Bruce Banner - first DWC

Oh my goodness... when I went in to check on this little lady tonight, I thought I would just prepare a new bucket of water for when her roots decided to descend from the pot - and THEY HAVE!!!!! So I'm putting in this new week - couldn't take a picture of the roots as the light was not favorable so I'll take one tomorrow and add it. YAY!!!!! I mixed up a batch of 1/2 strength nutes for her - and since this doesn't allow for indicating grams, this is what I've got going for her: 3.5 gallons of water 4 grams Dakine420 Base 4 grams Dakine420 Grow TDS: 350 PH: 5.6 09/14 - not going to take pictures of the roots descending from the pot... have been advised by one of my mentors (@SwissKush) that this is a terrible idea... apparently you're not supposed to even open the bucket let alone lift the pot out to take a picture of the root system as this will tend to stunt their development... which brings a problem into my grow... the only way I have of emptying the bucket and replacing the water (or even checking the pH/EC) is to lift the pot out of it... so it's time for some handy dandy fixit... I've ordered a hand pump that will be here Thursday... once it's here, I will double-check the OD of the pipe and will drill a hole in the top large enough to accommodate it and find a way to plug it up when I don't need access... (that problem is going to rumble around in my brain but I know I'll figure out a solution). That way, I can pump out a little of the water (1/4 cup?) to measure the pH and EC and can also use it to empty the bucket when I need to replace the water/nute solution. When I need to clean the bucket (if I need to clean it), I'll have a second bucket on stand-by with pH'd water and quickly transfer the pot to that bucket for the short amount of time I will need to clean the grow bucket and refill with water/nutes... What an adventure! I'm loving it! Updated: I was concerned about the pH since when I changed up the water to add nutes to it, the pH had risen from 5.6 at the beginning to 6.8... Now, that wasn't particularly a problem when the roots hadn't descended to the water yet but since I had seen the roots last night, thought I ought to check. Long story short: the pH had indeed risen overnight from 5.6 to 6.4 so I had to make adjustments.. prepared a small second bucket with 6.0 water (no need to get TOO fussy) and quickly transfered the pot to it so I could work on the pH issues. I've since learned that the pH will not be stable at the very beginning and so it's normal that it needs adjusting every day - or maybe even twice a day - but that it will eventually stabilize and I can quit that sort of hoohaw... And btw - THOSE ROOTS!!!!!!!! They had grown about 3" (8cm) overnight! And they are DEFINITELY in the water now! Just unbelievable... just unbelievable... 09/15 - Bruce is now 9 days old and the first leaves are looking a bit wonky which I attribute to the pH fluctuations that were going on over the past couple of days. The pH has started to settle down now - it had been 6.4 yesterday morning and I adjusted it down to 5.8... this morning, it was up to 6.0 and I've left it alone. But early days, the swing was a full point (5.8-6.8!) and that had to have had a bad effect on the poor seedling. The TDS is also coming down... I had added a bit of calmag a couple of days ago which brought the TDS up to about 366 but this morning it's down to 350 so she's consuming some nutes which is good (I think!). I MAY have screwed up in feeding her so early - it's a rookie mistake to do so but I just couldn't help myself... If the wonkiness extends to the secondary leaves, I'll probably give her a flush... I had also been procrastinating about the humidity... this morning, however, the gauge read 35% humidity and that was enough to get me off my hind-end and get the humidifier out... Comfortably up to 50% and I'm pleased. UPDATE : This afternoon, she looked terrible - and I mean TERRIBLE! Finally figured out what I had been doing wrong - I had stopped watering the Root Riot through the pebbles thinking, erroneously, that I didn't need to do that since her roots were in water... but it is absolutely necessary! We'll see how she is in the morning... 09/16 - Morning found her looking a lot better - her first two leaves will never look good again, so they're pretty crispy, I just snipped them off - better not to be reminded of what a dodo bird I've been! Her secondary leaves have perked back up and do not appear dry and crispy any more so that's definitely positive... and they seem to be showing some interesting colors - I just hope that's "normal." I'm getting a very good education here... LOL! My pH pen decided to go on the fritz as well this morning - desperately needed cleaning so that's being done. I'll recalibrate and be ready to go with that, too. Meanwhile, the hand pump arrived yesterday and I will be burning a hole in the top of the bucket to accomodate that so I can easily withdraw some water to test pH and TDS as well as add nutes/pHDown if necessary. What a journey.

