Phantom’s RDWC Cherry Cookies Grow Journal

[Anthony Suszko]

Yeah I think once I actually start having those issues I’ll start to worry. I was thinking about running a dozen or so autos in soil in one of the tents instead but I can just do that outside here most of the year. I will at some point probably throttle back but until then full send.

I really like my oil and sauces, like a few hundred bucks a week like. I’m hoping for Xmas I get myself a 2-4lb closed loop butane extractor with a dewaxing sleeve and a vacuum oven or two. At which point having 3 tents running might supply me with enough oil and sauce to keep me in a coma and believe me none of this is for resale, all personal use. My whole purpose is to grow a plant I enjoy growing and to remove myself from the whole dispensary/sales industry not for saving money but my career. I currently drive 3.5 hrs one way to a recreational state to buy even though my state is medical and I would have a reason for a card. I can’t get a card because it would be a career ended move and I’m only in my 30’s. I also need to get away from transporting it, I only smoke at home and once I get it to my house it doesn’t leave. If I were to get caught with what I come back with from the dispensary, hello felony, goodbye career. Once I make my own oil and sauces I’ll be self sufficient and relieved I’m not longer risking my career.

Anyways...I probably will end up right where you say I’ll be, running two tents perpetually and the third for dicking around in. For now I’m shooting for a 5 gallon pail of oil so I can walk around my house with just a shirt on, dipping my hands into a jar under my arms for some dabs, just like Winnie the Pooh would do. Haha

My reason as well.. to not be reliant or dependent upon dispensary system but to be self sufficient.. I like the challenge as well of finding the rite plants with flavor and THC profile and rite equipment refining it into a system that gets me the rite yield without overproducing and in my case doing it on the cheap..
Just like you hung your hat on Cherry Cookies.. I'm hanging mine on Colombian Acapulco-gold Sativa's and Afghani Kush Indica strains.. I want to play around in that area and plan at some point is to pollinate my way out of being reliant on seed vendors also..

 

[Anthony Suszko]

The butane setup is awesome but not cheap by any means. I plan on setting up the corner of my garage as a sort of clean room to do my extractions in. What really sold me on it is just having to do a minor wet trim before freezing and then extracting. I’ll still trim and cure a few nice big buds once I start extracting but not much. I don’t have the patience for trimming and curing, I use it all up watching the plants grow. The solvent vs non-solvent extraction I prefer solvent, in my mind you’ll recover more using a solvent vs non-solvent. CO₂ takes too long and is way too complex of a process of different heat/pressure/times for certain terpenes, thc, and cbd to be extracted, some runs taking 8-10 hours. Butane it seems like you pretty much blast it for an hour, recover the butane, then boil off any remaining in the vacuum oven.

MacGyvering is what I grew up doing on our family farm. Hell when I was 12 I built and welded a 2 seat go cart with a roll cage. Built the whole thing from scratch, even the steering wheel I roll formed out of round stock. I’m currently remodeling my home as well, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom completed.

"MacGyvering is what I grew up doing on our family farm."
I noticed that about you rite away

 

[HunterHunt]

How do you like your pH and EC probe? Been thinking about getting one. Do you have a link of the one you have?

Also another question if you dont mind. Ive been seeing a lot of people talk about MC nutrients. Thats Mega Crop nuts right? Is that what you are using on your hydro grows? How do you like it and how does it do in hydro? Do you use this through the whole grow?

 

[The Phantom]

Yes it is, there’s a large Mega Crop following here to the point there was a thread that got a bit out of hand on it. I like the no muss no fuss of it. Unfortunately, this is my first grow with it so I don’t have the experience with it but the reviews on here sold me. I like stupid simple.

As for the meter I like it for the regular water testing work I’ll be doing. I bought it directly from Hanna Instruments, $205 plus tax and shipping, came in 3 days. It’s the HI9813-6 Portable model with pH/EC/TDS/Temperature and CAL Check to instantly check it’s calibration. Definitely not as professional as the Hatch brand meters I was using last fall on a BLM water quality pilot study I ran, but who wants to spend $1,500 for a meter that only checks pH and temperature? I had separate $1,500 meters for TDS and Turbidity. Haha government spending at its finest. I really like having 1 meter for checking pH, EC, and temp (even if it’s in Celsius [temp_c*(9/5)+32=temp_F] getting good at that) plus it came with calibration solutions and a case. It should last me a long time and hold calibration pretty well.

 

[The Phantom]

Alright lights on, watered the girls, still droopy but have a ton of root growth coming out of the net pots and almost all of it is within an inch of the water. No photos of the roots because I knew something would go wrong trying to hold the net pot or lid while taking a photo. If I had an air stone it would be great to keep the roots wet but I really don’t want to run one. I’ll need to figure out a top feed system for the future, I’m already done with watering every few hours. Haha

I also tried screwed around try to get a good photo of the light but my iPhone 6 just isn’t going to allow it. The two sets of photos I have are at 20 & 100% power. The thing I use to judge how much my phone makes them look darker than they are is by looking at the plant in the photos, it’s basically a black shadow. The 20% does look like I’m lighting it with soft white clfs in real life but even in the brighter 100% lighting the plant still looks black in the photos. You all are already in my head and I’m looking at (2) 320w LED lights for this fall in the other two tents.

