2021 Spring/Summer OD Hydro Autoflowers

This years hydroponic cannabis cultivation journey starts with a resurrected Botanicare Turbogarden Aeroponics kit. I spent some time during the COVID lockdown to prepare new aeroponic fittings and get it clean and sterilized for re-use. Germination of the seeds was done in 3 weeks today in general hydroponics rapid rooter tray after 3 weeks I have planted them into 6" net pots with hydroton clay pellets as a grow medium and to add some strength to the root system since they will be living outside. The nutrient feed strength is 15ML/gallon as Botanicare CNS17 states on the label for seedplants in the first month of growth. My starting water is 30 PPM city/municipal water at a working PH of 8.5-9. CNS 17 seems to buffer down to 6.2-6.5 with a total EC of 1.3 on my Bluelab Combo Meter.

This week I moved the system outside on the patio. I use a transfer pump to reduce the weight by pumping nutrient out of the kit so it is easier to move. The nutrient is then pumped back into the reservoir. This week I started misting foliage with a light solution 5ml/L of BioCanna Rhizotonic. It seems that the beneficial bacteria drive PH up to 7. I am not sure how to stabilize PH around 6. I tried to use Botanicare Power PH down product but even 60ml of that into 12 gallon of nutrient solution only brought it down a few points and I have a feeling it will creep back up in a day or two. Update May 15th: I cycled the tank and buffered the tank with 1ml/5gal of Ph Down from Nutri+ after all nutrient was added. It is a Phosphorus based acid at 35%. PH is sitting steady at 6.2. I also added BioCanna Rhizotonic at 50ml/10L. As I forgot to add this in as a root shooting starter last week.

Early in the week I cycled the tank and stabilized PH to 6.0 with Nutri+ PH down product (35% Phosphoric Acid) and it seems to be working quite to settle PH of the solution. Only a few drops were needed to bring PH to 6. My starting water is 30 PPM city/municipal water at a working PH of 8.5-9. CNS 17 seems to buffer down to 6.2-6.5 I also added the following per 10L: Canna Cannazym - 20ml Canna Bio Rhizotonic - 20ml The plants are looking generally well but some of the older leaves are showing signs of decay. I will probably prune off these areas next week. I will take some pictures of the root zone next update.

There are preflowers appearing this week. I will change to CNS17 bloom nutrients in the coming days. Overall the weather has been hot and humid. The daytime temperature hits 32 degrees C. There is some kind of issue with the plants foliage I am not sure what the yellow spots are. I assume it is from spraying foliage with Diamond Nectar (fulvic acid). I have just been misting with plain water to see if the condition improves. Update: I changed nutrient to CNS17 bloom.

This week I have been misting foilage and made a stint out of a kebab stick to try and save one of the plants where the stem broke during heavy winds. It seems to be working. I updated this week with a photo of the plant rebuilding itself.

Added 10 gallons of nutrient solution back to the tank at 70ml CNS 17 Bloom to 5 gallons of tap water. I added 20ml of Canna Bio Rhizotonic to this solution since I have some left for this grow along with 1.5 tsp of Biosafe Systems Terragrow Beneficial microbes to try and keep the tank clean and pre-armed against root diseases like Pythium. As a general observation of the grow to date: It appears the Barneys Farm Auto Tangerine Dream plants to be most vigorous overall; large leaves with vibrant lime green colors with remarkable thick stems. They are not pre-flowering as quickly as the other plants. The DinaFem CBD Auto Anmesia pre-flowers have started resin production with some of the others.

Flowers are growing larger with more resin. I am thinking I use CNS17 Ripe next time around instead of bloom. I will lower PH a bit tonight. It is 6.8 with an EC of 1.7.

Not much to say but things are progressing slowly. It seems the Amnesia autoflowering CBD from Dinafem is one of the frostier strains so far. The humbolt blue dream is pretty sticky too. I updated this week with a video.

This week some of the plants are starting to show a few brown pistils on the calyxes as an indicator that peak bloom period is occurring. I don’t expect them to do much other than fill out a bit at this point with exception of some of the more Sativa phenotypes like the Tangerine Dream. One of the these seedplants failed to bloom properly it may lack the autoflowering genes. I don't want to risk damaging the roots in the system by culling it. I might leave it in to see what happens and transplant it before I clean out the system for the fall grow. I’m pretty satisfied with the autoflower grow so far but I do have some room for improvement: 1) Next grow I will use CNS17 Ripe possibly from start to finish to see if that improves the flowering of the plants. I feel that my feed is high in nitrates so I am starting to flush this week. 2) You can see by the plants all showed variation in physical appearance and Trichrome production. The only plant that has gone purple out of the batch and is a high yielding Gorilla Zittles from Barneys. If I grow autoflowers again in this system I want to choose plants that are a little more uniform. I think the Botanicare Turbo Garden and similar systems are best suited for clones as they grow a little more uniform. Autoflowers even from the same strain have a wide variation which is cool because every seed is a surprise. 3) I need an overhead plant support. I am not sure how the plants survived some pretty high winds. One stem broke and I repaired it enough so that the plant actually survived. 4) I'm working on a microcontroller sensor node to allow some automation to the system. My favorite plants in this batch are the Dinafem Amnesia Auto CBD based only on aesthetics at this point. The Blue Dream Auto from Humbolt is one of the smaller plants but it has quite a bit of resin on it. The smaller plants may have been stunted as my nute level from the beginning was approaching upper limits for leaf burn (1.7-1.8 EC). I had since backed down but over-fertilization in early stages is not reversible and comes at a cost of plant health and vigor. I took a video to try and show the overall garden progress. I did not defoliate this grow which makes it hard to see the individual flower structure but I will have defoliated harvest photos coming up soon!

This is the last week of flowering in the next couple days I will begin chopping. I cut the blue dream and the Dinafem amnesia cbd auto flowers today since they finished first. Stay tuned for the harvest and weigh in.

I used Biosafe Terragrow for the whole grow and it works great to keep the roots healthy and tank and grow chamber clean. It is excellent product for hydroponics to combat and pre-arm against Pythium. I trimmed lightly as many of the sugar leaves have resin on them and I dry herb vape so I don't trim all the leaves off as much as other growers. The plants received a 4 week flush and most of them turned to light green at harvest with many dead leaves falling. These 3 plants along with the Humbolt Blue Dream Auto finished first so a it is good choice if you want a quicker harvest. It gets 70% from me for speed, ease and aesthetics/resin production. Most autos do much better indoors near light saturation levels. If you want to sponsor me for a grow please PM me. I accept auto flowers for future grows.

I harvested this plant with the Dinafem Amnesia Auto CBD's as they were all finished at the same time. If you want an early autoflowering strain -- this will finish quick. The yield sucks but you might get lucky if you grow out a bunch of them and find a high yielding phenotype. I used Biosafe Terragrow for the whole grow and it works great to keep the roots healthy and tank clean. It is excellent product for hydroponics to combat and prearm against pythium. I trimmed lightly as lots of leaves have resin on them and I dry herb vape so I tend to leave more leaves on than other growers. The plants recieved around a 4 week flush and most of them turned to light green at harvest. It gets 60% from me for speed, ease and aesthetics/smell/resin production. Keep in mind auto flowers vary and you might get something much better. If you want to sponsor me for a grow please PM me. I accept auto flowers for future grows.