check. Bluelab makes general stuff I highly recommend their products!! Onward 😎🌱✌️

I can’t believe how much this little lady has taken off in a week. Plants grow incredibly fast in DWC!! Not much has changed since last week as far as nutes go. I have the pH down to 6.1 now which is in line with Current Culture H2Os grow schedule. At the current growth rate I will likely start to main line her in a week or so.

This week has seen this healthy little lady get her first bit of main-lining. She did not like the immediate chop but responded well 24 hrs later. Things are still running well within the cooler. I can’t wait to see what the next week bring growth wise. I am still blow away with the growth rate in DWC Rez Specs. pH 6.0 Temp 64 PPM 270 EC 0.5

This little lady keeps on chugging along quite nicely. I upped my nutrients and I think I went a bit heavy as I have a little clawing and some pretty dark green leaves now but I’ll let her use them up before I add more. I started tying her down as well this week. She is up to 4 tops now. My cooler internals are pH - 6.0 ppm 500 scale - 220 Temp - 65 EC - 0.3 I will likely keep the cooler like this for some time as it seems to be bit “hot” for this little lady. Onward 😎🌱

This little lady is growing like crazy. The main-lining is coming along nicely so far. I will likely be up to 8 tops come the end of this weekend. The rez is as follows pH - 6.0 PPM 500 scale - 240 EC - 0.4 Temp - 65 F I am impressed with how quick this little indica dominant plant is is growing. I do have a little clawing going on but nothing too serious at this point. Onward! 😎🌱🍿

This little grape ape is a champ. She seems to love being main-lined. Anything I throw at it training wise seems to work out great. I have been keeping things simple which is what I was told to do from the start. The cooler internals are the same as last week. I am now up to 8 tops. I can’t wait to see another weeks worth of growth. Hopefully I’ll be up to 16 tops by next week or shortly thereafter. Onward 😎🍿

Week8 I have done a little bit more training this week. The little lady is taking remarkably well to anything I throw at her. I hope to be topping her again sometime in the next week so I will then be up to the desired 16 tops. The internals do the cooler are the same as last week. Also I’ll let everyone in on a little secret. I have not done a water change at all at this point lol. I know that is blasphemy in some circles but this plant does not seem to mind. And check out the root pictures. They don’t get much cleaner then that imo. Onward 😎🍻🌱

Week 9 This week has been fairly busy in the tent. I have defoliated a couple of times and there has been a lot of tying the plant down. I also connected all my top off lines and drain lines. The top of my tent was a bit of a mess with cords and cables etc so I cleaned that rats nest up and that gave me the warm and fuzzies when I was done lol. I raised my lights up to where I hope to flower so that way the plant can grow up into the lights when the stretch hits. I have not reached 16 tops yet but I will be topping in the next few days so I am very close to the desired number of tops. I have not changed anything inside the cooler either. It’s the same ppm, pH etc as last week. I love how healthy this plant is even though I have not done a water change in 9 weeks lol. That’s blasphemy is some circles lol. 😎🌱🍻

Week 10 Well I am finally up to the desired 16 tops. It won’t be much longer until it’s time to flip. I will be doing some defoliation in the next few days. I couldn’t be happier with how healthy this plant is! Not much has changed as far as cooler internals go: pH 6.0 240 ppm on 500 ppm scale 0.5 EC 65 F Still no water change after 10 weeks and the plant does not seem to mind at all! UC Roots by Current Culture H2O is a great product! 😎🍻🌱

Well this is the last week of veg. I have decided to flip as I have seen some people who run DWC get some crazy stretch and I don’t have a very tall tent. The plant is super health and I am very excited to flip this little lady. Let the show begin 😎🍿🌱

Well week one of flower has come and gone. I am pretty happy with the progress so far but I am a little concerned that I may have flipped a little too early. Oh well, this is my first DWC run so there will undoubtably be a learning curve. The plant looks super healthy at this point. The cooler internals are: 6.0 pH 270ppm on the 500 ppm scale. 0.5 EC 66F water temp Onward 😎🍻🌱

Week 2 There has been an explosion of growth over the last week. I am amazed by how explosive it was. There are some nice bud sites forming as well. I did get a little bit of yellowing at the tops of a few fan leaves so I don’t think I will go quite as high feeding wise. I’ll go a 100ppm or so lower than what the feeding schedule recommends. I had a bit of an accident though. I was doing a little LST and I snapped a top clean of 🤦‍♂️ So now I am down to 15 tops, doh! Cooler internals for the week were: 6.0 pH 420 ppm on the 500 scale 0.9 EC 66F water temp. I can’t wait to see what week three brings! Onward 😎🍻🌱

Things are really starting to look good. This plant has really stretched a lot for an Indica dominant plant. The frost is starting to come on now. The tent smells quite nice when I first open it now. Cooler internals are: 5.9 pH 600 ppm on the 500 scale 1.2 EC 66F solution temp Can’t wait to see how she fills out over the course of the next week.

So this week has been quite eventful. First, for the good news, there has been tons of new growth and the plant has stretched like mad! The buds seem to be fattening up in the last couple of days which is always exciting!! That was the good news lol. The bad news is I found a few pollen sacks on this plant which is really disappointing. I have never run seeds from the breeder I went with this time around and I am chalking this up to weak genetics. I do not have any light leaks and I run a pretty tight and tidy ship on my end so it’s hard to think it was environmental. I pulled off what I found and it appears only one opened 🤦‍♂️ (see pictures). It has been a good 4 days since I have seen any so 🤞 I won’t see anymore. I will keep this plant going but if I wasn’t running a single plant I might pull the plug. Who likes seeds in their final product! 😬😬 Not me!! It would have been nice to see this lady without a set of nuts!! Cooler Internals: 5.9 pH 650 ppm 1.3 EC Water is at 65F

This plant seems to have stoped filling out. It’s possible that the few pollen sacks that I found a little while ago have pollinated this plant to some extent and she is focusing on seeds. I have seen a couple spots that look like it might be developing a seed here and there. She really isn’t eating much at this point so I will likely be pulling her down around the 7 week mark. There are some nice purple colours coming out as she finishes up. She is super frosty and smells really good. Hopefully she isn’t full of seeds 😬😬 Next time I am going to run two plants in this cooler so I can pull the plug on any plants that turn out to be duds. Plus is will cut my veg time in half.

Week 6 This plant is nearing the end. She never really fattened up but I am not surprised since she hermied 3ish weeks into flower. Regardless, she does look pretty good. She has frosted up nicely and she smells super strong!! I will likely change out the rez to plain pHd water in the next few days and give her a 3 day flush before I take her down. The majority of the pistils have receded and the trics are all cloudy with the odd amber one here and there. I can’t believe how quickly this plant finished up. I don’t expect a huge harvest but so long as it’s seed free or mostly seed free since she hermied I will be okay with that. The next time I do a run I will do two plants in the cooler so if there I any issues I have options.