Strawberry OG Kush @ 400 Watts, recirculating DWC.

THE SHORT AND SWEET
Strain: Strawberry OG Kush (4 clones in rock wool cubes), an Indica dominant hybrid.
 
System: Recirculating DWC (homemade) nased on yoda's schematics (
- 5 gallon buckets (X4), each with its own bubble stone and wrapped in mylar based car windshield reflectors (thanks, dollar store!)
- 18 gallon reservoir (outside of tent) with bubble stone and pump/flow back lines
- net pot lids (net pots are built into the lids)
- hydroton base, cleaned and soaked.
- 400W MH/HPS light system w/ digital ballast and hood reflector
 
Grow Space: 7 feet tall, 50 inches wide and 50 inches deep grow tent I picked up online (under 100 bucks!).
 
Start date: 3/12/2014
Estimated completion date: 6/15/2014 (hopefully…you never know with these ladies).
 
 
THE LONG AND BORING
This is my “Strawberry OG KUSH” grow log. I am a legal medical recommendation holder and I decided to grow my own medicine. Not that it really matters, but I have a degenerative cornea disease in both eyes that causes nausea, pain, and vision issues up the wazoo, so I use a lot of medicine on a daily basis….and it's expensive!
 
I have about 4 grows under my belt, but only 1 ½ were successful; my first grow of Blue Dream (HPS/MH @ 400 watts) produced around 8 ounces from 3 plants and my third grow, which was a single plant (Northern Lights) was grown under fluorescents and produced about an ounce. The other two grows (also HPS/MH @ 400 watts) both went disastrously wrong about 4 – 6 weeks before harvest; spider mites, root rot, heat issues, and just problems all around.
 
I was pretty serious with my first 4 grows: fancy FoxFarm nutes (6 different kinds!), RO water,  5 gallon DWC buckets that I made myself (4 to a grow), and a homemade grow cab that was about 8 feet tall. It was a LOT of work and took a LOT of time to obtain 20 gallons of RO water every week, mix all the FoxFarm nutes, drain the buckets, refill the buckets, etc. So you can imagine my frustration and disappointment after spending all that time and money to see my plants die. I gave up on growing  for a little over a year now.
 
I recently decided to try my luck again, but this time I am NOT spending the money like I did my previous attempts: this time I am using the Lucas formula with MaxiBloom, regular tap water, and a new recirculating DWC system (thanks to Yoda and his schematics).  I am very excited and I am looking forward to having FUN with my growing, as opposed to viewing it as WORK.
 
I can't guarantee that this log will last any longer than a week, but I am hoping my plants live to harvest and that my log reflects that.
 
I planted my ladies today, and I need to pick up some more hydroton as it's a little thin with one plant, but otherwise things look good.
 
In the pics below, you can see the plants (don;t worry, they will spruce up...I took those RIGHT after I placed them in their new home) and a shot of the exit tubes and cooling intake. The temps are steady at 75F.
 
I appreciate any tips, tricks, or friendly comments. I'll also be happy to answer questions that are appropriate. I hope you enjoy this log

 

Thanks, Poke! I'm checking out your journal right now ;D

 

Hi lukfome,
   I do exhaust the heat out of the tent; my exhaust ends right near a window so that helps. Those HPS/MH lights do get very hot and will absolutely need to be cooled.  This is my first grow "indoors"; my previous grows were inside a non-insulated garage so the temps were extremely difficult to control. Indoors, In 80 degree weather and a nice cool tube/intake, my tent is holding at 75 degrees. Without the cooltube/intake, it would probably get to about 85+, and in warmer weather, WHen I was setting up my tent, before I installed the exhaust, I turned on the light and was sweating within minutes. it can get over 100 without proper ventalation and exhaust on hot days.
 
