☤Smokebros Canna Garden☤

DabsNDrones said:
Following along, new grower got into it through LED building, your setup looks great! already thinking of flood and drain perhaps, or maybe drippers. thanks for posting!
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Thanks!

I've found growing with a flood table brings a nice balance between automation and manual labor. The watering is consistent and automated, but there is still maintenance that should be done on more of a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. It allows me the freedom to step away from the garden for 3-4 days at a time if needed, which is not so easy when it comes to hand watering methods.
 
It's about time for an update now that it has been 17 days since I dropped the seeds in coco. There have been some interesting developments and I'm down to 10 of 18 seeds that I began with.

For starters, anyone who is using QB's should dial those babies down all the way when starting up plants from seed. I figured keeping the light 2+ ft away from the containers would be good, but even 200 watts at that distance was too much for some of the seedlings. 6 of the 12 Vader OG's didn't make it and 4 of 6 Nana Dawgs didn't make it either. It's unfortunate but I chalk it up as a loss + learning experience.

The other mistake I made was keeping to a 6 hour flood time, which for newly planted beans in solo cups is too frequent. Earlier this week I dialed back the frequency to flood the table every 12 hours instead of 6, and so far I've noticed improvements.

So right now as it stands I have 8 seedlings going, but I have an ace up my sleeve... The other night I decided to prepare some of my GG#4 S1's from Dankonomics to be planted. They're in wet paper towels as I type this, 3 out of the 6 inside the pack... I figure this will help ensure this round will be worth while knowing that I'll have 3 confirmed females in the tent. It's a numbers game and I'm just trying to improve my odds since I'm only working with 8 instead of 18 regulars.

TLDR: Had lights too strong, watering to frequently. Dialed lights down to 90W @ 2+ ft distance from canopy, and reduced watering to 12 hr cycles instead of 6. Currently germinating three fem GG#4 seeds as a contingency to ensuring I haven enough females this round.

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What's going on RIU family, sorry for the lack of updates. Hope things have been good in everyone's garden. Thought I'd drop in with some garden updates. Right now I've got some GG4 finishing up, they'll get the axe in a few days. They put out a beautiful aroma, lots of piney, peppery, lemony, diesel tones. Nice trich development on all three of em. Bud density is completely off the charts. The bud formations that are well below the canopy are nearly as dense as the top chutes, it's just unbelievable. See photos below taken at day 53, showin' some nice fall colors.

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I've come across a few strains over the years that were an absolute treat, and GG4 is definitely in that category. The buds are just covered in a thick, rich, oil & trichrome combination. The aromas are amazing, and the smoke is incredible. But on top of it all, it was hands down the easiest strain to trim that I've ever come across. When I harvested, I cut down the plants at their main stalk and hung them up whole, only removing larger fan leaves. After 7 days in a controlled, dark environment, and a 1-hr per plant trim up, everything was in buckets to begin curing.

When I sampled some, I was amazed at the flavors and taste I was getting before any curing had even begun. I suppose that's a good way to know if something is dank. Aside from OGK #18 and Chernobyl, I've never had anything with this much flavor immediately after a 7-day dry. Lastly, there was zero, (and I mean ZERO), larf / popcorn buds. Every bud formation was rock hard whether it was at canopy level or 12-18'' below canopy. I know the leaf-strip I performed 15 days into flowering contributes to the added density, but my god man, this takes the cake.

Alright, lets talk about the Canna Garden.

So a lot of my weekend was spent resetting the garden and getting things back in order. Thankfully I keep things small scale, so it's not too much work for one fella to do. I dove into the seedbank and pulled out some gear for the next round.
1. Black Forest Ghost (Black Forest Cake (cookies) x Ghost OG)
2. Purple Portal - I didn't get a chance to showcase these last round so I'm giving them another whirl. It's Alien Rift (Alien abduction x Alien Dawg x Alien OG) x Ninja Fruit (Grapefruit Haze x Grape Ape)
3. Nana Dawg - Once again, something I'd like to showcase on this thread that I didn't get to last time. Stardawg x orgnkid's Banana Kush male.

Doin' it a bit different this time by starting the seeds in coco plugs (rapid rooters) instead of a paper towel.

Last thing I wanted to cover - I got my hands on some old school, 30+ year old genetics. I'm not going to say how, but a family friend was able to gift me the seeds. It was their father's seeds from the 80's. Not sure what I plan on doing with them yet. Open pollination is something I may consider to try and preserve em'.
 
Hey RIU, just dropping in for another update on the garden. Currently smoking on some GG4, it's so good that I can't stop reaching for it.

