Phantom’s RDWC Cherry Cookies Grow Journal

[The Phantom]

Alright this morning’s readings are as follows:
pH 5.9 - Rising, I already started lowering this with the intention of hitting the bottom end of the range to try and help out with a magnesium deficiency I’m seeing again. Also when I do my water change tomorrow I’ll bypass my water softener to help retain more of the natural calcium and magnesium in my tap water. I do think a lot of it has to do with me tending to stay on the higher end of the pH range, further away from the pH range where magnesium is better absorbed by the plants.
EC 1.33 - Steady, after upping the concentration to a theoretical 3.0 grams per gallon MC, the plants have turned a much darker green. I will stay at 3.0 grams per gallon after tomorrow’s water change with potentially increasing the concentration later in the week, like I did this week. There is only one week left before I go into 12/12 and I would like to make it to 4.0 grams per gallon for the beginning of the stretch.
Water Level - Falling

Referring to the chart, we are doing alright.

Seedlings, I’ve started feeding the 3 I have sprouted, they are currently starting to show the third, overall, set of leaves. I’m somewhere around 1.0-1.5 grams per gallon MC. They are just getting a 10ml drink of water so far but that will increase starting today.

The K8, Anubis, and Gelato OG germinating seeds are still in limbo with no changes. I have hope for the Gelato but not much for the other two. I think once this next round of seeds germinate I’ll send an email to Seedsman about what has failed to germinate. I’m really only looking for a credit for the Anubis because of it’s close resemblance to a smoke I really enjoyed in the past. The others were freebies so if they say tough luck I’m not going to throw a tantrum about it.

Now about the new seeds I placed in water, the White OG that was cracked had a taproot swimming around this morning, she got dumped straight into soil. This just goes to prove that even a seed that had me thinking it would amount to nothing because it was cracked can still have potential. The replant of the Anubis and the Badazz OG Cheese both showed cracking and a root tip emerging, they went into paper towels to get some growth before planting, probably this evening. The replanted K8 and the Cheese were still floating but sunk after a poke of the finger, neither have cracked yet though.

Happy Father’s Day to all, go spend time with your family today instead of cruising the forum. My dad is 1,300 miles away otherwise I know I’d be spending the day fishing with him on the hunt for some ‘gills and ‘eyes, his favorite for eating. I’m allergic to fish so I practice C&R as much as I can unless I know someone who can’t go out for themselves, even then I’m not going to catch them AND clean them for you. Haha

 

[The Phantom]

Today’s readings:
pH 5.7 - rising
EC 1.30 - falling
Water Level - falling


I don’t believe I will get to my water change today, it’s going to be a long night working on getting a set of design plans sealed and out the door. It gives me another day to judge my current 3.0 grams per gallon dosage. Yesterday the leaves had turned a deep green and today they have seemed to lighten up to more of the ideal MC green.

I planted the BA OG Cheese and Anubis seeds yesterday and the Cheese seed this morning after it cracked yesterday and started a taproot in a paper towel overnight. The two K8 seeds never cracked and turned black, the Gelato seed cracked but never grew, and the first Anubis‘ taproot never grew any further and died. I am a fan of even numbers so 7 plants don’t sit well with me, I also have 3 strains on hand I don’t have plants started of yet (Gelato, Bubba Kush, Galaxy). So you never know what might happen.

Clones are all healthy, I actually counted 6 of them. They are showing new growth tips, good news as a sign of developing roots. The new growth is a light shade of green so I will give them a dose of nutrients. I’m excited to play around with these clones and make some feminized seeds for practice bonus if it actually turns out to be a good producer.

 

[midwestgrown]

Why did it take me this long to read your journal! Haha i wont lie the obsession has begun on seed collection your not lying lol... All i wanna do is find more and have spent so many hours getting lost at looking. I feel like my only option is putting a few hundred on a prepaid debit so that i can link that to cash app and at least try to get bitcoin. I have bank accounts linked cc linked i have tried every dam way possible except sending cash... I am still waiting on the ones i used a money order for but i dont want to lose hope on them not making it here. I really wanna go through the sponsers.. If your from the states how do you make it work? It seems like everything i try nothing works.. Haha i know my lady is hoping i dont find a way i already get amazon enough.

