First Grow, DWC NightOwl Heartbreaker

3/9/21: They both popped up this morning!! Slightly more than 72 hours from germination, and I was a very nervous parent wanting to check on them all the time and make sure I didn't overwater. I'll remove the humidity dome once they establish themselves fully upright. The journey begins!! 3/10/21: Added 2 new photos. Already learned my first lesson! I didn't lower the humidifier after the seeds popped up (it was still around 85%), and I thought I was being careful watering by only using a needle dropper, but apparently, that was still too much and these rapid rooters retain a lot. I took the rapid rooters out and squeezed the excess water. Also, I forgot to take a pic but there was a single, healthy root popping out of the bottom of both rapid rooters! I placed the rapid rooters back, lowered the humidity to 65%, turned the light brightness from 30% to 60%, and tried to give enough room between the water spashing, the hydroton, and the rapid rooter bottom to give enough oxygen in the beginning. I plan to lower the water once the roots extend more. I will check back in several hours to see if this has helped the droopiness. The true leaves are starting to come out for both as well! PH - 5.8 PPM - 250 Temp - 72 Humidity - 85% 3/11/21: Added 2 new photos. One true leaf came out a bit twisted (I'm thinking b/c of the previous humidity issue), but looks like I was able to fix the other one in time. Still no tap root popping out of the net pot yet. I added like 2ml (maybe) to each of them since I still think the rapid rooters are probably moist. PPM jumped a bit to 350, but I think I'll leave the water how it is for now, and see how they do once the taproot actually extends. Water level is just barely touching the netpot and bubbles SHOULD be hitting the bottom of the rapid rooter. PH - 5.88 PPM - 320 Temp - 72 Humidity - 70% 3/12/21: Not really much development today. First set of true leaves are getting slightly bigger, but that's pretty much it. Got a new crazy air stone that fill the entire bucket with bubbles. I'm soaking it in water overnight and will look at swapping it in tomorrow. Also, I ordered another air pump as backup, and may think about running both at the same time -- is there such a thing as too many bubbles? Also, I'm going to add a vid cam so I stop going to peek in the tent every hour -- cannabis isn't addictive, but growing it certainly is! 3/13/21: Still not too much development today. True leaves still getting bigger. There is the smallest hint of new leaves coming up in the middle of both plants, so that's a good sign. I set up a baby cam (a la Wyze cams), so I stop peeking in the tent so frequently lol It's working, but now I look at the cam all the time haha The nice thing is I can leave it displayed on a large monitor so it's like I'm in the tent. Still no tap root poking through the netpot yet. I'll check again before I go to bed tonight. Trying to maintain optimal VPD conditions right now for seedlings with the 75-80% RH and 72-73 degrees. 3/15/21: Alright y'all, it's one of the milestones we've been waiting for....ROOTS!! Finally roots are showing out the bottom of both girls. I let out an audible gasp when I saw haha Helen, of course, has a bit more that have stretched further into the res, while Heather is just poking a couple out. I did a metric check and everything is way off, so I'm going to do a full res change in a bit since they are finally touching the water now. I realize how silly it was of me to fill the res up in the first place, but this is my first grow, and a lesson was learned. I've also been doing a lot of research on VPD to try and optimize the Temp/RH. After re-mixing each res, I'm now at the following: PH - 5.85 (close enough) PPM - 500-550 Temp - 74 Humidity - 68%

3/16: First week officially complete, and on to week 2! Did a res change yesterday and today the pH was off and the ppm from yesterday was pretty high (500ish), so I took about 2 gallons from each bucket out, added 2 gallons of distilled water (note to self: water distiller already paying off), and then pH down until each one was around 5.8. ppm on each was still higher than I'd like, but I'll keep checking and see how the girls take to it. At least 5 or more healthy roots popping out of the bottom of each net pot. For the tech people out there, I now have my Wyze cam using RTSP and sending all video feed to my Synology NAS, which is running Surveillance Station. I just set it up to take a pic every day, so that I can hopefully create a cool timelapse thing. For now, I put up pic one. I won't put up every day unless there's some serious growth. I expect the pH values to rise slowly over the week, and I'll adjust the ppm depending on the leaves. Heather (top if looking at cam pic) 423 ppm 5.67 pH Helen (bottom if looking at cam pic) 375 ppm 5.74 pH air temp: 74F leaf temp: ~70 RH: 69.5% VPD (leaf): .53 kPa 3/17 - not too much development today. metrics are pretty much the same as well. I added 2 SensorPush sensors to better track VPD. So far, I'm loving them! 3/18 - showing super-fast growth now that the roots have hit the water! Second set of true leaves are looking good, and I can see the 3rd about to poke out. Roots on both look healthy. 3/19 - measured all the typical stats in my handwritten notebook but too lazy to add here for now. They're both drinking a lot of nutes, so I may need to add a bit more for the next res recycle. Both roots have tripled in size since 3/17 (see pics). The leaves are also starting to develop quicker now that the roots are in the res. everything is going pretty swell so far 3/20 - Heather is now growing slightly faster, more vigorous than Helen (see pics)! I increased the light intensity from 50% to 65%. I plan to increase to 75% once the next node appears, and after I make sure that 65% isn't overkill. The roots on both are incredible! I love this aspect of DWC! They are starting to get "hairy" as well, maybe thanks to the rapid start? I'm not seeing any obvious deficiencies or issues so far! I'm averaging slightly less than 1 kPa for VPD for both plants. Based on the ppm/pH info below and what was initially put in, it looks like I may have put slightly too many nutes in, but not by too much. I will probably stick with my schedule for now unless I notice any issues. Heather: 441 ppm 6.0 pH Helen: 389 ppm 5.93 pH 3/22 - Getting to the end of the second week and pH and ppm are still looking good/consistent, so I'm going to hold off on a res change. Added two pics to show how the growth is taking off. Heather still pulling ahead of Helen! Light intensity at 70% now since they have taken well to the previous increase.