The garden is in a good spot right now. It's been 7 days since the beans began germinating and 7 of 9 have been planted. Unfortunately I think 2 of them aren't going to pop, so I may just throw in a couple feminized seeds in their place to fill space.

Unlike previous grows, this run will be done exclusively in hydroton. The seeds were started in rapid rooter plugs on Monday and put into #1 pots on Friday night. I've been hand watering (and will continue to do so) for the next couple days until the roots grow large enough to drink on their own.

I'm sticking with the Jacks 321 regimen again, it's just a bulletproof formula that's easy and convenient to run. Right now the reservoir is dialed to 475 PPM's and a PH of 5.9 - 6.0. The nutrients are mixed at 50% strength: 1.5G Jacks, 1.0G Cal-Nit, .5G epsom salt - per gallon. The plan is to stick to 50% strength through veg, and bump that up to 75% strength when they get flipped to flower.

I figured I'd share the feeding schedule I use for the 321 recipe. It's just something I put together on excel so nothing fancy. I typically have to top off the res at least 1x per week, so I always mix an additional 4 gallons of nutrient water (same ratio as the res) and keep that on hand in a bucket.

The Quantum Boards are hummin' right along - set to about 250~ watts. They'll get turned up once the plants get a couple of nodes of growth.


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Hey RIU, I hope all members in the community have been well. These last few days have been turbulent in my world. I'm not one to bitch, but damn life can be harsh. I lost a friend and coworker last week to a fluke incident and he passed away earlier this week. Simultaneously two other friend's of mine's dads passed as well. I feel for them and it saddens me so much because all three deaths occurred from some random shit. Argh. It just hurts me to see their families in pain, to see them in pain. But they're all strong and they have a good support group around them. I'm there to help and so many others are too.

So garden wise things are good. I have one plant that has a cut or break in the middle of a leaf. Not sure what's going on but I'll be keeping an eye on it. Nothing significant, but I'm not too sure why it happened. It was either caused by me or a critter. I've never had critters in this garden except the occasional gnat, but as stated I'll be on the prowl.

I also picked up fulvic acid to add into the res. Going to keep it at a low dose of .38g/gal and see how that goes.

Here's some pictures of the GG4, the garden, and the fulvic I picked up. Now I'm not a camera aficionado like some of you are. I'm using my cellphone to take the photos, unedited. A few have flash on.

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Greetings RIU. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and an opportunity to be around their loved ones. My better half and I introduced a baby girl into the world last week, so I had the best Christmas ever.

The garden was suffering a bit recently, and finally I got things in order. My PH pen was off and reading high, so while I was thinking my PH was 6.0, it was really 6.6, and the plants weren't happy. As soon as I got the PH dialed back in they perked up almost immediately. I also put a bubbler back into the res to add more oxygen, not sure if it's a difference maker but I plan on keeping it.

With the plants rebounding I should be able to take clones in a couple weeks before I throw them into flower.

I also have some new genetics on the way - Cresendo RBX1 from Ethos Genetics. I'm pretty excited to give them a go.

Here's a garden picture after a trim.
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Last year I made a DIY aerocloner using a 5 gallon bucket. It's just been sitting around so I figured I'd use it to take clones in the coming weeks.

Does anyone have any tips or pointer on what to mix into the water of the aerocloner? I've seen some people use hormex, some use 1/2 strength nutrients, some just plain water. I'm curious if anyone can weigh in on this.

I was planning on just using 2ML/Gal of hydroguard, and about 250PPM strength nutrients, but I'm open to buying something new if it'll help. I figured I'd run the pump on a timer set to 5 minutes on / 15 minutes off. Does that sound good too?
 
Things have been progressing pretty well in the garden. The plants for the most part are pretty happy, just two fussy black forest ghost plants.

I bumped up the nutrient strength throughout the week as well. Initially I had been keeping it at 500PPM's, but I just feel the QB lights really demand a lot from the plants. PPM's are now at 825 and PH is 5.95. I'll report back if I run into any issues with this.

As far as genetics go, I'm really looking forward to the black forest ghost (ghost OG x black forest cake). I'm a sucker for OG's and cookies so this is right up my alley. Also got some Creme Friache (ghost OG x Dosidos). Both packs I personally picked up from Dankonomics when I was in MI over the summer.

I made a little DIY flood table for my 2x2 tent and got that all ready to go for when the Creme Friache are ready to go into hydroton.



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Today is day 34 from seed for all but the sweet deep grapefruit, she's 7 days behind. And when I say from seed, that's when I began germinating them (they didn't pop until 3-4 days later).