She's struggling... my stupidity is to blame, CERTAINLY not the seed! I really doubt she has much of a future but I'm letting her run just for the fun of it. I will change out the reservoir today once my new pH pen is here... I wish I could use the chemical ph testing strips or liquids... but they're useless to me since I can't afford cataract surgery at the moment and seeing specific colors is rather like looking through mud. So many things have conspired against this little one... along with a stupid, rookie mistake the biggest problem has been my pH pen dying on me. So all I've been able to do is to monitor the TDS and water level... Drilled a hole in the lid to access the water without having to take the entire lid off (poor design omission here!)... covered the hole with duct tape to keep the light out. She now seems to be drinking a lot of water which is a good sign - but I still think I stunted her at a crucial time and will be surprised if she actually DOES anything. At 2 weeks old, I would have expected a larger plant... but I have to keep in mind I trimmed off her first set of leaves (rather than have them crumble into the clay pebbles!). BUT, I soldier on! 09/21 - Day 15 and she's looking a lot better. Started her on a flush last night as I got my temporary pH pen... I was happy to see the pH hadn't increased very much although it was a little too high... the flush is sorting her out and my hope for this grow is increasing. Have decided not to add nutes again for a couple of days at least as I want to see how she does without them - Time will tell! 09/22 - Day 16 and she looks fantastic - at least I think she does! She's had a wonderful bit of growth in the last 24 hours.. both upward and outward... and she seems terribly happy - which makes ME happy! Still having to keep adjusting the pH about 3 times a day but I don't mind.. I don't quite understand why that is but I just accept it as fact. She doesn't have nutes in her reservoir so it's just my wonky well water... going to do a little more reading on maintaining a good pH balance... 09/23 - Day 17... contemplating putting her on some nutes here in the next couple of days. I think she'd benefit but I'm a little wary as I had given her nutes much too early before and nearly lost her because of it... and as I write that, I've made the command decision to start them up again but this time at 1/4 dose just to see how she does.. I'll report back tomorrow! 9/24 - Day 18... gave her 1/4 dose last night of nutes (1.75g Dakine420 Base, 1.75g Dakine420 Grow) and she hasn't batted an eyelash... really pleased! The EC seems to be going down today - will check it again tomorrow and may give her another 1/4 dose. I'm so glad I'm taking these daily pictures... if I hadn't been doing that, I wouldn't think she was growing very much - but it's clear when looking at all of the photos, she really IS growing and growing well! So pleased I kept her going! 9/25 - Day 19... Gave her another 1/4 dose of nutes today - the EC was falling but the pH remained stable... she's also drinking 1/3 gallon each day which is terrific. The EC was down tonight from where it was this morning when I gave her that extra dose... I plan on increasing the nutes next week.. Little lady won't be kept down! 9/26 - Day 20... pH and EC are stable and she's doing really well.. a little bit of discoloration is still seen from her early life but obviously I'm not worried about that at all. Everything is just super but I'm realizing just how much record keeping goes into a DWC grow... FAR more than a soil grow ... but keeping track of all the essential variables - EC, pH, temp, water useage - is what makes this method of growing astounding... at the first sign of an imbalance, moves can be made to correct them rather than having to wait until something shows up in the color of the leaf and then having to figure out if it's a toxicity, deficiency, pH imbalance or whatever and having to play catch-up to get the plant back on track...

Happy 3rd Week Birthday, little one! You can see the lowest leaves exhibit the damage that was done in her first week... but she's gotten past that and is doing really well. I'm going to change out her reservoir today and increase the TDS as she needs a better color... needs more nitrogen! I've been really hesitant to increase her feed because of the early problems but I think she's now at the point where she can tolerate them much better. And I usually take pictures of her at night - these were taken in the morning and I was excited to see the growth that had happened over night! Wheeeeee!!! 09/30 - gave her 1/2 strength grow nutes - Mixed up FloraMicro, FloraBloom and Flora Grow in a gallon jug, she needed 1/2 gallon to bring the reservoir up to full. TDS 215, pH 6.4. 10/01 - she has not tolerated the grow nutes at all. Veins in the leaves are all red and she has not been drinking any water at all. The TDS has risen to 217 and the pH has risen to 6.5. I think this little girl is destined for the dustbin. I just don't know what to do nor do I have time in which to do it - she should be going into preflower and she's just not ready either in terms of health OR in terms of height... Don't feel there's much use in continuing to work with her.

Never say never with this little one.... she's bound and determined to live and live well... despite anything I might do to prevent it! 10/06 - she'll be in pre-flower any day now... 10/07 - she's gobbling up the nutes which is fabulous... I'm going to clean out her reservoir and start her on a strong bloom nute feed. 10/10 - I'm seeing zero evidence of flowers at this point and she'll be 5 weeks old tomorrow. I think I screwed her up just too much at the beginning... I'll give her one more week but then I'm going to pull the plug...