3/23 - start of week 3! (aka day 15 since sprout). The girls are looking happy, so I'm not changing anything just yet. They are still drinking an equal portion of nutes to water, and the pH has remained right where I want it. Increasing the light intensity has added a few more degrees to the tent, but well within the desired range. It has been difficult to maintain the desired VPD as this implies a consistently high RH %, and I'm worried that keeping my RH % higher than 75% will cause issues. Roots on both plants are super vigorous and healthy! They are loving the aeration of these bucket air stones! Potentially doing some LST later this week, depending on how quick the growth is Heather: 450 ppm 5.95 pH Helen: 385 ppm 5.89 pH 3/25 - Ok, we have our first deficiency/issue! I'm not 100% sure what happened, but I'm suspecting it was due to one of the following: potentially too much water in the buckets (not enough gap between the netpot and water) and not enough nutes. This is causing slight curling at the tips and droopiness in the leaves, although they still look a healthy green. I did a full res change today. I lowered the water level a bit, and upped the ppm on both, so hopefully, that will take care of both issues. I also got really neurotic about VPD and flipped the tent around so that the humidifier is in a different position to more evenly disperse the vapor. I'm currently re-calibrating both sensors as well since they were pretty different results for being 2 feet away. Since I changed the tent around (including the camera to not get in the way), the continuity of the timelapse will be...interesting haha *** res change day *** pre-res change> Heather: 416 ppm 6.25 pH 71.4 F water temp Helen; 354 ppm 6.31 pH 70.3 F water temp post res-change> Heather: 568 ppm 5.75 pH 58.1 Fwater temp (will rise quickly) Helen; 568 ppm 5.75 pH 57.2 F water temp 3/26 - Posted a question earlier b/c the girls were still not improving after the res change, and actually look a bit worse. Going to trust the advice of the veterans and chalk it up to growing pains. The roots on both girls still look white and healthy and there are even new roots popping out of the netpot still. Just seems like she isn't elongating more, but perhaps that's just the indica bushiness. I took a reading tonght and the ppm is noticeably higher on both at ~ 650 ppm, and the pH has crept up to 6. The temp is already back to 69/70 as expected, but the insulation helps keep it there. I'm replacing some res water with some pHed distilled water to try and lower ppm a bit. Crossing my fingers that I'm just going to wake up tomorrow to some better growth. Lights are at 75% intensity now, still the same distance away from when I started. *after replacing ~.5 gal in each res bucket with .5 gal of pHed distilled water * Heather: 531 ppm 5.94 pH 68.3 F water temp Helen: 588 ppm 5.88 pH 69.3 water temp 3/27 - Unfortunately, the deficiency still seems to be setting in, and I'm not sure what the issue is. All the symptoms seem like root rot, but I feel like I'm doing all the right things: res is at least 1-2" below bottom of netpot, strong air stone with 10W air pump, hydroguard, insulation around bucket to block light, water res at 70F....what am I missing here? I'm going to post a new grow question now that the symptoms are more pronounced, so there will be pics showing the splotching on the leaves. There are still healthy new white roots being developed so I'm really confused why the plant seems stunted, and leaves are drooping and curling. The ppms and pH are the same from the other night which is a good sign (I think). 3/28 - Alright, I think we're making some progress now - at least, they're not appearing worse. The challenge is, there were likely several issues, and a lot of these issues have similar symptoms, so we'll never know for sure. I think it was a combination of the air stone bubbles soaking the rapid rooter medium and causing the drowning-like symptoms, cal-mag issues (evident on the splotches on the lower leaves where they were rubbing against the pot), and "potentially" no sleep! I asked a couple of questions here and Reddit, and I'm going to try a 20/4 or 18/6 light cycle for now, which was suggested by several experienced growers. I think it's crazy that it's 2021 and we don't know for sure what is the optimal light cycle for autos, but I suppose the genetics of every plant are slightly different, and it's hard to be exact. Crossing my fingers that this allows them time to recover and start strecthing. While the leaves seem to be the right size, there is zero stretching (probably from the 'drowning'), and it's going to be an issue later if they're all blocking light. ppm and pH looks good from the other day though! I know some think the nutes are high, but the plants are telling me it's working based on the day-to-day differentials. Heather: 552 ppm 6.03 pH 71.2 Fwater temp (hoping Hydroguard helps so I don't need to decrease temp) Helen: 569 ppm 6.04 pH 70.5 F water temp 3/29 - What a day, where to start. The ladies are looking much, MUCH better. They are actually drinking a lot of nutes! I may need to increase even more next res change. I added 2mL of hydroguard to each res...just because. The root system in both are looking healthy, but the gap between the res and the netpot might be too large now (~5 inches). I'm considering running 2 air stones. Also, (see pics) I felt like the new growth from the top was sufficient to start LST, so I did. Helen took it a lot easier, as Heather's stalk is already starting to firm up, so I didn't want to push anything. I'll likely have to readjust this at some point, but it's a start. I actually didn't realize how many new growth sites were happening underneath all these bushy leaves. I'm sticking with the 20/4 light cycle for now. Heather: 494 ppm (someone was thirsty!) 