 

[The Phantom]

It may be the particular seed supplier you are working with or maybe you are talking about the bitcoin platform you are using. I use CoinBase for my bitcoin account. Now for seed banks, I have used Seedsman in the past with no issues and they seem to have just about every form of payment available under the sun. I would highly recommend them based on that for your situation. They also have competitive prices, insane inventory, and tons of freebies and discounts, plus they actually have some really good in house genetics of their own. They are located overseas but their method of shipping pretty much guarantees you will not have seeds seized by customs. Your order gets bulk shipped with many other orders to a hub of theirs in the US where your order is then pulled out and reshipped to you through the local mail and done discretely.

Dope Seeds I won’t go recommending, until I get my order, but I have zero issues so far, they are a sponsor to the forum, and I haven’t seen much for complaints on them. They also said most orders overseas take 5-9 business days, possibly up to 3 weeks (this could be pre-Rona times), Seedsman is currently around 3-5 weeks with some people seeing longer. All reasons why I decided to try Dope Seeds after Seedsman stopped being a sponsor. Like Seedsman they are based overseas but they only guarantee safe delivery of your seeds to the US via one shipping method, taking your seeds from the original seed supplier packaging, repackaging them in the jewelry baggies (strains separate and labeled, thank the weed gods), and sending them hidden in a gift/toy. Some would say this can lead to the seed bank doing some shady business by perhaps not sending you the seeds you paid for but with Dope Seeds‘ recommendations here, I figured I could trust them.

I’ll let anyone else chime in about the suppliers they use and which to stay away from. I know @BigDannel has had positive experiences with Gorilla Seeds, another sponsor here. I know there are some places people will tell you to avoid like the plague and there are some that don’t deliver to the US.

 

[The Phantom]

6/23 Readings:
pH 5.7 - steady
EC 1.28 - falling
Water Level - falling

Referencing back to the chart, hungry plants it says. Probably not what a guy itching to up his nutrient dosage should be hearing on his water change day only just a few days after upping it. Cue evil mischievous laughter.

The White OG and Anubis have broke ground. The clones were given a dose of nutrients yesterday to help with the yellowing they are getting.

The BA Cheese and Cheese should be up today or tomorrow morning.

 

[Modest Grower]

Mega crop can really fuel the ladies! So interested in seeing how much they like in this set up.

 

[The Phantom]

How do you like my Tupperware clones? Haha
I will say I do like my hydroponic cloner better but since these will be transplanted into soil outdoors for seed practice I had to go this route. I just mist them morning and night, keeping them covered with a second Tupperware is all I’ve been doing. I don’t see any roots swimming around in the Sunshine Mix and perlite yet but I should soon based on the fact they are growing again and hungry for nutrients.

 

[Modest Grower]

Nice! I was wondering if they were clones but I'm on my cell and my eyes aren't fantastic. I can see them now!

I hope they root for you. I gotta get back on cloning. I used to grow out bushy plants and then just clone it to make tons of what I called busdsicles for cabinet grows but I haven't been successful lately. I'm going to give it a go on these jack herer for sure and follow @Canadadoes on making seeds

 

[Modest Grower]

For a second I was like wait thought you were winding down for visitors. Nice, have some outdoors as well. Do you gorilla grow those or have a little spot for them?

 

[The Phantom]

Haha well you are right, I am supposed to be winding down for my guests coming in September. I was really only concerned about the hydroponics tent being set up with flowering plants in it. The mothers and clones will be setup in my master closet (and maybe inside of a tent too) in veg along while my guests are here. I’ll keep them trained and trimmed to keep any smells to a minimum, plus I’d like the mothers to stay as compact as possible.

