Indoor Canna Grows Mixed Sweets in Mixed Soil under Mixed Lighting

[Cannaficiando]

Hi AFN friends... I have two Sweet Seeds strains that were sent to me loose for security reasons. All I know is they are either Sweet Cheese Auto, Jack 47 Auto or Green Poison Auto (one of each, not two the same).

The 'grow room' is my spare bathroom. As this is also shared with the occasional house guest, the setup has to be as mobile as possible.

I'm using a Grow Northern HS1 75W LED for vegging. For flowering, I've added a 250W HPS as side lighting.

There are two soil mixes: the plant on the left has a mix of no-name 'organic soil' (that's what it says on the bag), coco and worm castings, in the ratio 70:20:10; the one on the right is in my usual garden compost (very unpredictable, but occasionally good - I didn't find any construction waste in this bag, just a tooth, maybe human...), with coco and worm castings in the ratio of 60:30:10.

Nutes are my usual grab bag of whatever I can make or find. For vegging, a little tomato food (N-P-K 4-4-8) and worm casting tea; for flowering, high-phosphorus bat guano tea and organic fish nutes (N-P-K unknown, but have used this many times for flowering). Also Epsom salts every second watering.

Both seeds were started in a 50/50 mix of peat and coco, then transplanted to the two-gallon pots at two weeks. Here they are on day 2:

By day 7, they had stretched too much and fallen over:

Rather than risk damaging the stems or roots with hard supports, I used a scrunched up paper tissue as support until the stems strengthened.

More to follow.

 

[Cannaficiando]

As soon as the ladies righted themselves, the leaves started taco-ing. At the time, they were under the HS1 about 15 inches away. So I moved the light further away...no difference. The curling seemed to bear no relation to light intensity. Here they are on day 11:

The lady on the left has just been transplanted.

Day 15:

Day 21:

The leaf burn on the left-side plant is from the sun. Trying to fix the taco-ing, I left her in the sun for a couple of hours. Guess the peat/coco mix dried out too quickly.

More to follow.

 

[Cannaficiando]

Day 28, still under just the HS1:

After my house guest had left, I rigged up the 250W HPS as side lighting.

Day 35

.

Plant on the left, natural light:

Nice, compact bushy structure. View from the top:

Plant on the right, natural light:

Top view:

More to follow.

 

[Cannaficiando]

Here's the setup:

The table fan is blowing through the cool tube, which is balanced on two bedside lamp shades. Daft, I know...but needs must.

 

[Cannaficiando]

Both showed sex on day 31 and are now, on day 42, just starting their stretch. This is slower than Sweets I've grown in the past so I reckon these will run to day 80 - 85. It looks like the lady on the right is the Green Poison. Righty is a much paler green than Lefty, and every GP I've grown has been a pale green. Righty looks like she will grow quite tall as well, and has nowhere near as many bud sites as Lefty, again similar to previous GP grows.

Forgot to mention, temperature is an almost constant 30°C, with RH varying from 60 - 70%.

Here they are today, day 42:

Natural light, Lefty:

From above (note triangular shape):

Natural light, Righty:

From above:

 

[68grasshopper]

your plants are in magic condition, not a blemish in sight ,the quickest auto ive had was mohan ram,
under 60 days and def the strongest indica ive smoked but not the best yielder.
atb.

 

[Cannaficiando]

Thanks for looking in, 68.

Day 45 Update

Stretching continues - the Green Poison is now 22" tall; the Sweet Cheese (90% sure it's Cheese, not Jack 47) is at 18".

Forgot to mention pH before. I'm using an Accurate 8 for in-soil testing and it's consistent in both soil mixes, 6.6 to 6.8, a little on the high side, but I can live with it. I tried lemon juice to pH down, but it doesn't make much difference.

Sweet Cheese

Green Poison

Grow space getting crowded

 

[Cannaficiando]

Day 50 Update (pics taken a couple of days ago):

The organic soil mix is the winner by far; the Sweet Cheese is luxuriant. Still waiting for flowering (20 days after preflowers showed themselves).

 

[Waira]

Canna', great to see a new grow again my friend! ... and what a difference from last round, using some better soils,... human tooth aside!- --who knew were good compost?!
.... wow, they sure did stretch at first, huh,... must be the red spec' light being a bit too dominant? ... LOL!-- okay, I did a mental WTF when I saw the paper wads in there, until I realized they were high-tech props! ... the edge curling, I'm finding to be caused by more things than I thought,... root trouble, Mg defc.(?), natural tendency (OG family I think), along with the usual env. stress causes...the higher T and RH still might be behind it, affecting younger plants more; they look perfect now!.... ** ding ding ding** --update as I write! ..... dual lights seemed to help some with lush lower growth! I like your improvised, ready breakdown set-up, Canna, I roll the same way; no tent, just foil-sided 1/2" styro 4x2' panels and/or the metallic bubble wrap insulation stuff in a roll (Thank you Home Depot! )... I'll dig up pics if I can find them, so you can see my ghetto rig for supplemental lighting- LOL!
.... yup, I think this is a Chz and Poison episode again- ... the pH is fine, considering the feeds are acidic,... and the girls look fantastic my friend!! -- wow, the soil difference is really pronounced now! I hope you can get more of it-? You amended it just right I think... coco is wonderful stuff, resists compaction, breathes better, mild native pH,... are you using the molasses often? between the LED's, the coco (which has powerful affinity for it), Ca demand will be pretty high... you spot it fast each time though and quell it right away! ...Mmmmm, new pics are juicy! ... not sure why they're taking longer, but not as bad as time before last, right? That Chz is going full-shrub mate, she'll be phat very soon,... GP doesn't seem to make lots of budsites for me either, compared to the others... but the density and quality more than make up for it! How did your friends enjoy the last round?

Looking damn good Canna', I'm telling you, you'd be dangerous with top Q soil and nute's! ... always a pleasure, mate!

 

[Cannaficiando]

Hey, Waira......many thanks for the kind words and the rep slap.

wow, the soil difference is really pronounced now! I hope you can get more of it-?

So do I. Unfortunately, it's like Hellmann's mayo and other necessities here - available sporadically, if at all.

Day 56 Update

Still waiting for some flower action. This could be a disaster as I have only five and a half weeks from today before I leave for Amsterdam. So I either accept the fact that I'll have to chop early, or find someone to look after them while I'm away.

The grow space is getting crowded as the Cheese tries to bully the GP into submission. I moved the HPS to the top of the plants, and will keep it there with no side lighting until flowering takes off. The Cheese has opened up nicely, lovely open structure now, all bud sites open to the light. The GP is now over 3" tall, growing scruffily. like all other GPs I've grown. Still not a blemish on either plant.

Cheese

GP