I live an an area that gets extremely hot for most of the summer, so this is why I chose to have an external reservoir. It's really difficult--without purchasing expensive equiptment--to chill water in a standard DWC system. Frozen water bottles and ice will touch roots and shock the plant. With an external reservoir, I can add frozen bottles up the wazoo, at any hour of the day, and I don;t have to worry about root shock. In fact, I probably wont grow over the summer as it's such a pain in the ass and a lot of work to control temps. I prefer to do a grow now, skip summer, then continue the rest of the year.....but that's just me

 

DAY 2 OF VEG (18X6)
 
Well, as many of you journal readers/creators know, the veg stage--especially the first two weeks--is pretty boring, so not much to report here It gets a little more exciting once roots begin to pop out. That said, I can already see the plants starting to reach for the light and there are some new nodes starting to sprout. I'm always amazed at how FAST hydroponics works. Once those roots drop into the water, it's possible to see up to 1/2 inch growth in a 24 hour period, which is insane.
 
My first grow with Blue Dream (my favorite...a highly aggressive and hearty plant) gave me 1/2 inch every 24 hours once the roots popped. Like a newbie, I let them grow to about 3 1/2 feet before I flowered....which meant I was facing 8 feet + "trees" before too long. I'm going to let these babies get to about 2 1/2 feet, more or less, and then start my veg. I usually veg for 4 weeks, but I am unfamiliar with this strain, so we will see.
 
BTW, this is one of my previous grows (I forget my passwords often and have to change names...I assure you, it's my grow journal) http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-grow-journals/644786-gdpblue-dream-dwc-grow-log.html

 

I completely forgot to add my pics. Here they are

 

DAY 3 - MORNING (VEG STAGE / 18X6)
 
THE STRAIN: So far, I'm liking this strain and I think the genetics people got it wrong: it's nice and stretchy which usually indicates a sativa dominant strain. I am glad for this...I prefer to grow sativas. But I'm loving the nice long stock that has grown, and I plan on setting up my sea o f green screen later today or tomorrow so I can start bending and manipulating things. A nice long sock means I can trim everything beneath the screen to keep the ladies nice and clean down there. Ok, that sounded dirty.....
 
 
POSSIBLE ISSUES?
I am seeing that inside my buckets, my air tubes have turned pink (see pics below)....the same color as the maxibloom nutes. This is the first time I have ever used dry nutes/maxibloom and I did pre mix them before dumping them into my res. I used about half the recommended Lucas formula to ease my babies into the nutes. I am assuming that these nutes just dye the tubes. I have always used black air tubes so maybe I never noticed the discoloration before.
 
The other thing I noticed is that my reservoir has a somewhat musky odor to it. It's not terribly pungent, but it does smell like I walked by a bog or something. The water is not clear either, it's a little murky. I am guessing the hydroton, nutes, and ph adjusters are causing this. If it gets too bad, I'll drain it and refill it with fresh water/nutes. This is my first time using straight tap water, so I am in new territory.
EDIT: I figure people will ask, so let me say that I filled my res with tap water, nuted/phed it, and let the system run for about 3 days before adding my clones. I did this for 2 reasons: 1, I wanted to make sure the system would work and not leak or break after extensive use BEFORE committing my plants to the system and 2, I wanted to allow any chlorine or other evaporation chemicals to dissipate before adding my plants.
 
Finally, I lowered my light a little so it's about 19 - 23 inches above the plants. This is the distance I have traditionally keep my light for all my previous grows. The cool tube keeps it nice and cool.

 

I went to my local hydro store and picked up a HUGE bag of hydroton for about 8 bucks. I washed it and topped off my netpots so they are completely filled. For those looking for a great and easy way to clean hydroton, I bought a 5 gallon bucket at Lowes and drilled about 30 small holes into the bottom. I place my hydroton in that and either run a hose on slow so it rinses it for about 20 mins (it's not wasting water...I place it on my lawn so it's a win win). WHam, bam, most of the clay is gone.
 
-TPM

 

DAY 4 (VEG STAGE / 18X6)
 
CURRENT PPM: 820
 
CURRENT PH: 5.8
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: .1 (It went from 5.8 to 5.9 over the past 12 hours)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Some of the water has gone, so I will need to add about 1 – 2 gallons to the reservoir tomorrow. Just to be safe, I'm going to plan on completely draining the reservoir tomorrow and refilling it with fresh water. The water will be lightly nuted at 1/2 the Lucas recommendation (I like to do this for the first week to ease the plants into the solution).
 
