I must say Butters, this has been a fascinating thread. I'm new here and this story is just awesome. I can't wait to read the final report on smokeablity!
Congratulations on the grow, you have inspired me to try too.
Ty boss. This was my first grow. So if ur shooting for your first grow I'll lay out some of the places I went horribly wrong.
1) Get a digital ph meter (amazon has them pretty cheap...like $30, and get the calibration fluid as well...any cal fluid will do for the most part.
2)Get the right nutes
I'm doing hydro and made the mistake of getting FoxFarm Grow Big nute for soil.
3) Get a ppm meter. Again, amazon, cheap, nothing fancy, and get calibration fluid.
4)UNDERSTAND what ppm is. PPM is really just a way that your plant(s) is going to communicate with you. Just compare ur ppm readings to the water level dropping each day and think about it a little. When ur ppm drops (and water level drops), the plant is telling you it's using up nutes pretty quick and you should keep'em coming. When the ppm rises (and water level drops), ur plant is telling you that it's cool with the nutes for a bit and is more thirsty than anything (maybe even nute-locked). If the ppm is virtually the same (and the water level drops), then ur plant is saying that its taking in equal parts of water and nutes (good job). I probably lost grams off of my grow by not fully understanding this concept.
4) Find ways to get fresh air in there. Heat rises real quick once I went to 150 hps. Getting more fresh air became real important. I have a whole closet to grow with and still need fresh air in there to keep temps down.
5) Look up the concept of "lollipopping". I would have a much better end result if I used this method. By cutting stems on the buttom during veg, I could've gotten way more production outta my main cola. Those side stems barely produce any bud and I imagine the plant uses alot of nutes and energy to produce the stems, fan leaves, etc...
6) Sexing sucks! It took me forever and I went back and forth a million times.
7)Get a cleaner for the AG rez...Clearex should do. I'm not sure how much my grow was effected by not doing this but I imagine that there are all sorts of salts building up in my AG...especially the piece that the plants are in. This may have locked some nutes out and had quite the effect on ph.
The rest was really simple luckily. The AG is just a great tool for small grows and very hassle free. Best of luck man and let me know when you start up. Definately start with bagseed so you won't care if you f up too much.