6.01 pH 69.9 F water temp Helen: 518 ppm (also thirsty!) 5.99 pH 69.2 F water temp 3/30 - Ladies are looking great and spreading out thanks to some leaf tucking and LST on the main branch on both. I may need to do another one tomorrow. I am preparing for not only a res change but a bucket change tomorrow (see pics). I have *NO* idea how I missed this idea, but I am convinced this is the best way to do DWC sans a real water chiller, which just seems excessive unless I'm doing legit rDWC (which I'm not...yet). DWCooler is the way to go, and I don't know why more people aren't doing this vs. the generic 5 gallon bucket + insulation (like myself). Anyway, hopefully, this will help spread the word. The ppm and pH is still in check, so I'll be continuing with my nute schedule and going into the transition week feeding. Tomorrow will officially start week 4! Expect more pics once I get the ladies in their new homes. The cooler water will give more oxygen and Helen needs it. Who would have thought in week 1 that she would be the problem child? Clearly, I'm excited by this new transition to DWC greatness. Heather: 481 ppm 6.07 pH 71.2 F water temp Helen: 516 ppm 6.02 pH 70.7 F water temp Thanks for following 🤙 Always, appreciative of tips or suggestions

3/31 - Very excited for the next iteration of my DWC setup, DWCooler! This is better in every way and should help with the problems I was having earlier. I'm able to fill the buckets more without splashing the rapid rooter, and the colder water will retain more oxygen. Everything fits and looks great in this tinkers' opinion. I'm upping the nutes for the transition week (guessing) and pushing the ladies hard at 575-650 ppm to start. We'll see how that goes! I also upgraded one of my pole fans to an oscillating tower fan. Roots on both ladies are looking healthy and LARGE! Heather: (will add tomorrow) 668 ppm (going aggressive) 5.79 pH (reminder to self to always do 5.7 and let it rise up to 5.8 the next day) Helen: 649 ppm 5.8 pH 3/31 (bonus update!) - ok, had to update. I think I am seeing the first signs of pre-flowering on Heather (see pics). Super cool. That is all. 4/1 - Everything flowered overnight!! ... April Fools! (I almost went a darker route, but did not want to jinx myself!) Ladies seem to be taking well to their new homes and the increased nute/ppm ratio. I've had to do more leaf tucking and training. I can see this becoming a frequent thing until they start stretching out a bit more. Cooler is definitely doing it's thang and the water temps are right where I want them. More pistils are popping out, but Heather's are much more pronounced! Increased light to 85% since they are beginning to flower. Distance from the canopy is about 18" (following Mars Hydro guidelines). I plan to keep increasing the light slowly up every day (assuming things are looking good). The light intensity is definitely increasing the tent temperature. I don't even have the carbon filter in yet, so the fan will have to pull a bit harder. The fan is around 80% probably. I have my tent in my cool basement utility room on the floor...how are other people keeping their tent under 82F when in flower? Heather: 692 ppm (not the direction I wanted but I'm going to leave it as it is for now, and check tomorrow) 5.89 pH 62.6 F water temp Helen: 640 ppm (go Helen!) 5.91 pH 62.6 F water temp 4/2 - Holy growth batman! Heather is popping off! New bud sites and leaves all over the place. I had to do so much leaf tucking and training to try to optimize everything because she's so short as it is. Definitely starting to stretch a bit though! They are both not doing the best on nute ratio, I think I may have to add a bit of phed distilled water, but I'll probably hold off one more day. Definitely starting to notice a faint lemon citrus smell! There's even a couple buds starting to form on the inner nodes, but it's hard to get a pic of. I know they're still droopy with nitrogen excess (i'll have to dial that back next res change), but I'm pretty proud of where things are! 4/4 - Ok, I've been bad at updating the ph,ppm stuff here, but I am tracking in a notepad! I added about 3/4 gallon of pHed distilled water to each res the other night to reduce ppm a bit. Seems like that has been working out well as the growth today is absolutely insane! LST is working well to space the branches out as they stretch, but this is pretty much a daily operation right now as it's still pretty bushy and stout and there are so many leaves coming out. Increased light intensity to 95%. Might go all the way to 100% tomorrow! The faint lemon citrus smell is definitely coming on a bit stronger when I open the tent. I'll need to ask around about when I should start doing some defoliating. ------ Thanks for following 🤙 Always, appreciative of tips or suggestions