This is a bit goofy... I can't figure out whether this lady is in flower or not... she's not given me the typical indication - but damn, the second photo here sure looks like she's putting out flowers... If you've got an opinion, please let me know in the comments! Increased her EC to .8 today although I think it should be 1.0 - I'm just a little leery of feeding her too much given her history. I'll leave this be for a couple of days and if there's no adverse reaction, I'll increase it again. I'm on pins and needles with her... but #2 is REALLY benefiting from all my trials with this one... at least SHE will be a good grow even if this one isn't. 10/13 - she didn't react well at all to the increased EC so I had to take it back down. I just don't know what to do for this lady - she's bunching up at the top, pre-flower or flowers everywhere but all jammed together.... want to get her stretching but she won't take more nutes... raised the lights... no effect. Sigh. I'll keep trying! 10/14 - started opening up a bit, which is a good sign. Have decided she's in pre-flower, not flower... really a late one on this score... wondering if #2 will be as late in her development... we shall see! Added some Terpinator to the reservoir today... should have started it earlier but that only speaks to the level of gloom I had about her in general... 10/15 - moved her into the tent by herself today as #2 was needing a lot more space - her leaves had been bumping up against the side of the closet and clearly was saying "move out of my way!" ... This lady will be happy in the tent... I've done a lot of LST on her to open her up and get her to grow outwards and I think her overall shape is more condusive to growing in the tent whereas #2 will be able to fill out the closet beautifully. I MAY try ponytailing her as well but the time for that may have passed... still, going to consider it. Going easy on the FloraMicro and only using 1/2 strength of what is recommended as it has a ton of nitrogen in it and that always makes me very nervous as plants go into flower... Decided against ponytailing... she's just about in flower now... did some defoliation and more LST today and bumped her EC to 0.9... She's looking quite happy! Amazing... 10/16 - looked quite bad this morning... leaves curled down, pretty unhappy... Was going to change out the reservoir until I had to go to the ER and didn't get back for 6 hours.. and by the time I was back, she was all happy again. Weird lady... 10/17 - Still a happy camper today.... EC and pH holding steady... did some leaf-tucking to get the bud sites more light but still no sign of actual flowers.... so the wait continues.

Pretty plant. Fairly happy plant (finally). Smells lovely. But still no sign of flowers. I really do think she's just not going to amount to anything here... I'm giving her one more week... and then I might pop another seed instead. Changed up the reporting on this - rather than ppm, I'm now reporting EC... but to keep record, the ppm is 436 10/20 - She's really starting to go now.. drinking a lot of water, going through the nutes... not giving me the "normal" signs of being in flower but... I'm starting to worry I'm not going to have the headroom for her in my tent! Going to have to do some crazy stuff with the lights soon. Trying to LST her enough so that's not a worry but she refuses to grow "out" - she insists on growing "up"! Can't imagine what she would have been had I not screwed her up so badly at the beginning... but no, I'm not going to give up on her... she WILL be fine! 10/21 - She's going crazy now.. I do believe she's in flower and she's drinking up a storm. Cleaned out the reservoir and added new nutes for her today. EC now stands at 1.0 and I hope to get her up to the max of 1.2 in a few days... Also raised the pH to 6.2 and I'm very happy with that as well... My cat has also given her stamp of approval - she's now demanding to take her naps in the tent... smells just delicious in there! 10/22 - Damn, I'm proud of this lady - for standing up to me, for telling me "hit me with your best shot" .. she took every mistake I made and turned it around... she was NOT going to be denied! Need to get in and get more defoliation going... 10/23 - She's going to give me a harvest... that's really all I care about, especially since I had no hope of it at the beginning! It won't be a massive harvest and that's ok.. I'll be exceedingly happy with whatever she has to offer... and who know, I might be surprised! But the harvest won't hold a candle to what I'm going to get from #2... I still love them both the same...

