Strawberry OG Kush @ 400 Watts, recirculating DWC.

Lava, my thinking for this grow is if I get an OUNCE off of these 4 plants...TOTAL....that alone will make up (and then some) the cost of what I put into this (around 150 - 200 bucks) as well as what I would out towards my medicine for a month. FAIR ENOUGH! So I don't mind flowering a bit early to avoid the fuss and just prepare better (like mounts on my bucket lids for serious LST) for my next grow, where I will veg the full 4 weeks.

 

FINGERS CROSSED

 

DAY 16 (VEG STAGE/ 18x6)
 
CURRENT PPM: 825
 
CURRENT PH: 5.8
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  .1 (5.8 to 5.9)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Water level is starting to lower again. The babies drank about a gallon and a half by the looks of it. I have an 18 gallon res so I am going to let it lower a little more before adding back.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: 72 - 77 all day. The cab sat in a nice 73 degree tent all day (weather is nice and rainy today) and is currently sitting at 73.
 
RH: 33%
 
HEIGHT: Plants continue to flesh themselves out. The trunks are thick and the branches are getting stronger. Little white hairs cover the node sections
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Well, I went out of town last night with my wife and had a great time. I came home today and the ladies are still doing fine. I am FINALLY starting to notice a dip in the PPM's. I have decided to begin my flower THIS SUNDAY (two days from now). This will set my veg at 18 days, or two and a half weeks. I know its a bit early....some folks flower at 3 weeks, many flower at 4 or 5 weeks. I am comfortable flowering at 2 and a half weeks with the space I have so we will see if this is a huge mistake or not. Keep in mind:<I consider an ounce of quality bud to be a SUCCESS, so anything above 1 ounce dried is complete success in my eyes. I am NOT looking (this time) to grow massive trees. I am coming from a very negative experience in growing and am using this grow to revitalize my energy and enthusiasm for growing.
 
When I flower, I plan to drain the entire system and refill with fresh water nuted at 900PPM. That may seem low to some, but I will allow the plants to tell me if it is too low or not.
 
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I bought an oscillating fan (see in one of my pics below) that is now gently blowing my my babies.
 
-TPM

 

DAY 18 (VEG STAGE/ 18x6)
 
CURRENT PPM: 870
 
CURRENT PH: 5.8
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  .1 (5.8 to 5.9)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Water level is stable. The ladies are drinking but slowly.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: 71 - 77 all day, currently sitting at 72.
 
RH: 30%
 
HEIGHT: Plants continue to grow upwards and outwards. I finally had to raise my light up a single rung/chain link
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Today I begin my flower cycle. I am extremely satisfied with the height of the plants and feel flowering now will keep the ladies to a manageable size. I am not going to drain the entire res as I had originaly announced: TOO MUCH DAMN WORK. I am just going to refill and raise the PPM to 900 - 950 and see where that takes me.
 
-TPM

 

The Letter, that's a great idea. Unfortinatly, my cab is nowhere near a drain :-( My original idea was just to use a shopvac and make a few trips to my lawn to dump the water out. But I want to give this Lucas formula a fair shake and really see if leaving my res alone has any negatiev consequences. I don't think it will.
 
I did begin my flowering last night.....and boy did things smell skunky this morning   I did not add any water or nutes yet....so the water is still sitting at a decent level, but the nutes have gone up to around 890 all on their own.
 
-TPM

 

DAY 20 (FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: 900
 
CURRENT PH: 5.9
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  .1 (5.9 to 6.0)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Water level is stable. The ladies are drinking but slowly.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: 71 - 77 all day, currently sitting at 72.
 
RH: 40%
 
HEIGHT: Plants continue to grow upwards and outwards.
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
Im just two days into my flower and boy do the ladies stink   I still have not added water or nutes (My work schedual doesn't allow me time to do this....not until Wednesday) but the ladies don't seem to care at all....my PPM's remain amazingly stable in the 850 - 900 range (currently at the 900 level) as the ladies continue to drink water.
 
I shifted my light again to shine a bit more on the ladies in the back. They are almost the same size as my ladies in the front, but slightly smaller.
 
Otherwise, not much excitement....not until little flowers start to appear
 
-TPM
 
-TPM

 

The Letter 3,
   Thanks for that info. Sadly, my PH meter does not take temps, but I do feel the water occasionaly and it remains cool (I'd guess in the mid to high 60's, low 70's on a warm day). I keep it in a well shaded location, but I WILL keep an eye on it for temperature variation.
 
Funny story: I've gone through about 4 differnt PH meters over the past few grows....and they aren't cheap! I have clumsy hands and dropped 3 into the water....frying them...before breaking down and buying a waterproof PH tester. ARGH!
 
-TPM

 

DAY 21 (DAY 3 of FLOWER STAGE/ 12x12)
 
CURRENT PPM: N/A (forgot to check)
 
CURRENT PH: 6.0
 
PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS:  .1 (5.9 to 6.0)
 
CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Water level is getting a bit low again. I will have time this evening to add back.
 
CURRENT TEMPS: 66 - 76 all day, currently sitting at 68.
 
RH: 40%
 
HEIGHT: THe front plants are growing at a rate of 1/4 - 1/2 inch every 24 hours!
 
JOURNAL ENTRY
 
You all know the drill.....not much excitement until little buds start appearing. That said, the plants continue to stink and grow. I haven't taken a tape measure to them lately but I think they have grown tremendously over the past few days.
 
I am allowing my PH to drift up a bit for flower. I usualy keep the flower PH at 6.0 - 6.2. In veg, it's a straight 5.8.
 
Also, I noticed the front left plant is starting to expand into the bottom left plants territory, so I will need to do some creative tie downs with the big fan leaves later on tonight.
 
-TPM

 

The Letter 3,
   Another good idea The funny thing is, I dropped/broke/fried several PH testers that were NOT waterproof over the course of a few grows...but as soon as I broke down and bought the more expensive waterproof tester.....I haven't dropped it once
It figures LOL.
 
-TPM

 

Holy crap, you know what I JUST realized? I started my flower stage 3 days ago.....and I completely forgot to switch out bulbs! I have my MH bulb already installed, but I will need to switch it out tonight with my HPS bulb. WOW, I can;t believe that slipped my mind!!!!
 
-TPM

 

Poke, I used LST during my previous 4 grows: hands down, the coolest and most productive technique out there. Plus, it's fairly easy to do. I didn;t do LST this time becuase I FORGOT to mount some rings on my bucket lid to tie the branches to. I absolutely will incorporate LST for my next grow though
 
-TPM