Beefxer's First Hydro Grow - 600w 3'x3' tent DWC

Equipment:

3'x3' tent
Lumatek 600w digital ballast (MH/HPS, 400w/600w)
Lumatek high PAR 600w HPS bulb
Cool tube hood
Valuline 6" centrifugal fan
GH dual diaphragm air pump (3 buckets)
2 other aquarium air pumps (1 bucket)
4 black buckets with 5" net pots, hydroton, and large ecoplus airstones
General Hydroponics Micro and Bloom mixed in 1/2 ratio (Lucas Formula)

Strains:
Permafrost
Cheese
G13
Blueberry Indica
NL (sharing a bucket with above)

History:

I've done a few soil grows before but I've never tried DWC. After I set up my equipment I went out and picked up some clones from my local co-op (I'm a legal MMJ patient) and began to torture them endlessly. It has been about a month, and I've almost killed these clones more than once with my mistakes.

I'll spare you the pics of my trials and tribulations (which included high temps, pH drops, overnute, spider mites, thrips, blah) and cut straight to the new stuff. Today is day 3 of flower, and I'm seeing some serious stretch. You can see in the pics that I LST'd the plants and pinned all of the main branches down to the farthest corners of the bucket lid... sorta like they are scrogged across the top of the lid. Now I'm getting some serious stretch from the newer branches as they compete for light in early flower.

So far I really like the Lucas formula. When I get the parameters right my plants just eat it up. My largest plant (Permafrost) was drinking about 1/2 gallon and ~70ppm per day before the switch to flower.

Right now my main challenge is to raise the PPM of the nutrient solution without burning the plants. The Lucas Formula calls for ~450ppm in veg and ~900ppm in flower, but I found early on that 450ppm for young plants is too much. My solution so far has been to slowly raise the PPM on a daily basis when I top up the water.

Before you comment, yes my plants are all different sizes. This is largely due to stunting from improper treatment on my part. The good thing is that this will tell me how long to veg in the future as some plants prove too large or too small for efficient use of the space.

Anyways, here are the pics I snapped today. I'll try to keep this updated. Comments are welcome!

So, I realized that I posted this in the "Journal Discussion" area instead of the Grow Journal area. Can I move it myself?

I think I'm dealing with a mild N deficiency. I'm seeing really light green in the newer leaves, particularly closer to the stems. This is my guide presently: http://forum.sensiseeds.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=6499&PN=3

Anyways, here is a shot from a week ago (4/2/11) and one from today. It has been a good week

Day 9 of flower:

I took some clones and put them in rapid rooter cubes because I'm expanding my grow soon.

I'm also lowering my pH target from 6.0 to 5.8 in order to get rid of what I think is a Mn deficiency. Otherwise it's looking healthy and green with a little bit of stretch.

Day 19. Almost to week 3...

The two smaller buckets didn't make the cut. I'm left with one Cheese and one Permafrost, both of which are growing very quickly.

The deficiency I was dealing with has faded as I began to keep res pH around 5.8 instead of 6.0. The rest of the yellowing I have determined to be light bleaching.

The Cheese has proven to be a shorter plant, and it is actually starting to pull ahead when it comes to bud production. Cool.

To train them, I originally had them LST'd across the tops of their buckets, but over time the branches grew stronger and the lids were tight like drums, almost forcing the net pots down into the reservoirs. So now I have been lightly bending branches outward until I feel a very small pop in the stem tissue. This effectively spreads the plant out and gets light down to the lower branches, and I have noticed that stems treated in this manner become stronger and woodier which I hope will mean that they can hold more weight.

Anyways, enjoy the pics... and I'll enjoy this bubble hash...