Whelp...the deed is done!

[Blowdout2269]

Wheew! That was a process and a half!

Twenty-one quart jars of buds and six half gallon jars of trim. Trim that consists mostly of chopped up flower because I was annoyed by the foxtails, lol.

[Blowdout2269]

And the beast herself!
Trunk diameter is still 1 5/8" after over three weeks hanging.

[Blowdout2269]

This is the Big Bud monster in DWC. My first hydro grow ever! Though I went into expecting difficulties, it was fairly simple and quite appealing. I'm almost positive that the yield would be much larger if it was not for the mishaps that occurred around week five of flower. And more recently due to personal injury.
When I was out of town in early November, the pH took a serious nosedive and was corrected when I returned. But the damage was done. As well as running out of headspace, supercropping, and underestimating my lights. Which resulted in the foxtailing, and later an attempt at self pollination. Many nanners went unnoticed due to the sheer size of this bush, lol. Though she did not have enough lifetime left to produce viable seeds, lots of flower is not smokable.
Most recently the problems were personal injury that prevented me from harvesting and trimming in a timely manner. A lot of the flower got over-dried because I could not get downstairs and not manage to sit an trim for many hours on end. I really needed to outsource this shit, hehe. No biggie. It can all be made into extracts for all I care. I do not consume. And whichever friend or family it's gifted to has no right to complain, lol.
Overall, this grow was a great success. Being my first attempt at DWC I expected many problems. But aside from the self-inflicted, it was actually a breeze. Quite enjoyable actually! Though there is definitely room for improvement.
For now I'm going to jump back to organic soil to do a large autoflower run to finish out the winter months. I will also be designing much more user-friendly DWC system to be used in the future. I look forward to it!
Thanks for reading!

[BU2B]

Wow! Congratulations! VERY nice 🤩

[Blowdout2269]

Thank you buddy!
Gonna be buggin you for hydro tips in the future!.

[ZigZag]

Nice harvest, especially considering all that occurred, crazy times. I just started a new grow after a total hip and femur replacement. Nasty accident but now that’s behind me and I can get down on the floor to tend my girls, finally,
Hope you’re healing up well too.
cheers!

[ZigZag]

Always, it’s great we can share our experiences on this forum. It seems no matter how long you’ve been doing this one can always learn something new! I know that’s how it works for me anyway.
Darn, sorry to hear it’s your back, that can be a hard road. I had to have surgery since my hip socket got all torn up when my femur broke. Also tore the tendons on four of the muscles that hold that area together, but the surgery and physical therapy are doing me well.
Right before I had the surgery the surgeon had taken some more X-rays and told me “by the way you have some significant arthritis in your lower back”. I asked what I could do about that.
His answer was “don’t get any older” 🤣.
Yeah right, if that wasn’t an objective then I wouldn’t need this surgery,
Had a good laugh over that. But I’m leaving my back alone for now, just sticking to physical therapy for that as well. The arthritis doesn’t really bother me unless I carry a heavy pack more than 5 miles off trail.
Otherwise I think I can get some more years out of it for now.
Hope you find a solution that works well enough for you to avoid getting under the knife.
I’d check with your doctor first but have you tried an inversion table?
I had a bulging disk and after about a month on the table, 2x a day for 10-20 minutes it was good. No more problems there.

[Blowdout2269]

Oo, an inversion table has always peaked my intrest.

[ZigZag]

You should try the table if your doc or PT say it’s cool. I religiously stretched every day and sometimes it helped and others it made it worse- may have overdone it. The table worked because it opened up my spine, increased the distance between the two vertebrae that were compressed, increased circulation, and after a few months it was healed and back in place. Just start out slow and work your way into a steeper incline and more time. It’s really obvious that your spine is elongating the steeper you go. Blood rushing to your head takes some getting used to. Hope that brings some relief!

[Franklin]

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaark that's nice. Can you post a pic of the plant before harvest? How much weight did you get out of this? How long was the grow? Sorry you probably have a grow thread but I can't always track who's is who's.

[Blowdout2269]

Thank you for the compliment Franklin. I got a couple old half decent pictures somewhere. Really couldn't get far enough away or tall enough for a decent photograph in my space. I'll try and find it. And my logbook is down the stairs, so I'll get the other info for ya tonight or tomorrow. Pretty sure I did seven or eight weeks veg. Really shouldn't have. I underestimated DWC growth big time. And no, I don't have a thread, not did I weigh anything.

Here's some old pics.

[Blowdout2269]

Ok Franklin - I got some dates for ya.
Popped out of coco plugs in RDWC on 8/25/22
Flipped to flower on 10/15/21
Harvested some tops on 12/16, 22, and 24
Complete takedown on 1/4/23

[Blowdout2269]

[Franklin]

Whoa look at that root mass!

[Blowdout2269]

Honestly, this thing got so far out of my control. I pretty much said eff it. It was about to tip the bin over. Branches were damn near dragging the concrete. It was a massacre, lol.
Lesson learned: Do not veg that long in hydro.

[crunchyfrog]

Wheew! That was a process and a half!

Twenty-one quart jars of buds and six half gallon jars of trim. Trim that consists mostly of chopped up flower because I was annoyed by the foxtails, lol.

congratulations, now you just have to consume all of it.

[Blowdout2269]

Nah. I give it away.

[SoOrbudgal]

Excellent job don't think i ever had such a haul from even 4 photos indoor LOL. Enjoy

[Blowdout2269]

Thanks for the kind words!
Though I would definitely do some things differently.

[Mr.furley]

Absolutely stellar Blowdout2269

[Blowdout2269]

Thank you @Mr.furley.
Love the new tagline btw, lol.

[DW2]

Howdy Blowdout2269, VERY IMPRESSIVE indeed!

[Blowdout2269]

I think it's pretty good, right?
Thanks for the kind words @DW2!
Probably going to have some hydro questions for you in the future!

[DW2]

Blowdout2269, after that harvest, I may be asking You the questions (or at least giving you some suggestions on how to easily dispose of it, SEND it TO ME!!! LOL!!)

[Blowdout2269]

Believe me, if it wasn't illegal, not to mention stinking up the place, I'd send some to anybody that needed some!

[Going2fast]

That's a beast Blowdout2269. Congratulations. I love this hydro stuff. Too messy for me.

[Blowdout2269]

Going2fast - You see, that's what I thought! I really thought it would be alot harder than soil too, but I actually think it's easier. Simple daily checks that take a few minutes and reservoir changes every seven to ten days. Plus DWC is alot more responsive. When u have a problem, you know almost immediately.

[ZigZag]

So with DWC could you leave them be for maybe 4-5 days without having to check them? Long as everything else had stabilized to where you didn’t need to adjust nutrients or lighting? I’m often gone for 3-4 days and it would be great to -set em and leave em- without having to find someone who could check on them everyday.

[Blowdout2269]

Well, I'd like to say yes. But something strange happened when I left mine unattended for four days. My pH crashed to like 3.5 and they hated it! I found this strange, because that was the only time that I ever had that kinda pH swing. I keep extensive written records and had everything done exactly as weeks prior with no adjustments. It was really just a fluke, or a Murphys Law kinda thing, lol. It was probably the fact that the plant knew I was gone because she didn't get her daily love, so she revolted. 😆