I picked up a 20w 5000K led 'workshop light' and just finished hanging it up, the plan is to use it for clones and seedlings. Just trying to get things a bit perpetual around here but still keep it a microgrowery and not a macrogrowery. So now I have a 4x4 flower tent, 2x2 veg tent, and designated area for clones. I'm far more prepared than before if I come across a great pheno of something I'd like to keep.

Been using Overgrow from Optic Foliar as a foliar spray. I picked some up a few weeks back at my local hydro store and figured why not. It's advertised as being able to spray during lights on (which I've done), and the plants seem to like it.

Also bumped up 4x4 tent QB's from 268 watts to 400 watts.

Photo below is right after a foliar spray bath - been tucking the lower fan leaves underneath the bottom nodes trying to get them a bit more light, they look kind of droopy in the picture but that's from tucking.
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smokebros said:
Today is day 34 from seed for all but the sweet deep grapefruit, she's 7 days behind. And when I say from seed, that's when I began germinating them (they didn't pop until 3-4 days later).

I picked up a 20w 5000K led 'workshop light' and just finished hanging it up, the plan is to use it for clones and seedlings. Just trying to get things a bit perpetual around here but still keep it a microgrowery and not a macrogrowery. So now I have a 4x4 flower tent, 2x2 veg tent, and designated area for clones. I'm far more prepared than before if I come across a great pheno of something I'd like to keep.

Been using Overgrow from Optic Foliar as a foliar spray. I picked some up a few weeks back at my local hydro store and figured why not. It's advertised as being able to spray during lights on (which I've done), and the plants seem to like it.

Also bumped up 4x4 tent QB's from 268 watts to 400 watts.

Photo below is right after a foliar spray bath - been tucking the lower fan leaves underneath the bottom nodes trying to get them a bit more light, they look kind of droopy in the picture but that's from tucking.
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Looking good.

I'm interested in the Black Forest Ghost, I'll be following along to see how that one does. Out of curiosity, which of those plants are the BFG?
 
What's going on RIU, it's been a few weeks so an update is in order.

A few things have changed the last few weeks since last update. The Purple Portal's were both male and needed to be culled from the 4x4 tent. Both reg Nanadawgs ended up being females. The rest was all fems, 3 Black Forest Ghost and 1 Grapefruit.

I busted out the old 2x2x4 and setup a DIY flood table/res under a 135watt Chinese LED. Inside are 9 total plants - six Creme Fraiche and 3 Crescendo. I believe the Creme Fraiche are regs so I'm planning on taking cuts and then throwing the originals into the flower tent to sex them. The 2x2 tent isn't going to be big enough for what I need so I'll be upgrading soon, I'm thinking a 2x4x6 would be perfect. The DIY aero cloner is setup and ready to go.

The Crescendo is from Ethos Genetics, one of two varieties. I have the RBX1 which is [(ChemD x i95) x Mandarin Cookies x Headband x i95]. Shout out to Seedsherenow for also hooking up a 3 pack of Ethos Glue RBX2, (Ethos Kush IBL X GG4) X GG4. I'll keep those on deck for a rainy day.

As of today the 4x4 tent is on day 16 of flower. Things are going pretty well overall, but I've picked up some knowledge on where I was coming up short. The circular black nursing pots with holes on the side are just not good for hydroton. The roots spill out the sides and get lots of algae buildup. I combated this for this round by putting the circular pots in larger white pots and putting a 3-4'' layer of hydroton on the bottom so the roots could grow out a bit. Moving forward I'll be using black square pots with holes on the bottom.

Second, I bumped the PPM's to the 900's and noticed an overall improvement in plant health. I've learned that Jacks 321 should be fed at full strength. I'm even feeding the same strength nutrients to the veg tent too with the seedlings and they are doing great. It could just be an LED thing where the LED's just demand SO much from the plants that 1/2 strength nutrients wont cut it.

I did a leaf strip on Sunday inside the flower tent. At the time I thought I was further along in flower than I really was, normally I'd do the leaf strip around day 15 of flower, not day 11. But the plants are doing fine. There are a couple that are lighter than the other so I've been foliar spraying about 200ppm of calmag with a surfactant. I'll continue to do this for about another week as I don't like foliar spraying later than weeks 3-4 of flower.

Other than that not too much is new in my world. I need to get around to wiping down the flood table and ridding it of the algae.

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socaljoe said:
Looking good.

I'm interested in the Black Forest Ghost, I'll be following along to see how that one does. Out of curiosity, which of those plants are the BFG?
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Sorry for the delay brother. I just uploaded a pic with labels of them. I'll make sure to continue labeling them going forward.
 
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