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Aero vs dwc grow showdown

Welcome aboard diverdave! Dwc will definitely outyeild aero per plant yield, but I've got a feeling the aero table will crush the dwc yield as the canopy is much fuller with the table. I'm curious if there will be any potency differences between dwc and aero with the cuts. Speaking of which, here are the results of the testing that was done on the aero plants last run:

Hulk smash #1: 17.37 thc and .06 cbd
Hulk smash #10: 25.38 thc and .08 cbd
Orange glue #1: 21.98 thc and .06 cbd
Orange glue #2: 22.68 thc and .06 cbd
Orange glue #6 23.53 thc and. 07 cbd
 

Palindrome

King of Schwag
It will be very interresting to see if there is, tho I don't think there will be much difference in the potency. Unless there is some kinda fail, with one of the systems during flower.
 
The end of week 1 of bloom. They are stretching their legs and are reasonably happy. Some of the shorter plants in the aero table are below the canopy. The ones below will either catch up or get cut down if I don't see a good reason to keep them. Dwc side is still chugging along. Orange glue #2 in dwc seems to mean business! I'm hoping for some better bud density with it this time. Here's how they are looking now.

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Welcome to the garden RanchoRelaxo! Second time growing with aero is going a lot smoother than the first time with aero ha ha.

The aero table got another round of topping. They are stretching quite nicely. 900ppm is their preferred feeding strength right now. Just goes to show happy plants wanna eat more.
So this round I included a few hulk smash #4. She hermied on me early in flower last time and got culled. I'm pretty sure it was triggered by stress. So far she is quite happy and showing no signs of stress or male parts. I want to see what she does. If not very impressive, she will get culled for good.

Operators notes: root mass in aero table is getting thick enough to slow the drainage of water from the table. The off cycle of the sprayer pump has been increased. This is to allow time for drainage and a bit of air time for the roots. Off cycle set to 15 minutes. We shall see how plants respond.

Random shit to note: the wire mesh I got for trellising is getting repurposed for goat fencing. My better half decided now is the time to get goats, so I got volunteered to build enclosure and told to use my new roll of fencing to do it. It's funny how things work out sometimes :bashhead:
 
End of week 2 of bloom! Plants are starting to build buds. Stretch is starting to slow down in the aero table finally. Most of the girls are around 3 feet tall. I will be defoaliating and removing lower branches later this week. Both sides of the tent are happy and healthy. No deficiencies, and just a hint of nute burn on a couple of the more sensitive girls. This is shaping up to be a pretty good side by side comparison of grow methods as both sides of the tent are strutting their stuff! Here is how everything is looking as of yesterday.

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Thanks! Picking a style of growing can be a pain in the ass. I'll help answer questions ya got, with respect to what experience I have. My advice is give dwc a try as it's reasonably forgiving and will let ya get your feet wet with hydro without costing you a bunch of money or time getting set up.
 
End of week 3 deleafing and lolly popping. 2 runts culled from the table as well. There is plenty of light penetration and airflow to keep the girls happy. Dwc will get a little more work on her today. They need a little more defoaliation.

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The midbloom rez change happened today. Drained 10 gallons and added back 20 gallons of fresh nutes. Should make for some happy ladies. Buds are swelling up nicely. No real issues to report. The rootzone is turning into a solid Matt.
 
Beginning of week 5 update! Things are just cruising along quite nicely. No issues in the tents aside from a bit of nute burn. Ppm in aero table has been dropped to 800ppm. Roots have filled all the deep grooves in the flood table. Buds are packing on a fair bit of resin. The tent is also starting to get a nice fragrance to it. Kinda smells like gym socks. Dwc plants are happy and packing on weight. Orange glues look like they will be denser this run, but not as dense as the hulk smashes. Hulk smash #1 is definitely the slowed growing plant in the tent. In dwc she will be ok, but aeroponics is doing her no justice. She couldn't keep pace with the rest of the girls. Kinda makes me sad. Here's how the tent is looking as of last night.

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The girls are really starting to pump out the resin. I'm pretty stoked. It's looking like aero will be my preferred cloning and growing method. Once the basics are dialed in, aero is a great system. The plants love it, and I love the low maintenance. Definitely worth the pain of figuring out and building.
 
So maintenance differences between multi tote dwc vs aero with control bucket is worth talking about. With the outside the tent control bucket, aero wins hands down for maintenance. The blue lab constant monitor display feels almost like cheating. Popping tote lids and dumping 5 gallon buckets is a pain in the ass with big plants in bloom. I usually wind up covered in resin. The easier way to do this is to use a big bucket outside the tent and a small pump to transfer water to totes in the tent. Neither method for dwc is easier than an outside control bucket. I want to play with undercurrent, but that amount of water circulating makes me a little leary as I don't have a floor drain.... That volume of water could do some damage. Anyhow back to maintenance. The longest I can go with not topping off dwc totes is 2 to 4 weeks depending on growth stage. The trick with that is using minimal ppm for feeding. Overfeeding can lead to ph and ppm fluctuations and lockout issues when plants drink less than they eat. Aeroponics on a 4x4 table with a 27g res can only go for 3 days before needing 5 to 10 gallons of water added.
 
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