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.