First DWC Attempt - AK-47 Auto

Started the two girls about a week apart, Yelena is still building strength in her DIY humidity dome, after which she's gonna be transferred to a 2 gallon fabric pot. Using Miracle Gro Potting Mix for both with no additional nutrients at this early stage.

Transplanted Yelena into her new home, my first attempt at DWC...considering my luck with autos, this will be a learning experience with no expected yield, hence the cheap nutrients. For the life of me, I cannot get a stable pH, or at least not below 7. My only explanation is that I'm using vinegar to lower the pH and it's too weak an acid to keep the pH down amidst the bubbles from the air stone....just a guess, I've got some phosphoric acid (pH Down) on the way, hopefully that does the trick. Mar 15 - sure enough, the phosphoric acid did the trick (after a short period of yo-yo-ing). pH is stable at 6.1, I know that's not perfect but I'm leaving it for now. Ppm on the other hand is going up...could be from withdrawing some water to lower the level to the bottom of the net pot but I'm just gonna swap out the reservoir tomorrow and start clean. Nikita got tied down for the start of her LST, she's definitely growing faster than my first attempt at autos so at least I'm learning Mar 16 - changed reservoir with fresh water and quarter strength nutrients, noticed 2 long root strands poking from the net pot - much success!

More LST and defoliation for Nikita, trying to get her in place cause I expect she will show some preflowers soon. She's not as big as I had hoped for 3.5 weeks but at least shes vibrantly healthy *knocks on wood* Yelena looks good, really impressed with her root growth but tbh I was expecting more "explosive growth" from hydroponics. Being my first DWC its hard to know whether I should expect more. I would increase the nutes but as it is the ppm steadily increases each day and with it being an auto, I'm trying to stick with the "less is more" philosophy - no signs of deficiency so I'm gonna assume all is well and keep on keepin' on

Nikita has gone into preflower so I'm finishing up the LST and light lollipopping before the stretch starts. Yelena is growing shirt with very little space between the nodes, making it hard to get at the lowest, useless branches and hard to LST because it's so short. Anyway, I used some wire to pull the top slightly to the side and will bend it more as it grows. Her roots look great, I've always wanted to be able to monitor the root growth and how it compares to the veg growth. Oddly, shes still not as big as Nikita was at the same stage, I woulda thought the hydro would make it bigger but with this being my first hydro grow, I have nothing to base it on. She may be small now but she seems the picture of health so far so I'm putting it in the win column.

Moved the lights around so the more intense one is now over the DWC, shes waaay smaller than she should be but healthy and she wasnt getting a lot of light so my theory is more light will make more growth...may be too kate for Yelena but it will benefit another DWC auto I have in the same tent Next concern: roots are brown but not slimy, new roots are still white so I'm hoping it's just being stained by the nutrient solution, added 5mL/gallon of hydrogen peroxide just in case

Nikita is flourishing, growing like the proverbial weed. Shes definitely in the stretch now, I can practically see the growth everyday. I've got a fairly even canopy going, a little lower in the center than the edges but everything is getting light so I'm happy. Yelena has bounced back once I changed the lights around to give her more. Shes permanently stunted but has been growing fast enough I'm happy to keep her and see what develops. Roots still look off white but I'm sure it's from the nute solution otherwise I woulda seen the plant suffer a lot more if it was root rot. The tent the girls are in has become a Flowering tent with two photos so I had to cut their light to 12 hours. Feom what I've read this may hurt yield but it cant be helped

Yelena is growing like the proverbial weed, did some extensive defoliation and light lollipopping, she looked pathetically sparse after but back on track in 24 hours. Her roots are nice but not as plentiful as I had expected, at least not the long ones. The bottom of the net pot is packed full of short white roots and I cant quite tell if they're reaching the water when the lid is on. Nikita's budlets are bountiful and bristling with white hairs. I've done pretty much all the LST I can with her, now it's just a matter of watching her grow and maintaining the correct light distance so I dont get crispy leaves this time