 

[The Phantom]

Wow so I still have yet to do a water change.
Work has been an absolute madhouse to the point where I told my boss if they don’t hire two more employees I’m going back to my old employer where I would be compensated $20-25k more a year to do the same amount of work. We are actually losing money due to lack of employees, our current workload for now and the next 18 months has been budgeted for 7 full time employees and we are working with 4, myself included. Since it’s all billable hours and we are currently doing the work with 3 less employees we are under billing each month by $50-60k, all lost revenue due to working too efficiently. I wish I could just milk it out but the project deadlines don’t allow for it so the only way to capture the lost revenue is to work with the amount of people the projects have been budgeted for. Any who, that has made me a busy guy all this week, finalizing plans and picking up the slack where I can.

The readings this morning:
pH 5.7 - stable the last few days
EC 1.25 - stable the last few days
Water level - falling, topped off Wednesday 5 gallons, down about 2 gallons since.

Still doing well according the the chart.
Here’s a picture of the girls just growing wild with little to no training and some FIM’d FIMing (you'll see leaves with missing tips).

The girls are pretty tired (just before lights off this morning) and the biggest girl (back right corner) before the topping is now the smallest and also the one with the mag. deficiency. I’m 100% attributing this to the water flow to her being only half of the others. I’ll get this fixed this weekend during the water change by adding valves to equalize flows into the totes. I’m just going to let the girls grow as-is, I’ll need to figure out a way for scrogging and training future grows while still being able to get into the totes.

So good news, the clones are showing roots.

They will probably get transplanted this weekend and get some potassium in them because they are looking like they need it from putting all that energy into starting roots.

I haven’t misthem in the last 36 hours but I have kept the lid on so keep humidity from the soil inside. I gave them a shot of some Sea-K (0-0-15) and have been hardening them off on the counter next to me this morning.

The seedlings are all up and looking happy.

After it was all said and done both K8 failed to crack, let alone grow. The Gelato failed to start a taproot and the Anubis never grew more than a 1/16” taproot.

Lastly, my second order from Seedsman is showing a delivery date for Monday, my order from Dope Seeds made it to the US and should be here soon as well.

My high school buddy who’s a bush pilot in Alaska sent me this, enjoy.

 

[Michael Hunt]

Oh man, i cant wait to see how these turn out! Been envious of the set up you have there since you first shared it. Gives us something to dream for

 

[The Phantom]

Thank you! I definitely put some thought into it to try and minimize changes down the road. I have a few minor modifications to do but for the most part I’m very satisfied with what I’ve done. I haven’t paid much attention to ventilation or humidity (or the lack of) yet. Luckily I have a ridiculously large home for one person to live in, on a cul de sac with only a few neighbors fairly spaced out so smells aren’t a high priority. I intend on setting up 2 if not all 3 of my tents in the same room this fall and figured holding off on buying a humidifier and nice ventilation fans until then may save me some money and headaches vs trying to outfit a single tent now.

This run has been mostly used as a learning experience and introduction to indoor and hydroponic growing. While I would be happy with a sticky final product, the real value of this first crop is going to be the learning experience I get. So far, knock on wood, hydroponics has been a breeze but I did spend close to 500 hours doing research before even buying or planting anything. I’m really excited to try out feminizing seeds from the clones I took, all for more practice.

 

[Michael Hunt]

Might as well take care of em all at once, i hear that. Do you plant to vent outdoors eventually? I've wondered how i would run a single room with multiple tents in it. Each one plumbed outside individually. Or, smaller ventilation for the individual tents emptying into the room, then a big fan, filter and duct to vent the whole room outdoors. Sounds like a fun problem to solve. cant wait to see how that room evolves

 

[The Phantom]

I’ve started to think about it and there’s a lot of ideas floating around. At some point I’ll need to put pen to paper, start laying things out, and then look into costs, efficiencies, and remove anything redundant. I have an hvac buddy back in the home state I’ll probably run it past him. It may end up looking like a home hvac setup with three separate controlled zones run on controlled blowers or dampers.

 

[Michael Hunt]

Really cant wait to see how that goes! do you plan on ever ditching the tents and just putting up walls? If your running dampers to seal off or restrict flow i guess you could go the co2 route as well. oh the possibilities.

