Medium:
Look, I love coco/soil, organic/synthetic just as much as anyone. Iโve never really hated on any particular method and each has its uses depending upon the environment. That being said.... hydro is likely to be the predominant indoor method for us going forward. It ticks all the boxes that the average hobby grower is looking for. Maintenance is generally pretty easy, while Iโve found myself monitoring ph and tds more frequently, Iโm still only mixing nutes once a week instead of three. The hassle factor is crazy mitigated here: 1:. From a sustainability perspective, nute consumption is wayyyy down, saving more dolla bills yโall!
Added bonus is that veg. Growth rates are just insanely fast. Easily a 2 week savings in time pre-flower๐ค๐๐ณ.
It is a little bit of a tricky medium but once you dial in the ratios - smooth sailโn the whole grow. I can focus on training/maintenance instead of feeding๐ค๐ค.
If thereโs a drawback to DWC it would be that Iโd have concerns about leaving it for more than a couple days when sheโs in full flower. They just drink so much that Itโs a constant top off. All told, far and away the most effective and economical medium weโve used๐.
Method ๐๏ธ๐๏ธ๐๏ธ๐๏ธ
Under this COB light system, the best method to date has definitely been a mainline. Itโs got so much canopy penetration that weโre pulling down 16โ long colas packed with well developed buds. The mainline training didnโt take long in DWC - roughly 4 weeks of veg. And she was ready for the flip. We only extended it a further 2 weeks to keep pace with another grow in the same space. Otherwise, I wouldโve cut the veg. Time back to 4 weeks which wouldโve made the behemoth of a root ball a little more manageable. We also iceballed the res. With frozen water bottles twice a day throughout the grow. Just to keep temps down and avoid any potential issues. Whether or not thereโs a better, more efficient way to get these kinds of results remains to be seen. Weโre still trying to strike that balance between faster veg. Times and maximized yields. If anything, I wouldnโt be at all surprised if the hermie issue at the end had something to do with the root ball binding on itself due to size. The true culprit was an unanticipated light leak but still - The ball couldโve been 2/3 the size and likely have produced similar results๐คทโโ๏ธ. Iโm giving the method a slim 4 because it was a great success but too long a veg.
Yield/Harvest๐ด๐ด๐ด๐ด
Regardless of the final number, we had hoped that the yield wouldโve been bigger. Sheโs a beauty of a plant but didnโt really puff out as much as we were hoping for. At least not a mainline on a 6 week veg. At 5.125oz weโre obviously not complaining and the colours in late flower were some of the best ever seen๐๐๐๐. What she did yield was frosty, dense and surprisingly stinky AF. I see no discernible difference in the quality of the terp. Profile vs. Any of our previous organic soil grows. For those who tout this as an advantage in soil media, I say get urself a bucket and a bubbler, then weโll talk. Hydro is just straight up awesome: 1:. 4 palm trees on the yield - any haul north of 5oz is a great addition to the cellar: 1:๐: 1:๐.
Props - many thanks as always to the gd folks who made the platform available for us all. Big pound to all those at the boof party. Got a bunch of outdoor and couple clones to tend to now. Hopefully be seeโn all you peeps around. Thanks for stoppโn in๐.