Here is my Exotic Genetix Cookies and Cream strain grow journal.
So I received 11 large healthy looking seeds in a nice box. Seeds were all well protected inside a foam lined plastic case.
I dropped all 11 into a shot glass and within 3 hours they all had sunk so I moved them to a paper towel inside a small container.
After 2 days they all had cracked and had roots so they were moved into party cups filled with coco.
Once they fill those out I am planning on moving them into pots with mini grow cubes or larger blocks. I will probably use the cubes since these seeds will still be unsexed and I hate wasting a block on males.
So here is what they are supposed to look like:
Cookies And Cream Seeds at 14 Days
Contents
I decided to move my Cookies And Cream seeds under 12/12 lighting even though they are young. I have some space issues and I dont want to carry any extra males. Once they show sex I will reveg the ladies and take some cuttings.
From there the revegged girls will go into 1 gallon pots filled with rockwool cubes. This will be what I call a shakedown run. I like to make my final selection from clones.
I have seen differences between clones and the seed plants they came from with some strains. You only flower a seed plant once but clones get flowered many times so you want to make sure they are stable.
So here are my Cookies and Cream about 10 days later. So far there have been 3 males removed and I have 8 left (mostly girls I hope) but these are taking longer.
They are being grown along side my Bruce Banner seedlings which were much faster to show sex. But these plants have made better growth and all look really healthy.
I should know in the next few days if there are any more males hiding in here. Once they are all sexed I plan to reveg them and take some cuts before flowering.
Cookies And Cream Day 7 Of Flower
Today my cookies and cream have been under 12/12 lighting for 7 days and are beginning to show flowers. Actually there are 7 of them and one Bruce Banner.
They are in 6 inch net pots and filled with Grodan mini cubes Currently I am running Heavy 16 Bud A&B, Prime and Fire at 670 ppms and pH 6.0.
The plants are not very large but do look very healthy and were trained with the one node and flip method. At this point I am not concerned about size and yield, only finding the best keeper if I think they are worth growing again.
Here are some pics. Half under my CXB 250 COB and half under my Platinum P600. The larger plant on the far left in the 2nd pic is the Bruce Banner.
Cookies And Cream Day 14 Leaf Stripping
On day 14 I did a major leaf stripping on these Cookies and Cream girls. I removed pretty much every leaf that had a stem, leaving a few fan leaves on top. These plants are small and probably wont produce that many buds so I want to make sure what is there will be nice and solid. I dont want any larfy buds.
I am not that concerned with yield at this point. I want to see the buds and smells, tastes and potency. If I find a nice pheno out of this bunch I will give it a longer veg time next round if it’s a keeper.
Here are some before and after photos. There are 7 Cookies and Cream girls and one Bruce Banner on the left under the blurple LEDs. The Bruce Banner was cut back hard just before flowering but it still is the largest plant.
Cookies And Cream Day 35
About 2 weeks have passed since these girls were defoliated. They had a total leaf stripping except for a few fan leaves on top. They have recovered nicely from the scwazzing and are stacking flowers now.
I also flipped another 6 cookies and cream about the same time the flowering ladies were on day 35. I plan on moving them to my other flower room in about 2 weeks when my Bruce Banner girls are finished.
I have gotten some nice cuts of Wedding Cake, Peanut Butter Breath, Space Goo and GG4 but since they were cuttings and not clones they will need some time to root and veg up before I can flower them. So I will be running the just flipped C & C girls while I wait for them.
Cookies And Cream COB LED Grow Day 28
So I moved 6 Cookies And Cream, girls into my main flower closet last week. They looked very healthy and had just started to flower. Today I did some under skirt cleanup on them. They seem healthy and are being fed with Veg+Bloom at about 600 ppms and a pH of 5.8
I am using rockwool croutons again and 6″ net pots which I guess are about a 1 gallon equivalent. The plants are much shorter than the OGs I usually grow and so I lowered the screen quite a bit from where it usually is. At 28 days I am not really expecting to see much more stretch if any at all.
I still have plants under the Platinum P600 also but I am not really happy with them. I did a heavy leaf strip on them and I think it stunted them. I think some strains may respond better to defoliation than others. I would have to say the Cookies And Cream did not like it. Here are some pics taken on day 28 of my new grow:
Day 58 Flushing
Everything is the same. The cuttings, the nutes but these were leaf stripped and grown under my Platinum P600. They look much different from the ones I am flowering under my COBs.
I have noticed the Platinum P600 tends to produce smaller less leafy plants than the COBs. It is a powerful light and it is easy to bleach your buds unless it is at least 24 inches away which is not an issue with my COBs.
Cookies And Cream Day 35
Here are some pictures taken on day 35. These plants seem a bit fussy. A bit of tip burn and some leaf discoloration and one plant is clearly not happy and pistils are already brown.
So far I am disappointed in this strain despite all the hype it has received. It is still early and it may surprise me and of course I haven’t smoked any yet.
I harvested the buds in my other closet and they are curing in glass jars. Yield will be low and the buds really are leafy to me. The only pheno that was worth keeping was the purple one. Better size with purple in them and nice orange hairs and probably one of the better yielders.
I didn’t run her this time because the cut I took died. I was able to grab a bud to reveg and it looks like it took. So I will hopefully be able to save this pheno and give it a better test run.
Fighting Fungus Gnats In My Cookies And Cream Day 42
Above are some shots of my Cookies And Cream grow on day 42. Some leaves are starting to show some purple and others are starting to yellow. The breeder says 58-63 days with 60 being average.
Some plants will actually start to fade naturally. I also noticed some pistils starting to go brown. So it is time to start flushing these girls soon.
The buds are frosty with good trichome coverage. I am not expecting a big yield from these and there are a lot of different phenotypes showing up. Honestly I think Exotic Genetics needs to refine this Starfighter x Mystery Cookies cross. These plants are really all over the place which to me is a sign of pollen chucking rather than breeding.
Die Fungus Gnats!
A while ago I noticed a few fungus gnats in my clone tent. I gave it a couple of sprays with neem oil and pretty much figured that would take care of it. Boy was I wrong. I have been invaded. Now I have them in all 3 grow areas and in my houseplants.
I tried a bunch of things that did not work. After a lot of research I decided to go with Azamax and Gnatrol drenches. Azamax may no longer be available in some states.
I did not get rid of them yet but I have definitely seen a major decrease in population. They are hard to get rid of and they dont go away overnight. It takes multiple soil treatments and the use of sticky traps to catch the fliers. BTW mosquito dunks were recommended to me but did not work and Gnatrol is hard to find anymore.
Day 49 Fading Fast
This week when I changed my res I wanted to reduce my ppms and start to flush. I added a tablespoon of Veg + Bloom and it brought my ppms to about 200.
I had a bottle of New Millennium Winter Frost with a bit left in it so I threw it in. It brought my ppms to 400 which was right about where I wanted them this week. Here is what happened within 2 0r 3 days:
The recommendation for Winter Frost is 10 ml per gallon 7-10 days before flush. I used this product on my Bruce Banner which normally turns purple so was not sure how effective it was although it did start to turn purple within a few days. But it obviously works. As you can see from the picture fans are turning yellow and some have actually faded to the point of drying up.
Funny thing is I used way less than 10 ml per gallon. Maybe half that at most. Didn’t measure it but could tell there wasn’t much in the bottle. So I was surprised at what happened and I am definitely sold on it. Plants will be flushed another week on just water. Right now ppms are 60 and my tap is 40 ppms.
Day 46 Bud Shots
Nice frosty buds with excellent trichome coverage but this strain seems to be a light yielder, at least for me with the phenos I have.
