Grower’s Corner – Greenest Grow

Steps to reduce runoff waste

Growing great plants is never an easy balance. It’s even more difficult with cannabis since the grow cycle is so short and each cultivar is so different. One small misstep at any point in the plant’s life and you can significantly reduce your yield. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s limit those risks to:

Not enough water
Not enough nutrients
Too much water
Too many nutrients

The combination of thirsty plants, evaporation, HVAC, dehumidification, hot lights, fans and soil variation makes the perfect balance incredibly hard to find and maintain. If any of these variables change, you’ll need to adjust your methods or controls. Economically, you’re balancing the high cost (and waste) of RO water and nutrients with the risk of a low yield.

Some growers favor a manual watering or feeding method. Some even target 20% runoff as a signal of proper watering. Doesn’t watching 20% of your investment going down the drain make you shudder? If your team is manually lifting every pot, using traditional soil moisture meters or sticking your finger in the soil to assess the watering needs, you’re subject to wasting time, missing the optimal moisture value and risking plant health from rough movements.

The “state of the art” systems inherited from the controlled growth industry for varietals and vegetables is timer-based systems. The approach is conceptually sound. Assuming you can predict your plants’ needs, day-by-day months in advance, you can create a watering schedule to automatically feed them. This assumes every plant has the exact same needs. Varietals and vegetables are easier to predict than cannabis which can grow more aggressively with greater variation between cultivars.

Does your crop include a super star? Well, sorry – she’s going to be starving.
Does your crop include a few weak plants or environmentally challenged areas? Well, sorry – she’s going to either drown or get burned out from excessive nutrients.
Did anything go wrong with your environmental control systems? Well, sorry – you’ve disrupted the planned moisture consumption, evaporation or nutrient requirements.

As we mentioned earlier, any of these situations can impact the plants remaining life and ultimately your yield.

Living soils alleviate most of the nutrient burn challenges. Assuming you get the correct mix and layers when you initially fill the pots, you can reduce that risk. If your soil mix is too hot, you can flush it and top dress the necessary nutrients. The flushing process washes your expensive nutrients down the drain with RO water.

Let’s consider a dynamic, sensor-driven system. With the latest technical advances, it’s possible to sense the current state of every single plant. It’s also possible to give every plant exactly what she needs. After you’ve defined the moisture ranges, the system can automatically adjust for environment changes. If an HVAC duct or dehumidifier is drying out the nearby plants too aggressively, those plants will automatically get just a little more water to keep them on your defined plan. Similarly, if the temperature falls unexpectedly and evaporation has slowed, the system will automatically adapt and maintain the proper moisture level you set in your plan.

Root lock is another significant challenge. If excessive salt-based nutrients build up on the roots, the plants won’t be able to absorb additional nutrients or water. A flush is a must! Without a flush, it’s double trouble: as the plant withers, additional watering will just send your money down the drain. Flushing plants is an expensive proposition as your money goes down the drain. While it’s obviously possible to recover a plant from root lock, the progress she lost can’t be fully recovered because of your timeline. Your yield has been reduced.

One other advantage is proactive sensing of EC. If you’ve defined your EC range, the system can continuously monitor EC and notify you if any plant starts to vary from your desired range. You will have the opportunity to monitor and intervene before the plant suffers an adverse impact.

Ultimately, an individualized, sensor-driven system will allow you to reduce both water and nutrient waste by giving plants only what they need. Are you ready for a system that continuously adapts to plant needs and alerts you to potential root lock? Check out Greenest Grow and we’ll help you get to the next level.

Grower's Corner

They are clones – do they really vary that much?

Do plant needs really vary that significantly? We are working in the age of highly evolved genetics. We have bred plants for extremely specific yields, THC percentages, terpenes, flavonoids, pest and mold resistance, and ease of growing. If you are raising your plants from seeds, you may expect variations especially if they are not inbred or rebred to promote genetic dominance of any specific trait. If you are cloning your plants from a mother, you would think each of the “children” would be identical. Well, not necessarily…..