CURRENT TEMPS: It's a very warm one today with the temps already reaching into the mid 80's, with a potential high of 90 by the end of the day. With NO ac running,  just the massive intake, the tent is just now sitting at 79 degrees (it's almost 1:00pm here and it will start to cool down into the 70's by 6pm, 60's by 8:00pm). It will most likely reach 80 – 81 max at the peak heat, but I estimate it will only sit there for an hour. I try to keep my temps below 80, but strangely enough, during my most successful grow, air temps were in the 100's and water temps in the mid 80's. I was certain my babies would die, but it turned out to be my most successful harvest. So go figure, eh?
CURRENT MEASUREMENTS: I'm waiting until I see roots pop before taking measurements. In my opinion, that's when the real rapid upward growth begins and measurements are worth taking.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
SO far, so good. Everything seems to be going along as planned. The steady PH and leaf growth on the plants are good signs in my experience. The roots should be popping through within the next 3 – 7 days if this grow follows the pattern of my previous grows.
I am already deciding on one change: I was planning on attempting a sea of green (all my previous experiences have been with LST, which I am a big fan of), but I'm just not sure how I would set that up in my tent. The metal poles are somewhat flimsy, and I'm not sure how to go about attaching a load baring screen that will need to support the weight of 4 large plants. In my past experience, while most of the weight evaporates in drying, those nugs and branches can in fact be very heavy, particularly for the metal frame that is already bearing the weight of my lights, intake, and soon, my carbon filter (I attach that during flowering). So I'm thinking LST might be the way to go or just let them babies grow straight up. If I go the LST route, I need to hot glue some metal key rings to the bucket lids so I can use those a anchors. I may just build a self-supporting screen of green setup for my NEXT grow; something I should have thought of when I was planning for this grow.
 
The musky smell that was coming from my reservoir has gone away. I think I spilled some water on the ground and it soaked into a towel I have there. If I put my nose right up in the reservoir, it still has somewhat of a musky odor….but it has nutes and ph so I guess I shouldn't expect to smell roses or nothing.
 
Right now it's just a waiting game; waiting for those roots to pop through so the real fun can begin.
 

 

Sprout2Bud: NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!!!! I am prepared for spider mites this time: after a few crops were devastated, I used to buy live ladybugs every 2 weeks and let them loose in my cab. The good news is they eat lots of nasty critters….the bad news is, they get EVERYWHERE. I can't use that natural technique while doing an indoor grow, so I purchased some organic pest control and neem oil. I AM PREPARED FOR THOSE LITTLE BASTARDS!
As for the murkiness, my res is in a dark spot and there's a huge bubbler in there. I turned the bubbler off and I can see down to the bottom and the tubes so I misspoke about the murkiness.
 
cherokee91red: I think I will take your advice and move the lights a little closer. I am comfortable moving it down a few inches now that they are situated and adjusted to the light, so thanks for the recommendation; I am implementing it J
I am also going to fill up a larger reservoir with tap water tonight, let it sit overnight so any nastiness evaporates, and use that to re-fill my res tomorrow just as a safety measure. My goal for this grow was to not drain the res at all, but simply add back re: the Lucas formula…..but I would rather play it safe and empty/clean it once or twice then to have everything die on me down the line. SO again, thanks for another good recommendation.
 
TPM

 

DAY 5 (VEG STAGE / 18X6)
 
CURRENT PPM: 820
 
CURRENT PH: 5.8
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: 0 (Steady @ 5.8)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: My rese4rvoir will need about a gallon or two top off water tonight. I WAS going to drain the entire thing, but the water is very clear and all I can see at the bottom is the standard clay residue from my hydroton, so rather than kill my back draining the thing I will just add back some water. I will most likely drain it and clean it before I begin my flower stage in a few weeks and/or sooner if I think it needs it.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: It's supposed to be another hot one today rising into the high 80's, possibly low 90. Right now it's 79 degrees in the cab. The temps are dropping significantly after today…mid to low 70's for at least the next 8 days so that's a relief.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Still no roots, but in my past experienced it has taken 7 – 10 days to see roots pop out. I will say so far I am pleasantly surprised with my tap water. In my previous grows I was a strict RO water user. That meant a lot of work: filling up multiple 6 gallon water containers at my local market, making sure to have RO water stored away for top offs/add back, and the low, but still existent, cost every week for at least 30 gallons of water. I was afraid of using tap water but, so far, everything seems to be about the same as if I were using RO water. TIME WILL TELL I suppose.
 
