Small Tent, Perpetual Monthly Harvest, Auto-Flower Grow Journal (canna, coco, LED)

[bobsakamoto]

hey BTB, glad to hear bubble recovered from The Night of the Stupid Thumbs!! like you noting how much humidity can be raised by putting water in your tubs, i have been pleasantly surprised by how much i am able to raise mine by putting a fully saturated bath towel just simply hanging from the rod that my lights hang from. if i want to get extra crazy i set it up near the fan so that it dries more quickly. really raises the RH and fast! if you want to try it out on a semi-permanent basis i suggest setting up some sort of bottom reservoir that the bottom of the towel rests/remains in. this reduces the number of times you have to rewet the towel but more importantly, at least for me, it prevents the towel from swinging around depending on where fans are and how high they are set. it also makes it super easy to rewet the whole thing and just leave. like i come in, towel is almost dry, i take clothes hanger to which i have firmly attached towel, dunk it in the reservoir (in my case a plain plastic bucket), then just put it right back--1 minute tops.

[Beach_Town_Brit]

I guess my adaptation of the Canna schedule is changing a bit too. They schedule for SOG photos, and I'm trying to intuit/guess how that schedule maps onto autoflowers:

Start/Rooting (week 1)
Vegetative I (week 2 & 3) -- plant develops
Vegetative II (week 4 & 5) -- veg stagnation to early flower
Generative I (week 6 & 7) -- flowering stretch and fruit growth
Generative II (week 8 ) -- flower breadth
Generative III (week 9) -- flower weight
Generative IV (week 10) -- flower ripening

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Hi all, been a good week but I've struggled with a lack of humidity because it's been a bit chilly and the heating has been on (okay it's been 62 degrees, sorry, I used to be able to do weather but I acclimatized). It's a wonder I got any gardening done this week what with the release of Horizon Zero Dawn

On the humidity and temp issue, it's intrinsic in my "perpetual" plan that my plants aren't always going to get the ideal environment. Once I'm in full swing I'll have a seedling, an early flower, and a nearly finished plant all sharing the same tent and conditions. I use the tubs under my plants to help add humidity and I'll use the AC once it gets hot again here, but manipulating humidity and temps for different stages of growth is gonna be mostly beyond me. Mystic #2 is still in it's buried solo cup, so I've been watering the main pot's coir in the hope of adding some extra local humidity for the seedling.

Growth has been good this week and the bubble seems to have recovered fully from it's stupid thumbs mauling a few weeks ago.

2-23-17 DAY 27 Trimmed a couple of fans from the very bushy Mystic, I'm being really cautious with this one after my Bubble mishaps. I went back to my old training method using binder clips on the edge of my pots and softwire to simply spread the 4 main branches. I watered with plain 5.6 Ph water, I vacillated over doing this as Canna recommends against plain watering. 26%/48% 68/79

2-24-17 DAY 28/1 Thanks to all your encouragement and advice I eased the seed shell off Mystic #2 and I'm calling today Day 1 for my second Mystic. As noted above I watered the main pot's coir to try and add local humidity for the Mystic 2 seedling in its buried solo cup. 26%/65% 68/79

2-26-17 DAY 30/3 Watered Mystic #2 around the rim of the solo cup. Bubble and Mystic seem to be drinking at different rates, the bubble's pot was still heavy but Mystic was ready for a feed. I'm on Canna's Veg II stage now so 8.6 A+B plus rhizo, zym, and now boost at 8ml/gal, 5.9 Ph. In 3 gal fabric pots and coir each plant takes about 1/2 gallon to water to runoff. Left with half a gallon of nutes I just store the leftover in black plastic food grade jugs. I find that using Ph Down my Ph hardly slips for up to a week or more of storing nute solution. I'm into week 5 with the Bubble showing its flowers now, so I decided to flip the flower switch on my P300. Bubble and Mystic are now sharing the full 185W. Later in flowering I'll add my 90W DormGrow red UFO. 41%/63% 68/79

2-27-17 DAY 31/4 Gave the very bushy Mystic a good trim, just removing fans that are blocking growth tips. Fed the Bubble the leftover nutes from yesterday, Ph eaxctly as it was yesterday 5.9. haven't noticed any negative from the extra light which is good. 46%/68% 70/81

2-28-17 DAY 32/5 Mystic drinking well but I'm gonna give her a day, don't want her to get soggy. 47%/63% 73/82

3-1-17 DAY 33/6 Made some plain 5.8 Ph water for Mystic #2. I always make a full gallon and store some in a light tight container, some in a spray bottle for spritzing, and then whatever is left over to add water to tubs to increase humidity. Made veg II nute solution for Mystic and fed her 5.7 Ph, as before saved 2nd half in black jug for the less thirsty Bubble. The Bubble seems to be fully recovered and now showing early flowers. I did a very light trim of the Bubble, 5 fans and 1 poorly placed growth tip. To give you an idea of how adding water to the tubs raises humidity, my ambient humidity is in the low 30s, adding half a gallon of water to the tub raised my tent humidity from 36% to 42% in 5 minutes, then to 48% in 8 hours.

Roll on the stretch!

What are your thought on plain waterings?
I've noticed Green75 doesn't do them but Nebula is (famously) a proponent. Canna suggests that it will mess up the delicate balance of your medium, but they're selling nutes...

