Bruce Banner - first DWC

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...