What a champ! She didn't even blink an eye at the massive defoliation I did... she's eating and drinking and going to give me a pretty good harvest I think. Just amazing! Going to bump up the EC today to 1.2 and keep it there for the rest of her run... Honestly, I'm so impressed with this little lady, I can hardly believe her... and to think there were so many times I was going to throw in the towel and start over... I'm glad she wasn't able to read my thoughts! 10/27 - She continues to humble me... her persistence makes me ashamed of my earlier pessimism... each bud site is stacking - there will be few, if any small single buds (not talking "popcorn" but rather decent sized but still single buds)... She's plowing through the water and the nutes .... I've got the lights up as high as they can go unless I end up having to rest them on top of the top crossbars of the tent (which I may have to do!). I may try to eliminate or at least mitigate that problem with some creative LST efforts... she won't mind... she hasn't really minded anything I've done.. Also going to do a little bit more defoliation today... 10/28 - EC and pH are both nice and stable... she's gone through about 1/2 gallon since yesterday so will top up the reservoir. Didn't get the defoliation done yesterday.. heading in to do it NOW! :-D 10/31 - Haven't been terribly attentive to this part of the diary - but there's been little to say! She's doing really well, drinking a lot and handling a LOT of defoliation like a champ... And tomorrow, she turns 8 weeks old... I'm thinking she's going to run for another 5 weeks or so... Buds are rather slow growing at this moment in time but again, I'm not worried about her at all ...

11/01 - What a lady. She's getting a reservoir change today, keeping the same ppm/EC and pH.... make her an even happier camper... at least I hope so! I'm just so amazed each and every day with her... I'm truly glad I've got a ways to go with her because I'll be quite sad when I don't have her to check on any more... but that's at least 5 weeks away, perhaps more... and now she's got a tent-mate... the Pink Kush... thought I'd put her in with this baby so she could learn a thing or two! LOL! 11/02 - She's doing the same thing my #2 is doing... precipitous drop in the pH - I can't figure out why or how that's happening... I think at this point, I should change out her reservoir anyway so I'm going to do this this afternoon.... Took Pinky out of the tent so this lady is once again all alone in there... but that's ok, I think she likes being special! 11/03 - pH has stabilized after the reservoir change and she's looking pretty good. I think I might be seeing some sign of calcium deficiency and will have to keep my eye on that one... maybe hit her up with a small dose of calmag since pH and EC are in the right range and it's certainly not a nitrogen toxicity... 11/04 - she's telling me this morning that she's got a bit too much to eat and I need to drop it down by 0.1... the pH is also rising to unacceptable levels so I'll take care of that at the same time. While I'm lowering the EC, I'm going to add a dose of calmag just to be on the safe side with her... She's also looking like she needs another haircut so I might do a bit of defoliation while I'm doing everything else. The way the trichs are all over even the fan leaves is unbelievable... Don't really know how to save those trichs as I do some defoliation ... but I don't think I'm going to worry any about it... you see, I don't actually USE the stuff I grow - I just like growing! LOL! 11/05 - Did some defoliation last night and you couldn't tell it this morning... buds are stacking up really nicely and I still pinch myself because I can't believe this lady was one I almost pitched... holy smokes! 11/07 - Day 62 and she's looking quite happy. EC is stable, pH is stable but I think it's too high... however, she doesn't show any signs that anything is wrong so I'm just going to go with the flow here... the dose of calmag seems to have done its work and there are no more signs of a calcium deficiency brewing. The main cola is really stacking up as are the side buds - and they're stretching up as well (which I hadn't noticed until I compared photos between today and a few days ago! - It really is an amazing and useful thing to do to take daily photos!)

11/08 - I have never had a plant with more trichomes on it... I defoliated a couple of days ago and it was akin to doing a wet trim - fingers and scissors were all sticky! @SwissKush told me it would be filled with resin but not even that warning prepared me for this! Just amazing... Her buds are bulking up and I'm just in awe... just in awe... 11/10 - changed out her reservoir yesterday and was very interested to note that her root system is about half of what my #2's is... which only makes sense given the abuse I showered on this lady at the beginning of her life. One result of that is a far more compact plant ... but damn is she frosty! She's looking good, happy with her new and elevated nutes.... all's well! 11/12 - Happy as a clam, buds are all bulking up and everything is frosty... Still have plenty of weeks (4?) to go. 11/14 - Have had a houseguest for the last couple of days... while I love some company once in a while, it really interferes with my daily routine so I've missed a few of the daily photos. She's doing well and just keeps getting frostier and frostier!

