Phantom’s RDWC Cherry Cookies Grow Journal

[The Phantom]

Totally agree, stick out your current nutrients, don’t risk something happening this far along.

Gorilla Glue is a great strain, you’ll enjoy growing it from what I’ve seen in the grow journals around here.

I think at this point I’m more of a seed collector than a grower! I have a refrigerator full of seeds with more on the way. What’s the saying, “So many strains, so little time?” Haha

I hope you’re taking advantage of our sponsors and their discounts for your seeds. I made the mistake of not knowing Seedsman (sponsor at the time) had a 420 members discount when I did my first order. Won’t let it happen again!

 

[Rosti]

Wassup Phantom? Looking good in there, I always enjoy watching my fellow hydro growers do their thing so I’m gonna pop a squat if ya don’t mind.

 

[The Phantom]

Welcome, I don’t mind at all. This is really a test run for me, my first time doing hydro so I’m using clones from a bag seed I grew. I’m also under a time crunch with family from out of state coming to visit the week after Labor Day, so the girls have just over a week before I flip them. Once my family leaves that’s when the real fun will start.

 

[The Phantom]

This morning’s readings:

pH 5.8 - rising, left as is
EC 1.20 - falling
Water level is also falling but I did not top off.

All good signs so far. Also seeing a lot of new growth on the girls, even the ones I just topped (first ones I noticed actually).

 

[The Phantom]

Just have to throw this out there that Seedsman is now accepting new accounts for anyone who has been waiting patiently.

 

[HunterHunt]

Phantom i know ive ask before but are you sure you dont need to have an aerator in your res? I have never seen anyone on here that has grown DWC (Including myself) without an aerator. Just want to make sure lol as ive never seen that before. Ive always been taught you have to have some type of aeration in your tanks.

I cant wait to see you grow that LSD out! One of my fav strains to grow in the past.

 

[The Phantom]

I do have aeration just not from an air pump.

Those are the two return lines to my reservoir. That drop combined with the 3” drop the recirculation lines have into the grow totes also help provide enough of a break in the water surface tension to allow for O₂ and CO₂ to be exchanged. I actually need to go to HD today to buy (4) valves for the end of each line in the grow totes so I get a more even distribution of flow, currently one is getting about half flow compared to the other three. Limiting flow out the ends of the recirculation lines should make the flow more turbulent when breaking the water surface and increase DO/decrease CO₂.

This is all just from my experience as a water/wastewater engineer. I’ve dealt with reclaimation water reservoirs and their DO content in order to keep them from going anaerobic with algae growing out of control. Most have large aeration systems piped along the bottom with large blowers but we found out that just by adjusting how water is introduced and how often the reservoir is filled will allow more than the required DO needed without the aeration pumps/piping. All it took was adjusting the inlet piping to the reservoir to be above the high water elevation to create this waterfall effect, along with filling it with less water more often to help with circulation is all it needed. Saved the client from having to run (2) large diesel air pumps 12 hours a day.

It really is about breaking the surface tension. You need to allow the CO₂ to escape in order for the O₂ to be absorbed. Also, sometimes the aeration can be too much and actually off gas the O₂ in the water along with the CO₂ which is just as bad as no aeration at all. Lastly, colder water increases the water’s capability of holding onto more DO, cold water oceans tend to support more life because of the increased DO content grows more food.

Sorry for such an elaborate answer to your question or if you knew any of this information already. In the end this is new for me as well and only a theory of mine until a few weeks ago. I still have a feeling I’m not done learning lessons from this grow.

 

[HunterHunt]

Awesome! No im glad you broke it down so i can understand as well. It sounds like you are a lot more experienced in that than me! I just want to make sure you girls have enough O2 but it sounds like you know what you are doing! Keep up the good work.

 

[Modest Grower]

Officially switching to DWC after the Jack Herer ladies are harvested. Keep it up and thanks for sharing the knowledge

 

[The Phantom]

Awesome! No im glad you broke it down so i can understand as well. It sounds like you are a lot more experienced in that than me! I just want to make sure you girls have enough O2 but it sounds like you know what you are doing! Keep up the good work.

Officially switching to DWC after the Jack Herer ladies are harvested. Keep it up and thanks for sharing the knowledge

Thanks for the positive support, it’s the people like you two that make this worth posting and talking about.

MG if it wasn't for my pure hatred of air pumps I would probably be doing the 5 gallon buckets for dwc. I do see that The Happy One has a very nice rdwc setup using 5 gallon pails without air stones. I may try to emulate that for my veg tent. I would need to shoot for two (4) bucket setups with two reservoirs since I would be running different strains for my two flowering tents. I still don’t think that would bring me to perpetual unless I really let the girls veg for 2 months, plus 2 weeks in the cloner (at least by running two flowering tents). I’d also like to squeeze in my cloner in the tent as well but it’s not necessary since I have to setup a space for my mothers anyways and the cloner could go in with them. There’s still a lot to ponder before this fall on how I want to approach my grow.