4/6 - Well, if you've been following, then you know both ladies are already in the pre-flowering stage (Heather slightly ahead), so I guess it's official...we're in flower stage! They are drinking a decent amount now - about .5-.75 gallons in 1-2 days (I didn't measure exactly). Before, it was pretty hard to tell when teh water level was different day-to-day, but that's not the case anymore! I am leaf tucking and LSTing like crazy every day. I'm also trying my best not to defoliate anything. I've only clipped the two lower branches on Helen that had the deficiencies from the other week. I got a little lazy this week and I had some leftover undiluted res mix from 3/31, which I added back into each res. The ppm isn't as high as I want it to be, so I'll have to do a res change in the next couple days. Hopefully, this should be good for now though. Also, the cooler has been proving extremely useful this week! Temps never got above 70F even though the lights are now at 100%. Is it just me or does the tent not feel as bright now that the plants are absorbing it? *after adding back* Helen: 534 ppm 6.05 pH 66.9 F water temp Heather: 584 ppm 6.11 pH 67.2 F water temp 4/8 - Res change day! The ppm on both ladies is going below 500, so they are clearly thirsty! Did some more LST (doing every day) to try and spread them out more due to the bushiness. It's working out...better for some stems than others. There are just soooo many fan leaves poppin gup and blocking everything -- doing my best to not cut them for now, but once the buds start getting more prominent, I may cut a bit. I moved the fan so that it's in between both plants and centered the lights a bit more. I'm filling the coolers up to the 4 gallon line sine the lid gives me a few more inches. The coolers are still working out great so far. My only concern is that the root ball may get to be too big to move through the cooler lid, but i can always just keep the lid on if that's the case. *POST RES CHANGE* Helen: 725 ppm 5.8 pH 58.2 F water temp Heather: 700 ppm 5.66 pH 55.9 F water temp 4/9 - They're getting out of control! I think I'm done trying to train them out for now - the canopy is close enough! Heather is starting to get more hairs and fill in the bud sites, and Helen is not too far behind. I will definitely have to raise the lights soon. The ppms were pretty high on both ladies today (especially Heather), so I'm going to wait another day, see if they adjust to the higher level, and maybe add some distilled pH water back in to dilute a bit more. The humidity outside the tent is pretty much what I want the inside to be, so other than keeping ppms in check, things have been pretty chill so far. I snipped a few leaves on the bottom that were dying (cotyledons and a couple 3-fan leaves). Not sure that counts as defoliating 4/10 - Added a dehumidifier with inkbird humidity sensor combo to the tent, and removed the humidifier for now. With it being spring here and the plants flowering, I'm trying to remove humidity, not add it. Helen is doing well on her ppm/water ratio, but I might need to dilute Heather's res a bit (it's pretty high). I'm only seeing a slight nute burn on the tips, which is what I was aiming for, so doesn't seem to be causing any issues. Growth today doesn't look too much different than yesterday b/c of the training, but it's getting to the point where I think I want to add a trellis net soon. Adding a trellis will help the future weight of these buds and spread them out more evenly to get light, but will make refilling a bit more difficult. I do have a motorized siphon pump i'll likely use to do this, and leave the coolers/plants in the trellis. We're around the 30ish day or so and this strain has a 75-85 day estimate...hopefully the tent is big enough! 4/11 - Checked the water today, and realized the ladies have been thirstyyyy - already down 1.5 gallons since my last res change 3 days ago. I added some pHed distilled water with cal-mag to replenish the res. Also, decided to set up a trellis/Scrog b/c I can only stretch them out so much further with LST, and figured the trellis would also add some support (these are supposedly dense buds). The dehumidifier is definitely helping during lights off periods to keep the environment more stable. I also defoliated several more leaves on the bottom to give the main roots more air. Helen had a couple of cool 6-fan leaves ** after topping off ** Heather: 760 ppm 5.71 pH 68.5 F water temp Helen: 687 ppm 5.61 pH 69.6 F water temp 4/12 - I'm not sure if putting up the Scrog/trellis was motivation for the ladies, but Heather already has several stems/bud sites weaving into the screen, and Helen is not far behind. Crazy how much growth is happening now! If you've been following from the start, you know that I'm never satisfied with my setup....I. MUST. KEEP. TINKERING! At this point, the next challenge I am facing (albeit out of pure laziness) is how quickly they are drinking (at least 1/2 gallon a day). I'm planning on taking a short vacation in a month, and I wanted to set up some type of auto-top off (ATO) so that I can leave for at least a week and not worry about the res water getting too low. As usual, I spent way too much time researching, and after many, MANY solenoid valves, ATO systems, and float sensors I couldn't take it. All of those solutions had issues - the main issue being that they all had bottlenecks if the device