 

[The Phantom]

I’d love to ditch the tents, I have plenty of rooms I could convert but I only plan on living in my home for 2 more years, at which point it’s going to be rented out and I’m buying a new truck and 5th wheel camper to move into (we’re talking luxurious since I’ll be living it in all the time). The last year I’ve been working with my boss to become more flexible with my work schedule and not actually needing to go into an office, a “digital nomad” so to speak. Coronavirus has only help point out that I actually don’t need to go into the office to do my job. My company has multiple offices in each state so I can work remotely from them or on the road. I have a friend I helped out down here rezone his property for no cost and he has offered a plot of land for me to live on part of the year (winter) and I’ve been looking at land back in MN near my family that I could live on in the summer and travel the country in between. I would probably go back to growing outdoors in MN at that point and give away my tents and equipment to some friends back home.

That’s still a few years out and who knows what can change between now and then.

 

[Modest Grower]

I’d love to ditch the tents, I have plenty of rooms I could convert but I only plan on living in my home for 2 more years, at which point it’s going to be rented out and I’m buying a new truck and 5th wheel camper to move into (we’re talking luxurious since I’ll be living it in all the time). The last year I’ve been working with my boss to become more flexible with my work schedule and not actually needing to go into an office, a “digital nomad” so to speak. Coronavirus has only help point out that I actually don’t need to go into the office to do my job. My company has multiple offices in each state so I can work remotely from them or on the road. I have a friend I helped out down here rezone his property for no cost and he has offered a plot of land for me to live on part of the year (winter) and I’ve been looking at land back in MN near my family that I could live on in the summer and travel the country in between. I would probably go back to growing outdoors in MN at that point and give away my tents and equipment to some friends back home.

That’s still a few years out and who knows what can change between now and then.

Sounds amazing. Happy Friday! If you swing by MN I'd love to smoke you up. I'm in central MN though but I have wheels haha

 

[The Phantom]

You might be right in my parents backyard MG. I identify with northern MN a little more since the last few years I spent in the state was in the Fargo-Moorhead area for college, plus going to Winnipeg to watch the Wild kick some Jet butt. If the Wild lost I wouldn’t feel bad since Winnipeg gets their drinking water from the same river my treated wastewater went in, glad the Red River flows north and not south.

My parents are right in central MN, where it goes from farm country to the lakes country the citidiots flock to every weekend, in a small town with a meat market famous for their bacon just East of the Mississippi and going to the casino after bar close on the weekend was a frequent occurrence since it was fairly close by.

I have/had 3 weddings coming up at the end of July, beginning of August I was going to come home for but 2 were canceled and I have a feeling I might end up with travel restrictions by the third, not looking good for my state right now, I already have travel restrictions to quarantine 14 days in a few states. It gives me a reason to stay here to watch on my girls anyways.

I also need to add that I’m cooking up some venison from last fall, the good stuff from 221, if you know what I mean.

 

[Oz3]

Day 1 of 12/12 lighting on the “mother” plant. Actually saw quite a bit of growth from the new LEDs. Here’s to hoping it is female and my clones are too.

334221D3-19AC-41E7-B632-88A3D62B7E82.jpeg

• The Phantom
• May 22, 2020

Day 1 of 12/12, now I wait to find out the sex.

I ordered a second and third 4.5’x4.5’ tent for my fall setup. All I need now is just a few more LEDs, buckets, and pumps and I’ll be set for my Xmas Tree Cannonball Run!

It’s hard not to pull the trigger early on the tents when I talked to the Amazon seller and I got a 15% and 10% discount on them! I paid just under $100 after the discount for the 10% off tent and $90 for the 15% off tent, both with free 1 day shipping.

That being said my one plant in the tent looks lonely and those Ginger autos I got are tempting me with their 65 day seed to harvest timeframe. I would be able to squeeze them in quick before my family comes to visit just after Labor Day!

02765C4B-F809-4C72-9CA8-5E7467B78577.jpeg

• The Phantom
• May 22, 2020

Day 1 of 12/12 and under the new LEDs. The tent is looking a little empty.

Have a great weekend and for anyone remembering family members no long here, military or not, have a great Memorial Day.

I hate day 1. Ha