Today’s readings:
pH 5.9 - rising
EC 1.20 - stable
Water Level - falling

Check my handy hydro chart...

Looks like I am ok but I will continue to monitor for potential issues.

Have a good day everyone.

 

[The Phantom]

This morning’s readings:
pH 6.0 - rising
EC 1.20 - steady
Water Level - falling

I’m down around 5 gallons of water, today I will mix up some to top off with. I will also pH down everything at that time as well to the 5.8 range.

 

[ridefas78]

the black cream and purple lemonade were ones i was going to order from there too till they only take cash and bit coin =/

 

[ridefas78]

but deff going to read back on these to see the whole thing. could learn some things involving dwc

 

[The Phantom]

the black cream and purple lemonade were ones i was going to order from there too till they only take cash and bit coin =/

Actually I just got an email from Seedsman 2 minutes ago saying they are now using Billpay, plus when you use it you get the 4 free seeds like you do with bitcoin.

 

[Modest Grower]

Actually I just got an email from Seedsman 2 minutes ago saying they are now using Billpay, plus when you use it you get the 4 free seeds like you do with bitcoin.

It's funny, when I was a kid I would always see my dad get the best deals paying cash, now it is so different. Love the knowledge you have @The Phantom very up to date.

 

[The Phantom]

So all of my concentrates and cartridges ran out last Friday and I thought last weekend I would make my run to the state next door to re-up on my supply. I decided not to and have been sobering up all week, thinking I would go this weekend. That was until I spent all of my weed money on MORE FUCKING SEEDS! Wow do I have a serious problem with buying seeds.

Anyways, I tried out another one of our sponsors, spent a few hundred $$$, and getting 100+ seeds. It’s a good thing I have a second refrigerator to keep them all in. I created a thread about my struggle with this new addiction. If you have time for a laugh check it out. Seed Stashers Anonymous

 

[The Phantom]

It's funny, when I was a kid I would always see my dad get the best deals paying cash, now it is so different. Love the knowledge you have @The Phantom very up to date.

It’s all the spam emails that fill my inbox daily. Haha

I agree, my friends think it’s weird I roll around with a wad of cash when we go out. Cash is pretty non-existent for people my age or younger to the point I bet some couldn’t even tell you who was on which bill. We need some of that Canadian Monopoly funny money down here to keep people interested in cash! Cash definitely still talks more than plastic in a lot of cases, gas stations down here is one that comes to my mind, usually a 5 to 10 cent per gallon discount. I had mentioned before that my local hydroponics store is cheaper if you buy in store versus online and that’s with no free shipping either. I was actually just there this afternoon get my quart sized Z7, try finding that for under $40 without needing to have a $300 minimum order online.

 

[ridefas78]

So all of my concentrates and cartridges ran out last Friday and I thought last weekend I would make my run to the state next door to re-up on my supply. I decided not to and have been sobering up all week, thinking I would go this weekend. That was until I spent all of my weed money on MORE FUCKING SEEDS! Wow do I have a serious problem with buying seeds.

Anyways, I tried out another one of our sponsors, spent a few hundred $$$, and getting 100+ seeds. It’s a good thing I have a second refrigerator to keep them all in. I created a thread about my struggle with this new addiction. If you have time for a laugh check it out. Seed Stashers Anonymous

i've had to stop myself many times from buying more seeds lol. i have 7 different strains coming as it is lol

 

[The Phantom]

Yesterday I topped off with 4 gallons of 2.5 grams per gallon MC, pH 5.6. After a while I measured the system and it was at a pH 5.9 and EC 1.22.

This morning’s readings:
pH 5.9 - steady
EC 1.18 - falling
Water Level - falling

Referencing the chart, good situation to have and I need to feed them more. My reservoir is down around 2 gallons again, I’ll use this to my advantage and top off with a super concentration of MC to bring up the entire setup to 2.75 grams per gallon.

For the seeds I dropped last week, both the Anubis and K8 show no signs of movement. The Gelato I also dropped earlier this week shows no signs, she was a pretty small and very round seed. So in order to help with my recent seed addiction, I’ll drop 5 more seeds this morning. Plant ‘em if you got ‘em, right?

The line up is:
K8 - replant and last freebie of this strain
Anubis - replant
Cheese - freebie
The White OG - this seed appears to be cracked
Badazz OG Cheese

I’m going to be adding the sand paper tube scuffing method this time since it appears that was the issue with the K8 and Gelato seeds not cracking. I have no idea why the Anubis just stopped growing. I will move all three of these seeds into some soil for another week just in case they decide to show up later for the party.

 

[The Phantom]

I went ahead and topped off the reservoir this afternoon with 2 gallons of water dosed with 43.8 grams of MC. This would bring me up to concentration of 3.0 grams per gallon overall if we skip over the fact the plants have been taking up the nutrients since the water change. I’ll see how the girls take to the increase, 6 hours after the topping off the current water conditions are:
pH 5.8
EC 1.33