stopped working for any reason. They were also overly complicated b/c they required flood checks, and back up checks, and backup check checks, etc. I knew there had to be an easier solution for keeping my individual cooler res' full without doing full-blown rDWC. The answer (after far too long) is gravity-fed siphoning. Here is a productized version of what I'm thinking of doing, but on a much smaller scale for an Aerogarden (which I also have, and they're awesome!) https://www.aerogarden.com/2020-aerovoir.html . Instead of a 1 gallon container though, I'm planning on using at least a 10 gallon, but I haven't figured out the best position for the tubing yet. Gravity will never fail, and this should be a good temporary solution for short trips. In other news, I moved the grow cam (yet again). They are both doing well on nutes today, with both ppms lower than yesterday. ------ Thanks for following 🤙 Always, appreciative of tips or suggestions

4/13 - Another week already! Did a res change today, and I need to come up with a better system/process. B/c of the setup, I had to use my electric siphon pump, but that was sucking up some of the roots as well (the root balls are huge!). The spigot the cooler comes with is handy for quick samples without disturbing the plants, but trying to empty the reservoir like that SUCKS b/c it is too slow and you have to hold it down the entire time. RDWC is becoming more and more enticing. I will likely have to start topping off instead of draining if I want to maintain the Scrog. That will probably happen anyway due to how fast they are drinking. I'm still ideating over the ATO system...it's insane how complicated hydrostatics is. It's also funny to me that growing can be as simple or as complicated as you make it...guess which camp I'm in. There is definitely a noticeable smell, but not so much that I need to put the carbon filter in yet. My SO says they smell like lemony BO 😂 * POST RES CHANGE * Heather: 860 ppm 5.78 pH 61.8 F water temp Helen: 860 ppm 5.75 pH 63.5 F water temp 4/15 - Things are going steady so far. Since they're drinking at least 1/2 gallon to 3/4 gallon a day now, I topped them off earlier with some diluted leftover nutes from 4/13. This was needed since Heather's ppm shot way up (I'm thinking it's from some of the dead roots that I wasn't able to clean yet). After adding back, the ppms are both looking good and where I want them. I'm not seeing any resin yet on the leaves. Good news everyone! I believe I have found a much simpler way to solve both my vacation and res change challenges! I'm going to set up a separate reservoir to each cooler (I've already bought 2 more igloo coolers, $22 at my local walmart), and have a pipe/tube connecting them at the bottom. The igloo cooler spigot is removable (thank god), so I don't need to make any cuts in the coolers. I'm planning on attaching a ball valve faucet instead of the spigot. At the end, it should looks something very similar to this person's setup, but with coolers: https://support.ilovegrowingmarijuana.com/t/single-bucket-dwc-mods/41783 It's been a fun rabbit hole researching. I learned an insane amount about hydrostatics and did a few of my own science experiments (this was a fun one - https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-gravity-auto-top-off.376602/), but in the end, I realized that the amount of trial and error to set up a gravity-fed siphon ATO is too much of a hassle, and using solenoid valves + float switches become too complex when needing to design backups if any of those fails (being in the tech field, it's a rule that things fail all the time). I also learned that DWC growing has A LOT of overlap with reef aquariums and home brewing, which I now know more about than ever. I'm planning to go to Home Depot in the next few days to start putting the extra reservoir together. It should make res changes 420% easier, and reduce the frequency of res changes by half. 4/16 - Ladies still looking pretty good (added new grow cam pic to show the tent coverage from the inside). I've weaved some of the larger stems into the trellis a bit more to give more light to the small ones in the middle. Heather's ppm keeps shooting up, but Helen is staying stable. I'm topping off later tonight with a lower dose of nutes until next week. Really excited to upgrade my system to have ball valves to make draining easier, and the extra res to make my life easier. Still no noticeable trichs or resin on the leaves yet. Can you tell I got yet another new dehumidifier? I think this is the one! 4/19 - Things have been going well so far. Ladies are still drinking a crazy amount every day, and I just added some more back (light nute dosage until the next round). The growth through the trellis has been pretty incredible. It's funny to think how nervous I was just a couple weeks ago when I thought I stunted them early on. The flowering stretch is REAL! I did a good amount of defoliation today on both plants (see pics). I removed about 1/3rd (probably less) of the lower fan leaves, and some of the lower bud sites that I could see would not be able to develop due to the canopy blocking the light. I probably should have been doing this a bit earlier on, but you live and you learn! Hopefully, the parts come soon so I can take it easy on mixing nutes every few days! ------ Thanks for following 🤙 Always, appreciative of tips or suggestions

