Phantom’s RDWC Cherry Cookies Grow Journal

[Modest Grower]

This morning’s readings:
pH 5.9 - Rising, I had adjusted it down to 5.7 yesterday afternoon.
EC 1.41 - Falling
Water Level - Falling
Near perfect conditions/borderline hungry plant, I’ll raise my nutrients to 3.5 grams per gallon of MC.

Feeding the ladies! Nom nom nom.

 

[Michael Hunt]

I cant stop hearing everything i say in some form of innuendo so here goes.

Looks like you found the "sweet spot"

Right on man! Gotta love that water balance chart!

 

[The Phantom]

Feeding the ladies! Nom nom nom.

Gotta make sure all the Tonyas fill out nicely before the school year starts up.

I cant stop hearing everything i say in some form of innuendo so here goes.

Did I ruin the forum for you or make it better?

Funny thing yesterday I was going some research about pollen and how far it travels. The Michigan State article I was reading got me a little hot under the collar. “This works because cannabis is one of the few plant species that can actively increase the number and size of its female sex organs in response to prolonged virginity, according to Small and Naraine, 2016. The longer female plants go unpollinated, the more flowers are produced and the larger they get.” Even reading it a second time just now I needed to shift how I was sitting in my chair.

 

[Michael Hunt]

@The Phantom most definitely better haha. It’s all fun and games until hate mail starts pouring in!

Haha the whole flowering and breeding process is just a mine field!

 

[HunterHunt]

I swear those jumped over night. Growth is looking good! You flip to flower tonight?

 

[The Phantom]

Tonight is night/day 2 of the flip, lights should be coming on any minute. I checked the water level an hour or so ago and it’s down well over 5 gallons already.

Edit: just heard the timer flip.
Second edit: I’m hearing shit.

 

[HunterHunt]

How are they lookin?

Just checked pH on my girl since 24 hours. Lights have been on 10 hours now. 5.9 and 1100 =)

 

[The Phantom]

Well I’ll start off by saying that just when things are starting to cruise something will happen and the second thing is, it could have been a lot worse.

Open the tent started looking at the two closest girls, take photos and what not. Went around to the other door and saw my tile grout looked wet but drying in a spot a foot away from the tent. Started cussing about the dog sneaking back there and pissing on the floor for no good reason. Opened the other door, opened up a tote, doing so moving the shiny foil out of the way, and noticed water on the floor of the tent. Whoops, apparently during the water change I must have bumped a recirculation line and it moved it in such a way the hose inside the tote was pointed up more than down. Water would run out the end, run back down the outside of the pipe and through the opening in the tote where it ran down the outside to the floor of the tent. (Cue someone saying something about my hose pulling out and making a wet mess) It wasn’t much, I soaked up maybe a quart, I’m guessing I’ve lost just about that much from evaporation and whatever got soaked up by the tent, so maybe a half gallon lost. Oh well, like I said it could have been a lot worse. Plus it gave me the chance to rotate some of the girls while I had everything pulled back and now drying out.

Here’s a photo of each lady Tonya.

You can see all the messed up leaves I have, some missing tips from my failed FIMing, some twisted from me cranking up the lights on them, and some from feeding them too well.

 

[The Phantom]

The water leak is confirmed and solved. I topped off a full 5 gallons mixed with enough MC to bring the ladies up to 3.5 grams per gallon. My pH meter was off when I calibrated it Sunday, how much I’m not sure, due to how it is able to check it’s own calibration and after cleaning it not needing to be re-calibrated. I think that might have something to do with my roots @HunterNitro and @Michael Hunt because now I’m seeing more downward growth and a lot of new growth. It also could be new roots from going 12/12 but that’s opposite of what you hear for plants going into flower, it’s always, “they focus their energy on flowers and not roots after the flip.” Unless, root growth happens still during the stretch and tapers off during flowering. This is pretty explosive growth, most of what you can see in the photo is new growth, 1-2” long.

All four plants are showing the same new root growth.

I’m not going to sugar coat it, these aren’t pretty ladies. I should have done some better training and trimming on them but at the same time I also don’t want to spend too much time on them. They really are just to get the hang of this, I have clones as back up for future grows and making feminized seeds if things go well. Plus I’ve had a worry in the back of my mind ever since I killed the mother before seeing her through flowering. I don’t want to say it out loud as to not jinx myself but I do question how dispensary weed came into contact with pollen to produce a seed. Maybe they do their own breeding and have male plants but I’m not exactly sold on how that’s how this seed came about, but you never know and I’ll try not to think about it that much.

 

[Michael Hunt]

Right on man glad to hear you figured out the leak before any real damage could be done. When that system leaks does the water drop in all the bins since they’re all plumbed together?
i used to be in the “oh the roots will stop growing in flower” camp. But our root ball just keeps getting bigger 4 weeks into flower now. So there’s hope for some giant roots on those ladies yet!

And sometimes even an ugly plant, can make some beautiful flowers!

