Not really a diary as such. A little autoflower experiment for comparing dwc and soil growth rates under cheap blurple LEDS (actual draw 584.4w at the wall)
This is beginning of week 2 from seed.
Devil xxl auto in soil
White widow auto in soil
Devil xxl auto in dwc
White widow auto in dwc
All nutrients used are from vitalink for the dwc.
The soil grow will just get PhD water until bloom as there is enough in the soil for the 1st 4 weeks or so then ionic bloom nutrients when they start to flower.
It’s my first attempt at dwc but for the results I’ve seen in a little over a week I’ll be using dwc from now on.
The growth rate is around double that of the soil grow.
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My money is on the Hydro for speed and the soil for taste (assuming you have organic soil). 
99
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I don’t buy into all that organic stuff mate. Weed tastes like weed to me but I don’t make edibles or cook with it. Dried, cured and then smoked haha. Yeah my money is on the hydro also after seeing the root mass they have grown already and the size difference in just one weeks growth.
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Interested to see if you feel the same at the end of your experiment. Please, carry on.
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is that a home made DWC system? looks like some type of tote with duct tape on it? would be interested more in how you built your system, i’d like to jump over to hydro eventually without paying a million dollars
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Yes it’s a home made system. 75 litre tote with panda film around the outside and the lid covered with duct tape as I couldn’t manage to get the panda film to stick to it well enough. I have a 320 litre an hour 2 port air pump feeding one 12 inch and 2 6 inch air stones. The only thing I had to buy was the pump and air stones. Cost me around £20/$28 in total.
It’s a sterile system. I use 0.5 gram of pool shock mixed in 5 liters of water and I’ve been adding 1ml of that solution per 5 litres to the rez every 4 days. I’m hoping it’s enough to help prevent any root rot
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oh cool so it’s all a completely contained system… i guess otherwise its RDWC? how often do you a complete change of the rez?
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It’s basically a 75 litre bubble bucket that houses 2 plants. The air pump oxygenates the water so the water is constantly moving. Being sterile the water shouldn’t stagnate or go bad as the pool shock is chlorine hence the really small amount of it used. The plants also use the small amounts of chlorine as a micro nutrient. It’s only been running a little over a week and the theory is the only water change should be when I switch to bloom nutrients but top ups every couple of days will be needed in the bloom stage. I know using any chemical like pool shock is frowned upon but the really small dose is not at all harmful to humans. It’s a prevention for root rot as the pathergens such as pythium can’t exist because of the chlorine.
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Weekly update. End of week 2.
Devil xxl in DWC. These devil’s are going to be huge.
They are growing that fast I decided to FIM a few to see how they cope. I know auto flowers have a strict time limit but they are 3x the size of the white widow autos so I figured why not?
Devil xxl is soil. Still only getting PhD water only. Growing really well.
White widow in soil. The devil xxl are around 3x the size. Hopefully they can catch up.
Stained roots from the vitalink nutrients. No smell and roots are nice and strong so definitely not root rot.
These cheap blurple lights get a lot of stick but so far they are doing an excellent job with my experimental grow.
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If your starting out in soil with just water and later and nutrients from a bottle IMHO is it really all organic? That’s where a lot of debate comes in between growers . In my opinion anything that comes from a bottle is considered force feeding a plant and not allowing the the microbes and plant to have a truly symbiotic relationship. I agree with @99 on his post it’s like comparing a homegrown tomato with what’s in the supermarket! Looking forward to see the results!
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Thanks for responding. Yeah its kind of like saying free range eggs and battery farmed one taste different (I’m an animal lover and battery farming needs banned im just talking about the differences in the final product) egg tastes like an egg to me. Too someone else I don’t doubt they can tell the difference in the taste but for me as long as it’s not a risk to mine or anyone else’s health and they help grow our plant to its full potential then I’ll continue to use synthetic nutrients.
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ya imo organic is more for the grower than the plant… they don’t care where their food comes from and i think the taste difference is psychosomatic or confirmation bias… would be interested to see a blind or double blind study
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Yeah It would be interesting to see if they could actually tell the difference in a blind test.
You have giving me an idea! I know both are non organic but when I harvest this grow I will see if my friend can tell the difference between the dwc and the soil grown stuff.
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End of week 3 tomorrow.
It’s a bank holiday weekend here in the UK so incase anything crops up I’m updating my diary today.
Growth in DWC is ridiculously rapid and vigorous.
Devil XXL. The nodes are really tight and are shooting out pistils. They are a really greedy bushy plant.
White widow auto. Since it shares the rez with the devil XXL the adjustment to the nutrients caused a massive ph swing and caused a calcium deficiency. I diluted the nutrients back down to a level where they could both feed and grow together. I trimmed the bad leaves of her as they were about 80% effected. All is stable and well now and the growth rates have not really been effected.
Devil XXL is soil. She’s really taking off in the past couple of days. Still only being fed PhD water. I’ll start adding veg nutrients next week maybe.
White widow auto in soil. She’s a really healthy plant. Growing at a steady rate. Being fed the same as the devil XXL only PhD water. I think she may be a little shy as she’s not throwing any pistils out as yet. Hopefully she shows me her female bits over the next week or so.
No smell at all unless you rub the stems but to be honest my carbon filter and extraction fan is a bit overkill for the 120x120 grow tent they live in.
They are not stretching at all so I backed the lights off to around 3ft to see if they will reach out for them.
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End of week 4 tomorrow and the growth rate has exploded and the stretch has begun.
Plants in soil still getting PhD water only.
The 2 in DWC are running at 500 ppm. Today I’ve added 5 litres of phd water with bloom nutrients at 350 ppm.
Ph rises steadily at around 0.1 ph every 2 days or so and the ppm sits stable at a constant 500ppm so it looks like I’ve found the sweet spot.
Devil xxl to the left widow on the right.
Both were fimmed and didn’t stress out at all and the growth continued.
The tallest devil in soil. This one is stretching the most.
White widow auto in soil. Shes a really healthy girl.
The entire family in one picture. 
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End of week 5.
What a huge difference a week has made.
Now at the half way mark for the devils.
The widows will go a extra couple of weeks easily. They are stretching nicely. Really bushy plants. I have no interest in defoaliating the girls. I’m just going to let them do there thing.
DWC plants are now being fed bloom nutrients at 700ppm and doesn’t require any adjustment just yet. They are drinking around a UK gallon every 3 days. The PH barely moves now and when it does its only around 0.1 every couple of days.
Girls in soil now getting 400ppm ionic bloom nutrients.
White widow auto all now have pre flowers but no bud sites to speak of.
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End of week 6.
Raised the lights to compensate for the stretch.
Tallest plant is 26 inches tall so a little over 2 ft.
Ppm in DWC have been kept at 700.
Ppm in soil 400.
Devil xxl in soil.
White widow in soil.
The widow in DWC isn’t budding as well as the ones in soil for some reason.
I’m thinking the widows are going to be another 4 to 5 weeks minimum.
The devils I’ll let go for as long as I can but think maybe be finished more or less the times stated by the breeder.
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It’s only been 3 days but feel I need to give a quick update. The white widow in DWC has took off. She’s stretched about 4 inches since Friday. She’s still not really budding though. If she ends up being a photoperiod I won’t be disappointed as she will likely fill the entire tent once I’ve chopped the autos down.
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Haha what is that?? And does it work?? 
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