4/20 - Happy 420 y'all! Fun fact is I had 420 views of my grow diary today (see pic!) The stars have aligned, and I'm starting to see trichomes on Heather, especially on the lower buds! I did a good amount of defoliating again today (I will be taking it easy until they recover) to remove the unnecessary fan leaves and larfy stems that were not going to make it to the canopy. I'm leaving a couple on just to see what happens - I can always press into rosin! Last night I added the carbon filter, and I had no idea how much they were actually smelling up the house lol With the carbon filter, I don't smell anything until the tent is opened - pretty insane! I'm excited to watch these buds stack and fill in with frost! Hopefully next year I'll be celebrating 420 from my own grow. The smell is still pretty similar to before, but I am noticing a hint of pine now. Someone on Reddit mentioned a smell similar to Jack Herer, and I'm starting to get that as well. Heather: 710 ppm 5.75 pH 69.4 F water temp Helen: 630 ppm 5.74 pH 68.7 F water temp 4/22 - Alright y'all, it was a stressful day. I did something you probably shouldn't do to autos, but my tinkering-ADD kicked into overdrive. As I mentioned last week, I am upgrading my coolers to have ball valves instead of spigots (for easy drainage and flow) and a reservoir so that I never have to deal with difficult res changes ever again (and also less frequent nute mixing...did I mention how much I hate pHing?). Well, I've completed about 75% of the setup (see sneak peek pics), and with the help of my SO, surgically extracted the roots and air stone from the existing coolers (with sanitized gloves, of course), and delicately placed them in their new upgraded homes. I then added a fresh mix of nutes. I'm still waiting on the hose clamps before I add the reservoirs, but I'm happy with how the exchange went! In the last several days, Heather has been wanting less nutes (maybe due to stress from the defoliation?), so I scaled back the ppm to ~600. For Helen, we had a slight pH creep the other day, but I've diluted the mix with some lower pHed solution to bring it slightly below 6.5 -- I'll check it again tomorrow to see if I need to replace more. I am going to give both of them some well-deserved rest (from myself). Ok, now on to the flowers! They're all starting to get more trichomes, especially the lowers. The bigger colas are starting to connect their buds on the top. They are STILL STRETCHING...and they need to stop because my lights won't go up any higher haha (no, but seriously) The smell...ohhh, the smell. The carbon filter is working extremely well - outside the tent, I can't smell a thing, but the second you crack the zippers open, a heavy waft of lemony musk rushes at you. The sweetness and pine I smelled in my previous entry are only with the trichomes. I am beyond excited to see how the terpenes develop, and how different they will be post-cure! I'll update the plant metrics tomorrow, as well as updated pics of the improved setup! 4/24 - Added new pics showing the trichs coming in (especially in the lower bud sites), and Helen continuing to stretch (stop it Helen, you're beautiful just the way you are!). You can see in the new tent pic that the DWCoolers v4.20 is installed and working well (no leaks so far 🤞). I am having a hell of a time stretching the tubing around the female camlock (type B with threads if you have any idea what I'm talking about), and I just ordered a bunch of different things. One of them WILL work, and that's the one I'll share haha One thing is for sure, I appreciate the hell out of RDWC systems waaaaay more, and I'm less inclined to make one. Not much else to update, pH and ppms are pretty close to the previous days. The ppm is slowly creeping up, and I'm going to attribute that to the stress of the move. I promise I haven't messed with them since! ------ Thanks for following 🤙 Always appreciative of tips or suggestions

4/28 - Looks like a missed a few days, but I'm back at it! The ladies have been keeping me busy! There were a few pH swings on each plant (in the opposite directions...), and I have no idea what caused it. It was not the easiest to get them in check. I've also been having one hell of a time waterproofing the additional res coolers for some reason, but I just put some silicone caulk on them today to fix these tiny leaks once and for all! The frost factor is coming in big time (see pics), and it's getting hard to take a pic of these ladies. One strange thing is that while they are drinking a lot of water, but they are not drinking as many nutes (~500 ppm or so), and I'm not sure why. It's possible that they're still stressed a bit from the move into the coolers? I've been lowering the ppm until I see them wanting more. I have a new challenge y'all -- humidity! Spring time is here in full effect and the humidity where I live is no joke. I have a 70 pint dehumidifier running right outside the tent, and a smaller one inside (that I am looking to upgrade), but the inside of the tent still gets up to 60% RH. I am getting very scared of potential bud rot. My ideas: I may have to leave the main zipper door to the tent open and put a mosquito net to block bugs. I'm not a huge fan of this idea b/c it is reeking up my house when I do that, but I also don't want mold. The second idea is a larger dehumidifier in the tent or even a 3rd one outside?! 