 

[HunterHunt]

Awesome! Yes looking like more downward growth now and they look better. Hope they keep it up! Yes in DWC I firmly believe they just grow the whole cycle. Ive always had new growth the whole time with DWC.

 

[The Phantom]

With this leak since it was coming from the recirculation line, it would have kept leaking until the reservoir ran dry (about 13 gallons) but my grow totes would have stayed filled because of the high point I ended up creating on the drain line exiting the tent. If it was one of the grow totes leaking the whole system would basically end up draining. Not much I can do really to prevent it from happening if it does either, which is why some people won’t do hydro. This leak wasn’t a very big one, not even big enough to be a trickle but enough to get the floor wet.

This fall this tent and the others I don’t have set up yet will be going into my 3 seasons room of my house which is actually a converted covered patio. The room is 6” lower than the rest of the house since it was the exterior at one point so if I have an accident then water will be going out of my house and doesn’t have the chance to ruin the interior of my house. It will also make water changes easy since my garden is right on the other side of the door, no more 100’ hose through my hallway, my bedroom and the window. I would have things setup in there now but it gets around 100F+ during the summer since it’s all windows.

 

[The Phantom]

This afternoon’s reading:
pH 6.0
EC 1.53
Water Level - falling.

Im not going to say if the pH and EC are rising, falling, or stable since I never did take a reading last night after topping off with 5 gallons and more MC.

I’ll take a reading before bed tonight just to compare.

Hope everyone is doing well and for the neighbors to the north out there, happy Canada Day. Go get yourselves a double-double and a box of Timbits or something to celebrate.

 

[The Phantom]

Good morning all,
Readings today are:
pH 6.0 - static, I’ll bring this down just a touch when I get back home this morning.
EC 1.51 - falling
Water Level - falling
The chart says to raise the EC because they are hungry plants so we may end up at 3.75 grams per gallon MC later today.

Headed out to a job site this morning so here’s some humor for those of you that have to deal with safety forms/JHAs/JSAs.

 

[Michael Hunt]

They look great man!

 

[Michael Hunt]

Being the seed stasher extraordinaire around here right now, where would you send us to get some more stable genetics?

 

[The Phantom]

Seed stasher yes, actually planting seeds I’ve bought, not so much. With that in mind when it comes to genetics, I have always heard great things about Barney’s Farm, Dinafem, Sensi, Dutch Passion, Royal Queen, even Sweet Seeds and Seedsman’s in house seeds are all winners. I know @Canadadoes has some very nice Humboldt Seed Organization seeds growing along with Barney’s Farm. @HunterNitro is growing Barney’s and @Modest grower has Seedsman and some others including Barney’s. It seems like he is planting seeds everyday now and when he’s not, he’s trying to make more of them, same with CD! I can’t recall what some of the others around here are growing but I’m sure you’ll get some recommendations.

You can either try to buy directly from the breeder or look into some of the seed banks, plus any sponsors for some deals. Seedsman is great for selection and price but is slow with shipping, 6 weeks for my last order, but it’s a solid delivery method they have to where you won’t be worried about losing seeds in the mail. If something like that did happen I heard they are quick to make it right, no questions asked. I have an order coming from Dope Seeds tomorrow but I haven’t had a shipping update since Tuesday when it was in Florida. I’m not as confident with thier shipping methods vs Seedsman’s but a lot of that is it being a first for me using them so it’s a lot of unknown. They are right there with selection, pricing, and freebies with Seedsman and if my package gets here tomorrow safe and sound it would have only taken 2 weeks to get here.

There are US seed banks as that ship very fast but I haven’t looked into them as much and don’t know what they carry for breeders or genetics.

I’ll let some of the other’s give you recommendations on breeders and where to buy them. I guess I should ask is there something in particular you are looking for?

 

[Modest Grower]

I like seedsman as a seed bank. I really haven't had any genetics I didn't like. I do have a wave of seedsman in house going now so I'm hoping they deliver. I've seen them in other people's journals so I was pretty confident.

I agree with @The Phantom comments above.

 

[Michael Hunt]

@The Phantom Thanks for the reply! I have an idea of what we are looking for, but am undecided on which supplier to go with. I know some wont ship to the US. Since you seem to have dealt with a few different suppliers i figured you might have some input on suppliers. I guess i should have worded my question a little better

 

[The Phantom]

What I like about the overseas seed banks is a lot of the have been around for a decade or more and all tend to have the same well known/proven breeders, if you see the same breeder at different seed banks it’s probably for good reason. That’s not so say that some of the lesser know breeders aren’t fire or that you won’t have problems with the well know breeders.

The US seed banks haven’t been around as long and have a lot of breeders I’m not familiar with. So I’ve been holding out on trying them until I can see/hear more about the breeders they carry.

I’m excited to see how Dope Seeds works out tomorrow. Saving 4 weeks on shipping is pretty nice if you’re in a hurry. I’m just not 100% sold on their shipping method of having to repackage seeds in order to guarantee delivery to the US. That’s why if I have the time to wait I’d choose Seedsman.

I know @BigDannel is happy with Gorilla Seeds and CD has experience with The Vault, both are sponsors here.