Only been at it out here in Colorado for about a year. I decided the state of Misery (Missouri) from whence i came was just too miserable to stay in. Packing only what fit in my S10 and a mattress strapped on top, I made the 13 hour drive westward. After a month of sleeping on an air mattress behind a friends couch I found a roommate with a basement already set up with additional 30 amp breakers, convenient sub-level water supply complete with a reservoir drip line, remnants of ducting, and a ceiling criss-crossed with 2x4 supports. The previous tenants were busy. Armed with a 1000 watt and 400 watt switchable ballast the evolution began. a year later, in addition to original equipment, the arsenal includes t5 fixture, 2000 watts more flower power, dry rack, can fan, carbon filter, cool tube reflectors, soil and soilless media and a nearly 100% clone success rate. Ive learned much over the past year. Low stress training led to topping then super cropping. Proper soil saturation and nutrient concentration, micro and macro nutes, deficiencies, humic acid, carbohydrates, silica cell reinforcement, mychorizae, beneficial bacteria and microbes, wetting agents, bloom boosters, proper PH and PPM, oxygenating root zones, and CO2 for the leaves, foliar feeding, harpen proteins, pest control: aphids, mites, thrips, gnats, even ants, houseflies, and moths couldn't beat me, temperature, humidity and white powdery mildew are no match, only a whiff of neem oil will bring me to my knees. Yield and quality have increased every eight weeks since the first batch of clones were gifted to me. divide that by two since i began to harvest perpetually. That's just from my soil experiences. The new project takes root in a set of coco coir and perlite filled 3 gallon pots. A new media to study, experimenting with different techniques: drip rings, DTW, maybe even recirculating. A semi-hydroponic environment, the poor mans hydro as I like to call it. The step between pro-mix HP and RDWC. recirculating deep water culture method is the next step forward. Complete environmental control; over water temp, right around 70 degrees, anything less and O2 begins to deplete, 70 up can lead to root rot. Over ph and ppm; too acidic or too basic can lead to lockout or burn leaving TDS as either waste or disrupting the nutrient balance, indicated by burnt and curly tips of the leaves. Working at a grow store has greatly benefitted me. Ive learned so much already and have no plans for stopping. Have any questions, feel free to ask me. See something with which you disagree, please, enlighten me. sometimes there might be several answers to one question. doesn't mean one is always more correct than the other. I like to cross reference several articles to get the feel of the information and look for concepts repeating. this means several experiments led to similar results and conclusions. these records help guide the best teacher, first hand experience, results you can see.