4/30 - I did it y'all, I finally connected those freaking coolers! The silicone caulk I used fixed all my tiny leaks! I went ahead and connected them, and filled in 9 gallons of fresh nutes. I am looking SOOO forward to never having to mess with the main coolers anymore and just dealing with the external reservoirs. There's a couple of leaves directly under the light on Helen that have some slight cal-mag spots, but the majority of the leaves are looking good. Now that this upgrade is done, the next challenge is public enemy #1 - humidity! We still have another 4-5 days until the new dehumidifier gets here, so I'll be keeping the tent open with the mosquito net that's coming tomorrow until then. My house is about to smell funky. 5/1 - The extra coolers are working out exactly as expected so far (knock on wood)! I added some more pics of the full tent in all its glory. The flowers are starting to get a little denser, but still not stacking completely yet. I'm starting to see the first stigmas turning orange/brown (from white). Looking (immensely) forward to not having to refill these coolers for at least 5 days! Humidity is my only remaining battle (that I know of)! ** post res change ** Heather: 521 ppm 5.96 pH 62.7 F water temp Helen: 549 ppm 5.86 pH 66.3 F water temp 5/2 - Everything's still good from yesterday! pH and ppm are right in line, which means the ratio is solid. The mosquito net seems to be working out for now...good to know I've always got that as a backup if the new humidifier can't do the same with the tent closed. I did a decent amount of defoliation today to help more with humidity, airflow, and light exposure. I feel like I'm in Ocean's 11 doing lazer dodges to cut these stems, but it is also quite meditative to scan all the parts of the plant and "operation" (like the game) myself in. I probably shouldn't be teasing this until I have some pics to post, but I'm starting to notice some purpling on Helen! There are a couple of colas where the stigmas have started showing a purple hue and the fan leaves have started purpling as well...stay tuned! 5/3 - puprling pics added! ------ Thanks for following 🤙 Always appreciative of tips or suggestions

5/4 - May the 4th be with you, and with my ladies! I added (A LOT of) pics, and I SINCERELY tried to take a macro shot, but my shaky hands and the fans swaying the buds made that almost impossible. They're pretty much all glassy looking from what I can see, some maybe turning to cloudy. It's been so great having these ladies on auto-pilot since I added the res. My mind is completely at ease for my upcoming trip. I think I'll need to start bumping up the ppms pretty soon! 5/6 - Added some new pics, better macro pics! Lots of glassy trichs with some milky ones. Honestly, did not expect that around day 58, but then again, I didn't really know what to expect at all other than the strain-description (75-85 days). The smell is still very much piney, it's like a musk forest in my utility room...and other parts of my house. Sooo...funny story about the new dehumidifier which arrived the other day. It did the trick and brought the RH % down to 35-40%....but it also caused the tent temperature to reach 85+ degrees. So, I'm leaving the tent open still for now, with the mosquito net on, and I just ordered a 6-inch Infinity AC fan (instead of my 4-inch generic Mars Hydro one that came with the tent kit), and hoping that should do the trick. I needed another fan anyway since I bought a second tent (can't remember if I wrote that) for perpetual growing, so the 4-inch can go in the sprout/veg tent. I've been starting to think more about harvesting (waiting for a couple of amber trichs). I'm planning on doing a mostly dry trim other than the big easy-to-trim fan leaves, which I'll freeze for dry sifting later. I have several large micron screens that I planned to do the trimming on (whenever the buds eventually dry). Based on my current schedule though, it's very likely that these ladies are getting the chop on 5/16 or 5/20 (my prediction)! Time has flown by and I can't believe it's just another month until I'll have some decently cured, and ready to use harvest! 5/9 (but really 5/10 at 1am) - It's been a min since I updated this post, so I had to throw up some more macro pics and a shot of the lady's main colas. As you can see, they are getting fat, and stacking up nicely, but they're not the densest (at least not lower nugs that I touched). I clipped a tester nug on 5/7 and it still needs to dry a bit more before it cures. I will add pics once it's done drying and I clip off the leaves. I am beyond stoked to try the first nug of my first grow!!! It's a mix of glassy/cloudy trichs, but I think it will be cool to understand how different the high is as the plant matures. I'm also starting to realize how difficult it is to "time" these things in terms of harvesting/flushing. I am planning to flush, but not b/c of the "science" behind flushing. I've read the study that said there's no difference, so I figure why not save a weeks worth of nutes and effort of mixing. Here's my question for anyone reading -- when flushing in DWC, does it matter if you pH the RO/distilled water? My intuition tells me no because you are already trying to remove nutrients, and lock the plants out, but curious what others think. I will likely siphon as much water as I can tomorrow and replace it with regular tap water to help the fade. At this point, my harvest prediction from the other post is still looking pretty accurate since I'm not seeing any ambers on the main colas. ------ Thanks for following 🤙 Always appreciative of tips or suggestions