Nikita is magnificent, the picture of health and her little white buds are swelling everyday. All her LST is done and behind her, just some light defoliation as I ensure the bud sites are all exposed to direct light as much as possible. Yelena is finally growing like I had expected from a hydro set up. I think/hope shes switching from switch to focus on flowering, starting to look more like little budlets than a thick bu1ndle of white hairs. Roots are mostly short but thick. I think I had the water level too low for a week or two, preventing new roots from growing out of the basket into the water. All looks good now

Nikita is in full flower and frosting up nicely. Just a matter of patience and hopefully continued good health now. Yelena is trailing behind but healthy as can be, she really grew with the stretch, if I hadnt stunted her with poor lighting earlier on she woulda been a beast. Got a ginormous bottle of Ginormous booster, giving it a try over the Grotek. Grotek was working fine, nothing wrong with it, just took advantage of a good price ($37 for a gallon)

Nikita is a rock star, frosty and half her hairs are orange, wont be long now Yelena looks good, glad I finally thought to include a pic of her roots. The nute solution has coloured them pink but they are thick and vigorous and float like a jellyfish in their air bubble bath :-) that said, she is waaaaay behind Nikita in flowering, I would guess she was delayed about 2 weeks by my poor lighting but she sure bounced back in flowering.

Corrected the soil pH of Nikita's soil, I gotta say, one of the things I like about DWC is being able to monitor and correct pH instantly. Nikita is close to the end, no more nutes for her. Her leaves are starting to develop a nice dark purple hue, very cool. Yelena is still trucking along, flowering slowly. I hope she finishes up normally, I can wait as long as she doesn't stall and leave me with undeveloped buds. That would be a crying shame and possibly a crime against humanity

Nikita has a week left before the chop, trichomes are mostly opaque but so far no amber. She smells amazing, buds aren't quite as thick as I had hoped but certainly nothing to sneeze at. Yelena is plugging along at her own rate. I'm seeing a handful of orange hairs so I'm not sure that her buds will get much bigger which would suck monkey balls. Don't know what else I could do - cant give her any more light, she's well fed, not showing any signs of deficiency. The pH is very stubbornly reverting to 6.1-6.2 no matter what I do....its annoying but I dont wanna fuck with the balance too much, if the system insists on a higher pH and everything is working, so be it. I'm definitely no expert, this being my first DWC bit those roots look pretty damn decent to me MAY 21-24 - power outage! Tornado or something took out a shitload of hydro poles and I'm left scrambling to get plants in and outside according to light schedules. Mother nature is a cruel and capricious bitch and isnt supposed to affect my indoor grows. I have filed a complaint with the Universe and expect swift resolution. After 48 hours of dark and no sign of the power coming back, I chopped Nikita a week early :-/ buds still look good but I'm sure they coulda been better, maybe the 48 hours darkness will help like some say The verdict is still out on Yelena, power has only been on for a few hours. I did an immediate reservoir change, it smelled a little funky, like an aquarium in need of cleaning. The roots seem pretty good, solid and not at all slimy. The plant itself actually looks pretty good, all things considered, the hairs on her buds are standing straight up, something I've come to interpret as an early sign of stress and eventual foxtailing

Yelena is still slowly limping to the finish line....reservoir temps were above 20° this week and I wound up with some sorta microbial growth in my other DWC set up, possibly with this as well. I couldn't see any growth but the res solution was cloudier than usual...changed the reservoir immediately and added 3mL/L hydrogen peroxide - fingers crossed.

91 days old at the start of this week. Swapped out her reservoir for plain pH'd water to flush for 3 days before the chop. I should get a respectable yield off Yelena but I have my doubts about whether she'll make anything worth smoking. The severe stunting in weeks 3 & 4 had a lasting effect, even tho the growth afterwards was so explosive you would never know she struggled at one point. Nikita has another week of curing before the final verdict. Sadly, I only got 36g off her.

Why do they ask for the wet weight? Who gives a shit about that? The dry weight was 54g, 36 from Nikita and 18 from Yelena. The soil grow went well, the DWC had some problems along the way, expected growing pains. The DWC seemed to work amazing once I had sufficient lighting but it seems the damage was done. She grew big and had lots of bud sites but the buds themselves were pitiful in size and likely potency. Once cured, Yelena's buds will be used for baking....Nikita's early quality testing has been promising, enough to make up for Yelena's disappointing returns