Otherwise, nothing really new: the PH has completely stabilized, the water is clear, the babies are sprouting new leaves and nodes, and I lowered my light by one rung again just because, despite the warm ambient temps, the cooltube is doing its job well and I think the plants wanted the light just a bit lower.
 
My neem oil arrived in the mail today….I'm going to do some research and see if it's OK to use it once or twice a week as a preventative measure. I fucking HATE spider mites and other critters that try and kill my babies, and my last two grows were ruined by massive critter invasions, so I'm a bit paranoid about these things. As I mentioned in previous posts, ladybugs always seemed to be a good preventative….and natural…method, but that's not possible for my indoor grow (they get EVERYWHERE…and while I happen to like ladybugs, I don't like them crawling on my face at night)
 
Not much excitement yet. Once those roots pop the plant should begin to grow QUICKLY…I HOPE.
 

 

UPDATE: I just checked and all 4 of my ladies have small roots poking out of the netpot
The roots are too small and too difficult to get pictures (at the moment), so I wont take any pics of the roots until a few days from now.....but I will start taking measurements of the plant to check the growth rate. I'll take those tonight when I top off my res.
 
TPM

 

DAY 6
 
I'm not at my site so I can't give any specific information, but I did snap a few photos this morning....approx 3 seconds before my house was rocked by damn earthquake :-D Fun times.
 
The roots have exploded on all of the plants and they went from a tiny root poking out of the netpot (last night) to multiple strands dipping into the water (this morning). I'm trying to not to disturb my laides too much but I did get a shot of the roots,
 
The PH moved .1 up overnight.....so from 5.8 to 5.9.. I dropped it back down to 5.8
 
The plants certainly look more robust and have grown a bit, both upwards and outwards. I start taking measruements tonight.
 
ENjoy the pics.

 

DAY 7 (VEG STAGE/ 18x6)
 
CURRENT PPM: 820
 
CURRENT PH: 5.8
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: .1 (from 5.8 to 5.9)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: SAME AS BEFORE (little low, but the roots are reaching so it's all good)
 
CURRENT TEMPS: The cab will sit in the high 70's during most of the day and about 80 - 83 during the day if it gets particularly warm (which it has been lately). At nighttime it probably sits in the low to mid 70's.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Well, everything seems to be going well at the moment. I am concerned about the stagnant PPM level...it's been sitting in the mid 800's almost the entire week. It is about 10 - 15 PPM's lower than it has been before the roots dropped, but I thought the drop would be more significant than that. My plants are growing and the roots are now reaching the water......shouldn't there be a change in PPM's? Is this normal?
 
I have held off adding back to my res...the water levels are just below the netpot and perfect for the roots so I just haven't felt the need to add anything. Likewise, I have not drained the res at all; no more odor and the water is clear. 
 
The plants are starting to emit a familiar skunky odor....I take that s a good sign. I have smelled this in the past even when the ladies were not flowering, so I am assuming this is the natural odor of oils as a result of growth.
 
I have yet to take a tape measure to the plants....been too busy at work but i WILL get around to it, probably tomorrow night. If this strain is anything like the Blue Dream that I grew, it will more than TRIPPLE in size once I start to flower and I need to make sure I don't let them get too big before flower or I'll run out of space.
 
I also need to QUICKLY hot glue some anchors onto the lids so I can tie down these babies LST style. They are almost too big already, but I think I can manage.
 
I must say I'm not too thrilled with this tent that I bought. It was about 90 bucks so I guess I got what I paid for...the seams are pretty crappy; I can see small specs of light seeping out where the poles are jammed into the tent to hold it up. Not enough to allow light pollution in my dark tent, but just enough for me to spot it.   I don't see this tent lasting longer than a grow or two. I'm actually OK with that considering the low cost (relatively speaking) that I paid for it. But next time I'm definitely getting a better quality tent, particularly one that has side door to access the plants.
 
Enjoy the pics!
 
TPM