1st grow - Grandmommy Purple - *Now DWC*

11/26 - 12/3 Week 12 (week 4 after cutting transplant) 12/1 - Heyo. So as usual there's a lot going on here since last update. Not sure where to start. Let's start with the problems I guess. So the mesh bag for the roots is good in theory I think, but in practice it's stupid. I thought I would have solved my issue with the bag's micron hole size by seeking a smaller micron'd bag. Nope. The roots grow through the smaller micron bag, just less to. But they still do it. It actually might be worse with the smaller micron bag because the roots sheer off more easily. This is leading to secondary issues caused by the bags. As broken off root arms collect by the drain holes and start to impede draining. This leads to over filling. At this time I am not sure how to handle this... The roots sheer/break off when I separate them. I found an easier way to clean up the bags. But I cannot be cleaning roots out of the bags on a weekly basis especially when the plants get bigger and are flowering. I am also experiencing PH issues. Well less PH issues than me just being lazy and not checking as much as I should. But damn the water needs like daily adjustments and it's starting to get to be a little much. There are several factors I think working against me here. The PH has been spiking up faster than I expected it and I caught it higher like 6.4 and 6.2. This is leading to burnt tips on my new leaf growth. I was doing so good keeping the PH in check but I just don't know. There were some issues with the aluminum foil I was using to block the light from getting into the reservoirs between the buckets and the reservoir lids. The issue is that when the buckets overfill the excess water runs out the side and back into the res. This is fine, but some gets on the foil and the way I was applying the foil it started holding water. So I had to get rid of some of the foil on each res. I was way too lazy apparently to replace it for a few days so the reservoirs definitely had major light leaks. I think the increase in light reaching the reservoir water in addition to the frequent amount of time the air stones were going off in the reservoirs contributed to a faster than expected rise in PH. I say this because when I changed the reservoir on 11/29, I didn't dispense the new mix to the plant reservoirs for like an hour after I mixed it up. I left the air stone running in the mixed nutes during this time and when I came back the PH went from 5.5 to 5.9 after 1-2 hours of doing nothing but getting airstone air. I had it perfectly PH'd at 5.5 when I left it. So it jumped fast and that made me think about the airstone as that was the only variable I could think of that would have raised the mix like that. So I reduced the airstone time on from 30 mins 12 times per day to 30 mins 4 times a day. So reducing the airstone time in addition to being more light tight has helped in stopping the fast PH rise. I am also checking more frequently as waiting 2 days to check isn't something I am going to have the privilege of doing. I also have been really lazy about buying distilled water for the humidifier to boost RH%. I mean, that is probably the most annoying expense for me in this whole thing. To have to constantly buy distilled water so the ultrasonic humidifier doesn't blast out calcium dust. At least the bigger these plants are getting raises the base humidity in the tent due to transpiration. So the neutral RH is around 50 and I'm technically cool with this. But I do want to raise it up closer to 70 for aggressive vegetative growth. This actually leads me to a serious question I keep asking myself... When should I initiate flowering? I really have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just making it up as I go along and throwing stuff at a wall to see what sticks and what doesn't. It's getting to a point now that I know I can initiate flowering now. But like what is the point of doing that? Alternatively, what is the point of waiting? I'm thinking I'm going to go another 1-2 weeks and then start flowering. But I guess I am planning for a doubling of the plant's height. So I might wait until a height I am good with doubling. Should really only be another 1-2 weeks for that. I am also terrible at shaping the plants. I think half the time I feel like I'm a little over my head and this is all going to fall apart soon. This is due to the design of my system. Like WTF is this brown slime in the reservoir every week. Wow that was hard to type without including cussing. I think I hate advanced nutrients. Part A, B-52, and Cal-Mag xtra are disgusting. The solutions are like brown with suspended material in the solution. I can tell this is what falls out of suspension and like coats everything touching water in the reservoirs. I think I'm going general hydroponics next grow cause in those bottles they look like clear normal fluid not some kind of nutrient slurry that I have to clean up all the time. I feel like I am always working on solutions to problems I am causing. lololol. I just want a perfect system with none of these stupid issues. If I could just solve the root containment issue, have light tight reservoirs, get perfect draining times every time, and make changing the reservoirs 10x easier I would be a happy man. So all that and I have not said anything about the plants yet. The plants, with all MY issues aside, are doing awesome. Or at least I think they are doing awesome. As I have no one to tell me if I'm doing it right and no in person guidance or training. Either way, They seem to be doing great. This week I did a bunch of things to each plant. There was LST, pruning, and I tried my hand at super-cropping. I cleaned up all the plant's undergrowth and got rid of bottom shoots. Sawtooth had crazy undergrowth and I cleaned that up really nicely. The plant exploded after. I never super-cropped anything before but I would practice on leaf stems I would cut off the plant during the past 12 weeks so I knew what to expect when I tried it on a growing stem or a leaf on the plant still. I'd say I had 75% success with the failures being ones that just stood back up a little bruised. But otherwise using LST and Super-cropping I'd say I am doing a pretty good job of keeping all the plants at the same height. Although, plant B looks like it has the best structure. Since I topped it 1 week before plant C or D this changed the shape of the plant dramatically. As plant B is more of a wide bottom growing in like a candelabra shape vs plant C and D's more classical xmas tree shape. This just means plants C and D will need more LST and training to keep it in line. I can't really think of anything else at the moment. If I do, I'll update. ---- OH, I boosted the nutes up a bit ============================================================================================================ Updated photos and updates will be in the week I'm about to post