Cherry Cookies

• The Phantom
• Jun 9, 2020

Cherry Cookies

• The Phantom
• Jun 9, 2020

Cherry Cookies

• The Phantom
• Jun 9, 2020

Cherry Cookies

• The Phantom
• Jun 9, 2020

 

[FatBeaverBuds]

Looking good bud but yeah I would strongly recommend airstones.



I like the 4 inch half round stones. I get em for $12 a pop. Plenty for one rezzy. I am also using diy soaker hose air rings but am falling out of love with them due to getting plugged up too quickly in my live environment.

Roots at 19 days from seed with my system.

 

[The Phantom]

Yeah I did kind of plan for it by putting a hole in the end of my recirculation line inside each tote and shoving a drip irrigation line in it but didn’t cut them long enough to reach the net pot. I also figured I didn’t need it and never fixed it. Once I’m done with this run I’ll cut longer pieces and feed it into the net pot towards the top. Here’s a picture from last night when I tried to feed it into the net pot but once I closed the lid it dropped out. Disregard my half-assed hose clamp valve. Haha

FYI the roots coming out of the bottom of the pots today is probably close to what you have just not as long. It seems like all the roots have found there way outside of the pots just not to the water yet.

I’m just not a fan of air pumps period, even when I had an aquarium.

 

[Anthony Suszko]

Yeah I did kind of plan for it by putting a hole in the end of my recirculation line inside each tote and shoving a drip irrigation line in it but didn’t cut them long enough to reach the net pot. I also figured I didn’t need it and never fixed it. Once I’m done with this run I’ll cut longer pieces and feed it into the net pot towards the top. Here’s a picture from last night when I tried to feed it into the net pot but once I closed the lid it dropped out. Disregard my half-assed hose clamp valve. Haha

FYI the roots coming out of the bottom of the pots today is probably close to what you have just not as long. It seems like all the roots have found there way outside of the pots just not to the water yet.

I’m just not a fan of air pumps period, even when I had an aquarium.

sounds like 4 small transition pails with airstone would would work for a few days until roots got to proper length to start intake on their own, but can see it being another added expense rite now.. but if your gonna be running 2 hydro tents may be a needed future expense and solution to you having to constantly water them to length by hand ..

 

[The Phantom]

Nope agree 100%, hand watering is not what I want to be doing for 12 plants. I’ve already been looking at different pumps to run inline vs my submersible and at redoing the recirculation piping into the totes. I would like a valve on the outside of the tote to adjust the flows between the four and maybe a tee to a small needle valve and tubing I could run to the top of the net pot, IF I don’t use my third tent as a vegging tent for the other two tents and do like you said with 5 gallon buckets and air stones.

Not quite sure I have the balls like some of the people here to just plop a germinated seed with a 1” taproot into hydroton and call it good. I’d smoke my stash in anxiety in a matter of minutes. I think for the Fourth I’m going to drop one seed of each photoperiod strain (15-20 depending on my Seedsman and Sweet Seeds freebies I have coming) to start going out a section of mother plants for clones this fall. I need to satisfy my thirst for variety and I have plenty of room to keep mother plants vegging out under T5s for cloner stock.

All literal pipe dreams for now and this fall is still a ways away.

 

[Anthony Suszko]

Nope agree 100%, hand watering is not what I want to be doing for 12 plants. I’ve already been looking at different pumps to run inline vs my submersible and at redoing the recirculation piping into the totes. I would like a valve on the outside of the tote to adjust the flows between the four and maybe a tee to a small needle valve and tubing I could run to the top of the net pot, IF I don’t use my third tent as a vegging tent for the other two tents and do like you said with 5 gallon buckets and air stones.

Not quite sure I have the balls like some of the people here to just plop a germinated seed with a 1” taproot into hydroton and call it good. I’d smoke my stash in anxiety in a matter of minutes. I think for the Fourth I’m going to drop one seed of each photoperiod strain (15-20 depending on my Seedsman and Sweet Seeds freebies I have coming) to start going out a section of mother plants for clones this fall. I need to satisfy my thirst for variety and I have plenty of room to keep mother plants vegging out under T5s for cloner stock.

All literal pipe dreams for now and this fall is still a ways away.

saw a youtube where they use rainbird irrigation fittings that spray up at the basket.. they are tap drilled into proper spots along a small guage PVC frame that fits snuglly around the inside of the tote.. this could be a solution that works for you ? instead of transition pails.. youtube title :[ Building an Inexpensive Hydroponics/Aeroponics System] should get you to the link.

 

[The Phantom]

Yeah looks real familiar haha

The video of those two dudes building it on whatever public tv station they are on is hilarious. Stoned out of their gourds trying to convince you it’s for growing vegetables!

I do highly recommend building one for anyone who wants to clone for hydroponics.

 

[Anthony Suszko]

Yeah looks real familiar haha

The video of those two dudes building it on whatever public tv station they are on is hilarious. Stoned out of their gourds trying to convince you it’s for growing vegetables!

