Inaugural Grow: Auto Northern Lights

NOV 2 (DAY 37): Well, another week begins... I think I have worked out what my biggest issues are right now (which is not to say that I have resolved them -- and on that note, PLEASE feel free to chime in with any suggestions. ALL HELP IS MUCH APPRECIATED!!): - Watering: The plants seemed pretty happy being watered ~1200ML 2x/wk (once with nutes, once without) until last week, when they all just started drooping. The plants seem to be sucking up water much faster now than they were before (haha, go figure), which makes me think I'll be watering 3-4x/wk. I'm going to stick with 1200ML each watering for now. Chances are, it will take me another week or so to hone in on that perfect schedule/amount. - Nutrient Deficiencies: For the most part, I had been mixing the liquid nutes in store-bought distilled water, and I'm guessing that either (a) the distilled water lacked calcium, leading to a deficiency; or (b) somehow I have locked out some important nutrient(s) and it is presenting like a calcium deficiency. I have added Cal Mag Plus to my weekly feeding schedule, so we'll see what happens with new growth. I still don't know what I'm doing. - Ultra high TDS: The TDS of my nutrient solution is sky high (between 1300 and 2300, depending on what's in there). I need to test the TDS and PH of the soil today to see what's up with all of that. This is the part of growing I am having the most difficulty working out. NOV 3 (DAY 38): I took a big chance today and did some massive defoliation of my LST'ed plants. I cut out the branches with immature bud sites that were completed shaded out in my comparison plant. The defoliation of the other two plants opened up the canopy, allowing air to get in. Hopefully the plants will bounce back. Plant 3 looks a little mad, but it's hard to tell if that's the defoliation or my nutrient issue. NOV 7 (DAY 42): Plants 2 and 3 are sporting the start of some nutrient burn at the tips of their fan leaves, so now it's time to see what happens with flushing. I have given each plant a gallon of filtered, PH-balanced water. Runoff from the plants measured between 1800 and 2300 ppm, so I will flush again in a couple of days. Despite the sky high TDS readings, the plants look pretty good. Everyone bounced back from the defoliation, and I think we are now in a better place. TL;DR: N00b growmie + trial by error = a yoyo effect between good and not so good. Defoliation = good. Overfeeding = bad. Nutrient burn starting after too heavily feeding. Ended the week with some flushing.