Looks like we're going to switch the entire grow to a modified DWC system. We're going with a system quite similar to the UnderCurrent sydtem...but home built. The performance of Godzilla in the DWC bucket was too good to idnore. Not to mention, it requires less attention than all the soiless plants. The bud size is almost double the soiless and the growth rate is quite a bit faster. We're finding that the amount of time required to manage the grow using soiless is just too much for the 2 of us to handle. It was fine until the trimming and bug fighting began. All future clones are going into DWC buckets in groups of 8-10 all tied into a central res. Each bucket has its own air stone and water circulates from the res, through the 10 buckets, and back to the res. All readings are taken from the res. Water and nutes are added to the res. The buckets will stray in place and when plants are moved from veg to bloom, the plant will be removed from the bucket and taken to the bucket in the other room. The air stone will come with it, as the stone is usually tangled in the root mass.
We're hoping this will cut down on our time, as well as improve yield. The added benefit is not having to deal with all of the soil. We also noticed that our DWC plant was barely affected by the spider mites. The plant was just so strong, it was able to fight them off on its own.
On spider mites, the predators have taken control of the room. There is no new signs of infestation in the room. We'll continue to add predators, but I'm calling this a success.