I do highly recommend building one for anyone who wants to clone for hydroponics.

Now that you mention it.. they do seem stoned lol..
When i saw the Rainbird fittings that spray up at the basket, I thought it might fit as a solution to your temporary problem..

 

[The Phantom]

I do appreciate the suggestion and it is something I thought of as an option to consider for this fall. For now I’m actually pretty content going in there to water them. The excitement has been getting to me so it gives me a reason to go in there and check things out, fiddle with my pH probe and what not.

Looking to my future with this run, what do you all do for harvest/trimming/curing? I was only outdoors with nearly 100 plants scattered in groups of 10 throughout the old farm groves and tree lines by farm fields and no place to dry besides outdoors or a hayloft. Hayloft was no good because it would dry too fast and come out smelling like alfalfa. I also tried just drying in the sun outside which worked out well when it didn’t rain. I ended up losing a purple haze about 7’ tall and 5’ at the base to an unexpected rain storm while drying it. I’ve seen the 24-48hrs darkness before harvest for terp profiles, water curing, and a few other things. What’s all of your steps from the point of harvest to smoke?

 

[Anthony Suszko]

I do appreciate the suggestion and it is something I thought of as an option to consider for this fall. For now I’m actually pretty content going in there to water them. The excitement has been getting to me so it gives me a reason to go in there and check things out, fiddle with my pH probe and what not.

Looking to my future with this run, what do you all do for harvest/trimming/curing? I was only outdoors with nearly 100 plants scattered in groups of 10 throughout the old farm groves and tree lines by farm fields and no place to dry besides outdoors or a hayloft. Hayloft was no good because it would dry too fast and come out smelling like alfalfa. I also tried just drying in the sun outside which worked out well when it didn’t rain. I ended up losing a purple haze about 7’ tall and 5’ at the base to an unexpected rain storm while drying it. I’ve seen the 24-48hrs darkness before harvest for terp profiles, water curing, and a few other things. What’s all of your steps from the point of harvest to smoke?

naw man, just trying to throw some stuff out there to help out if I can.. I'm probably being more of a pest than help lol.. now that youve explained your position on the matter, I'm good and will stop pestering you.. ( for a while )

 

[The Phantom]

No worries. I did find it funny when you sent that link and was like, “yup I was thinking that too.” Then I chuckled thinking about those two guys building the cloner.

 

[Anthony Suszko]

No worries. I did find it funny when you sent that link and was like, “yup I was thinking that too.” Then I chuckled thinking about those two guys building the cloner.

Th fact that it was for tomato plants made me laugh also..

 

[The Phantom]

Haha like my local hydroponic store says, “legalize tomatoes.” Speaking of which I need to call those A-hats and see where my Z7 is. I was super happy when I had them order it for me because the in store cost was $42 for the 1 quart A and 1 quart B which I think msrp is $72. Seriously had to ask them when I saw my invoice it was the quart size and not the 16 oz. Fricken hydroponics store is like a 10,000 sqft warehouse with a father and son as owners. The son is huge in the commercial growing industry and has an awesome YouTube channel showing some crazy operations he’s help build in California. All around great people carrying some of the best MJ growing products and some awesome prices even online but even better in store. I won’t give out the name of the place or YouTube channel but if you Google “Legalize tomatoes” you’ll find their website and then their blog with the YouTube channel.

 

[HunterHunt]

Thanks for the info! How is the pH after you mix your solution, pretty stable so far? Are you using any other nutrients other than MC? Im very interested in these nutes now lol. Might do a test run. Gonna do some reading of others on it.

 

[The Phantom]

So I did have to pH down twice, once yesterday and today. Yesterday I took it from 6.5, where it seemed to have leveled off at after mixing everything the night before, down to 6.2. I just pH my reservoir with the pump off, down to 5.6-5.8. I then turn the pump back on let it run for 5 mins, shut off, and pH down again. I repeat this 3-4 times to get a fairly good turnover. I let it run overnight and checked it this morning, where it was at 6.2. I figure that’s probably where it ended up after yesterday. I then pH’d down the reservoir a few times to 5.6, running the pump for a while in between and when I checked it tonight it was 5.8. Remember right now none of my roots are in the water so this is probably just from my tap water finally sitting out a few days and the MC fully dissolving and leveling off.

The current dosage I’m using is 2 grams per gallon of just MC, no supplements. The only thing else I’ve added to the water is Hydroguard and pH down. Once I get my Z7 I will add that as well. I’m going to do everything I have to just stick with using MC and no other supplements, only trying to follow the guidelines on their webpage by, keeping the plant “MC green”, when a deficiency shows up increase the dosages, and finally push the plants to the point of nutrient burn on the tips, if I get ballsy.

 

[FatBeaverBuds]

I’m going to do everything I have to just stick with using MC and no other supplements, only trying to follow the guidelines on their webpage by, keeping the plant “MC green”, when a deficiency shows up increase the dosages, and finally push the plants to the point of nutrient burn on the tips, if I get ballsy.

That sounds like a solid plan. Don't over think this shit. Keep it simple.