5/11 - Started the "flush" this week! Making it as easy as possible on myself and just using straight tap water to fill the res', and guess what?! I installed the new AC Infinity 6" in-line fan, and it's finally allowing me to keep the tent closed while maintaining an optimal environment. Smell begone!...until I open the tent, that is. The tester nug I clipped from the other week is losing the hay smell, and looking like the frostiest bud I've ever seen. Everything is looking like a 5/16 harvest! Do I seem excited?! I am!! I'll add some pics later today when the lighting is better. Funny how I now have the optimal setup with only a week left to go. Excited to utilize it for the next round though! 5/16 - Y'ALL!!....Y'ALL!!!!!! Attention, please! I have a very important announcement. It is time for Helen to go on to the next life. To commemorate this historic and paramount moment, I am uploading my first video and some amazing (iPhone) pictures (if I do say so myself). As a first-time grower, but loooooonng time cannabis enthusiast/consumer, I still cannot believe I grew this amazing plant. In fact, I am now writing this entry after having vaped part of the tester bud, and let me tell you, I almost cried tears of happiness after the high sank in -- it's phenomenal. The taste has a hint of lemon, lime, earthiness, dominant pine, with a menthol exhale. The effect is very cerebral (as expected for an early harvest), but relaxing. I feel a wave of calmness flow down my body and a nice pressure around my eyes and sinus (which is usually stuffed). I hope she doesn't mind me sharing, but I thought it was touching (and humorous) that my gf legitimately started crying when I told her it was Helen's time. It's ok, she will be remembered and honored over the next several months, and ages to come. ---- Thanks for following 🤙 Always appreciative of tips or suggestions

5/21 - Ok, y'all. It's been a week since I updated b/c I've been on vacation, but I got some big, BIG udpates! First, Helen was officially chopped on 5/16, and is currently hanging to dry in another tent at 65F (coldest I can get the room without freezing in my own home lol) and 55-60% RH. Just checked a couple moments ago, and the stems are still pliable, so the slow dry is going well. Smells like funky, gassy hay right now, but hoping that will pass after dry/cure. The buds have shrunk quite a bit, but holy shit are they frosty (easily the frostiest bud I've ever seen). Also, when I was clipping off the bigger fan leaves when harvesting, I accidentally clipped a couple nugs off, which I just pressed into rosin last night, and.....WOW....just WOW. A single tear of happiness emerged and I sat back in my chair embraced in a warm glow of awesomeness. Just to clarify, these were not top buds, and I added a bit of larf, and I got the best rosin yield I've ever gotten - 26%! I cannot wait to press the larger buds and see what kind of product I get....especially excited for the dry sift rosin!!!!!! I added new pics of Heather who is displaying a beautiful autumn fade. I will wait to post harvest pics until it's trimmed and weighed. I'll have to check Heather's trichs later, but she's still looking like she needs a few days. My excitedness is peaking, and I still cannot believe I'm here. Over a decade ago, I would never have even dreamed this was possible. ---- Thanks for following 🤙 Always appreciative of tips or suggestions

This was so much fun, and I cannot wait to start another grow! Heartbreaker took well to training and exploded in DWC! Now, that I know how much larf was produced, I will definitely be defoliating A LOT more, removing all the lower bud sites below the trellis, and trying to fatten up the main colas. I also want to try topping next time, especially based on the growth of DWC. I am so glad to have 3 more seeds of this beauty, and there's still another waiting to be chopped. The rosin yields have been the highest I've ever pressed, and the buds are oozing in resin. If you told me I was going to yield a lb in the beginning, I would have laughed, but the bar has been set....and it's high...very, very high 🤙

5/25 - Last entry just for completeness since she was technically still alive and kicking on this day. Added a bunch of pics and a vid prior to her chop, which was the night of 5/26 (pics for that will come after she's trimmed). I think she might yield even more than Helen, but we'll see. I can't say enough how fun this entire process has been, and I'm already feeling like an empty-nester without them. Definitely planning to start another grow (Mephisto Double Grape! and maybe another??) in a few weeks, but also thinking of adding additional electricity/outlets first. Not too much else to say here since I haven't been checking pH/ppm since I started "flushing" (my least favorite part of growing lol). I'm drying out a Heather tester bud I accidentally clipped when chopping her, and I'm excited to compare the effects to Helen (which I have been enjoying immensely!!)