Oh my frosty, FROSTY lady! I've never seen even the fan leaves covered with trichomes but she's only got maybe 3 or 4 leaves that DON'T have trichs on them... Just incredible! Her pistils are just starting to brown so I'm think another 2-3 weeks and I can harvest this darling... definitely going to have to save all the trim - and I mean ALL the trim... put it to use in some edibles... 11/16 - The next improvement in cameras, imho, needs to be the ability to capture smells... This lady is SO sweet smelling, SO lovely - I wish I could share it with all of you! She's doing extraordinarily well, EC and pH nice and stable... no need of any adjustments today, happily! 11/17 - Just bumbling along, nice and stable EC and pH... but showing a few signs of additional magnesium deficiency so I'll change out the reservoir and add a bit more calmag to the mix. Looked at the trichs this morning for the first time with a loupe - they're still all clear so she still has some bulking up to do which I'm very happy about... 11/20 - I think I should have given this one more haircuts along the way - perhaps the buds would be larger - but I just couldn't find it in myself to do that... not with all those luscious trichs all over the place... I think I'm more in love with THEM than anything else! I know people will tell me I could have been trimming them and making some edibles... but my "thing" is just to grow... and with this wee one, I'd hurt her so much in the early days, I didn't want to nip at her when she's looking so gorgeous... She's chugging right along... EC and pH are incredibly stable, she's drinking a ton - almost a gallon a day - I've bumped up the EC to 1.3 and she's liking it... at least she's not complaining!

You know, I have nothing but admiration for this strain from @Fastbuds... seriously. What a gigantic mess I made of her - and she seems to be sticking her tongue out at me and saying "You. Can't. Defeat. Me." ... Gotta love that attitude! Starting to have a few problems with the pH - it keeps going down. This morning it was at 5.7 which is much lower than I want it - and her EC had gone up to 1.5. She'd also gone through about a gallon of water so I simply gave her a gallon of my tap water... which fixed both measurements since my tap water is really high and basically contains nothing... we'll see how things pan out in the next couple of days... if the EC continues to rise, she's leaching nutes and I'll have to adjust even further... 11/24 - Well, Thanksgiving intervened in my daily record keeping (which wasn't very "daily" any more! LOL!)... I changed out her bucket yesterday and ramped up the EC as well as the pH and this morning she was happy as a clam. EC stable, pH stable... can't ask for better than that! And while I was at it, I decided that it really WAS time for a haircut so she got scalped... I took off a ton of fan leaves from all over and it's really opened up the middle so air flow is vastly improved - and the lower sections of each bud site can now get good light and the stacking out to proceed in earnest... I had resisted for so long because I just thought she was gorgeous and wanted to please my eyes rather than please her... my bad... My buddy and I have a bet as to how much will come from her... I'm saying about 1oz (I really need to be punished for what I did to her!) but he thinks it will be more like 2... I can't see that myself. Think I still have another 3 weeks with her at least so maybe she'll fatten up beyond my wildest expectations... 11/28 - She's enjoyed her haircut... didn't react at all and the buds are fattening up nicely. I STILL think she has a ways to go, though.

11/29 - At this point in the game, plants don't ever look much different day-to-day! I'm wondering, though, if this one is showing her starting to fade... it's either that or she's needing some stronger PK nutes... any thoughts? 12/2 - I'm going to start winding her down... gotta pick up some Ripen and some Flawless Finish ... Probably going to have to shorten the period of time I use these products but hell, she's pretty used to me screwing up - LOL! 12/03 - so my local grow store was out of Ripen - so I guess I'm going to forget that one... I'm going to let her go until Tuesday when she will be exactly 13 weeks old and start a 3-day flush using General Hydroponics FloraKleen (they also did not have Flawless Finish!).... Planning to chop her next Saturday unless the amber hasn't really made its presence known... We'll see.... I'm just going to go by what she tells me... but it really IS time, old girl... it really is. 12/04 - Doing a bucket change today, she's going to an EC of 0.2-0.4 or thereabouts and I'm not going to worry about the pH - my tap water is about 7.5 so that's what she's getting unless I relent and drop it to the upper 6's - I'm just not going to overly concern myself with it. I think her bulking has finished and SHE needs to finish up. Found a few amber on leaves in the middle of the plant and I know those can really be rather ignored .... but I'm still concerned about the trichs on the main cola - haven't seen much change between milky and clear for a while now... so it's puzzling to me. Maybe the drop in EC will kick her into truly finishing... if it doesn't, I can always bring the EC back up, the pH back down and keep her going... She's always been my "experiment" - always been my "tester" - so why not experiment at this stage of her life as well?!

12/06 - starting to flush her out, hoping the trichs will start turning amber before too long. I'm guessing at a 2 week flush which is going overboard but that's ok... God knows what kind of harvest I'll get out of her... she may surprise me (she has surprised me SO many times during her life!) .... I just hope I haven't been too impatient wanting to get her to harvest... 12/08 - from all I've heard, all I've read, I've decided she needs to be chopped and so will do it today. Honestly not looking forward to it - think I might need a hazmat suit to keep the stickyness away but off I go!!!

12/08 - Just starting my wet trim efforts... I'll be back to fill out more info! I don't weigh wet buds... quite frankly, too much of that measurement comes from stems and branches which aren't going to be in the dry weight!