Anyone have any other ideas for balancing temps and humidity in one small tent with 3 plants all at different stages of life?


N.B. My final pic -- not all seeds are created equal -- I've been growing out some Nirvana mystery seeds under CFL for a friend's first grow experiments. Of 6 seeds, 4 popped as expected, one did nothing at all in 2 weeks, and this weird little monster took nearly 2 weeks to break out of the jiffy pellet and is just really slow weird growth.

[Beach_Town_Brit]

It took your encouragement Vapo
Thanks

[Vapo69]

Congrats🌱🌿🌲🌳😀😀

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Thanks DK, I eased off half of the husk last night, then popped off the other half this morning. Today is now DAY 1 for Mystic 2.

[DingusKhan]

Waiting at DMV sux.

Sometimes if you wet the seed casing with a drop of water or sprayer, it will soften and fall off. After they soften, the spritz of water will knock it right off.

[Beach_Town_Brit]

FYI the feed schedule is from the Canna website: http://www.cannagardening.com/growguide
Set to standard water, 1 gallon container, light feeding.

[bobsakamoto]

hey BTB, looking good!! even with your "stupid thumbs" intervening.... i think what Rock said, but i know that only from reading not from experience...lol

hey, re the seed casing coming off, i have had both happen so i did some reading so as to as you say learn from my mistakes.....
i think, at 6 days, you might consider getting a look at the innards if you can. i can't tell from the pic but is the casing split? if so, if you could get a look at the protocotyledons, using, say, a dental mirror or a good light and a really tiny piece of glass, and, if they are medium to dark green they're ready and may need your assistance... if still palish vanilla colored, then not yet ready. at least according to stuff i've read...

[Vapo69]

Dude...I am having trouble with the wording on the canna guide......I am watching one girl for the start of gen 2, it's driving me absolutely bonkers, that's when you use the pk13/14, I don't want to miss it lol😀

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Thanks Vapo, I'm certainly going to keep a watch on that seed but after waiting 6 days for it to pop and my "rough play gone wrong" with the Bubble this week I'm feeling cautious

I'm trying to decide when to move onto the next nutes stages of my Canna schedule. I think my next watering will be plain water and maybe on the next feed I'll jump to veg ii which adds Boost and bit more A+B but marks the switch to 12/12 for photo periods according to their schedule.

This puts my evolving guesstimate Canna schedule for auto flowers at:

Start/Rooting (week 1)
Vegetative I (week 2 & 3) -- plant develops
Vegetative II (week 4) -- veg stagnation to early flower
Generative I (week 5 & 6) -- flowering stretch and fruit growth
Generative II (week 7 ) -- flower breadth
Generative III (week 8) -- flower weight
Generative IV (week 9) -- flower ripening

[Vapo69]

Dude great journal........I always enjoy reading your updates......watch that shell casing mate, I only say this because I had one stay on and I left it, thinking it would work it's own way off......it didn't......it stayed on the cotyledons tips, keeping them together and the first single finger leaves popped out the side.....I got it off with a toothpick and the seedling was fine.....maybe it would have got it off eventually,but I figured sooner is better than later....🌱🌿🌲🌳😀😀

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Thanks rockman, onward and upward.

[rockman]

Nice pics and update BTB! 🌿I think Bubbles and Mystic will recover...these cannabis plants seem to have a built in resiliency to our manipulation, good and bad! 😊 And Mystic 2 is going to get such special treatment from you after learning from the others LOL. Good things come to the patient and determined! 🐸

[Beach_Town_Brit]

Hi all, day 27 for the Bubble and Mystic today, and day 0.5 for Mystic #2. Had some challenges this week but the ladies survived me

2-17-17 thru 2-19-17 Bubble and Mystic doing great. Mystic #2 seed seemed to have popped in its soak but despite daily spritzing and rim watering nothing seemed to be happening in her solo cup mounted in a 3gal fabric pot.

2-20-17 DAY 24 Moved Roleandro down to 19" over Mystic #2 but still nothing. Fed Bubble & Mystic 1 gall with Veg I nutes plus 3ml CalMag, 5.9 Ph, run-off 5.9 Ph. 51%/61% 70/81.

2-21-17 DAY 25 Fail day (see above), snapped two stems off the Bubble trying to tie her down, taped one stem up but the other was snapped clean off. I was surprised how brittle the stems were. As you can see in the below pics this is my second mistake ... I topped the Mystic too early and you can see in the pics how this led to a split stem.

2-22-17 DAY 26 Mystic#2 finally popped, I had almost given up on her, 6 full days to rise out of the medium. Watered around the rim of the solo cup. As you can see below the seed casing is still on so I'm not calling Day 1 on this yet. I've learned from experience not to mess with the seed casing but just let it work itself off. I tried removing one once and killed the seedling (see, I can learn from my mistakes at least ). Mystic and Bubble doing good, and thankfully the bubble seems unperturbed by its mauling yesterday. 47%/71% 70/79

The last pic is of 4 seedlings from 6 Nirvana mystery seeds I germinated in jiffy pellets under CFLs this week. These 4 popped early (2-3 days) and the tap root pushed out of the peat jiffy pellets quickly so they went straight into solos. One more of 6 has popped, the final seed is still a no show. These seedlings are for a friend who is going to try her first outdoor grow up in Santa Cruz this year.