Flats of staged plants — Image Copyright: Greenest Grow, LLC

You can observe the phenomena just by looking at a large family. With the same mother and father (i.e., same DNA inputs), you would think their children would be extremely similar. However, genetic diversity takes over. Some of the children are smaller, less active, and require less calories and nutrients. Similarly, a larger, more athletic child will require significantly more or completely different foods. There have been studies of identical twins growing up in different environments. While they share many characteristics, they exhibit significantly different traits. That’s a result of the environment that raised them.

As cannabis cultivars have advanced, they have similarly unique needs. Some cultivars are naturally short, bushy and provide massive flowers. These are typically indicas. Indicas are commonly bred to incorporate some of the sativa smells, flavors while protecting the yield. Conversely, sativa or sativa dominant hybrids are commonly bred to express their traits in shorter, bushier plants with less flower time. Beyond cultivar development, the practice of cloning should provide an identical genotype (which many growers assume will eliminate variation). However, plants adapt to their environment as much as possible. This is known as phenotypic plasticity. A phenotype is a plant’s “expression” of the genome and its response to the environment.

A set of clones (same phenotype) grown in different environments will result in different variants. So to provide a reliably excellent product, the environmental controls need to be dialed-in just as tightly as the genomic development. This includes the soil type, nutrient mix, watering regimen, temperature, humidity, lighting and trimming schedules. Any small variation will result in a different outcome. That may be expressed in yield, THC level, terpene or flavonoid content (just to mention a few).

As medical use becomes more refined through research, the product consistency will become extremely critical. Beyond medical use, adult use consumers are becoming extremely selective. They are focused on the flavonoid and terpene profile. If the product is inconsistent, they may move on to a more predictable producer quickly.

What’s the best approach to growing a consistent phenotype? Your head grower needs to use “recipes” to experiment with each of the variables, record them, optimize them, and ultimately repeat them. This level of success requires a mix of systems. It starts with a system that captures the core recipe variables by phenotype. For every phase of the plant growth, the environment controls, nutrients and hydration need to be recorded. Through side-by-side (A/B) testing, they can be optimized. Once you’ve found your optimal “recipe”, the system needs to repeat that “recipe” to control your environment. For environmental systems that can’t be directly controlled, you can rely on integrated monitors and alerts that let you know if your environment is varying from your recipe. The capstone of your technology should be an application that constantly monitors and proactively alerts you to any departure from your recipe.

You don’t need to struggle with environment controls, monitoring or alerting. Greenest Grow developed a platform specifically for your needs. We have even extended it to side-by-side (A/B) testing of recipes as well as automatically repeating them. Our system will help you develop your technique to produce a consistent, high-quality product. Check out Greenest Grow when you’re ready to get to the next level.

Grower's Corner

Did this one change offset edge effects?

Edge effects – the dreaded yield reduction around the edges of your grow. The problem can dig a little deeper than just the edges. With an overly zealous air duct or misplaced fan, even plants in the middle of your grow can be negatively impacted.

During a recent study in a grow room, we witnessed a significant yield reduction in the corners of the room. In addition to being edge plants, a few of them were extremely close to the HVAC duct. The plants were getting pummeled by extremely dry air and heavy wind currents. While measuring soil moisture, we realized they were 10 to 15% dryer than the middle plants. With a timer-based solution or manual feeds, they received minimal corrections and continued to struggle.

After equipping the plants with our sensors and automated hydroponic solution, each plant was able to receive exactly what it needed. Using real-time information, we documented the faster drying rates and watched the system automatically compensate for the drying rate. The data proved the edge plants were receiving the nutrient solution they needed to offset the dryer, more aggressive wind. After a couple of weeks, they looked just as healthy as the plants in the middle of the room. For plants in the middle of the room being pummeled by a different duct, they also looked significantly healthier.

Personalized plant care through the use of technology just became the new reality! So do we really need to just accept “edge effects”? Is it possible that just a simple change in hydroponic equipment can offset the decreased yield? Stay tuned for the results.

If you’re interested in higher yields with less stress, give us a shout! We’d love to help you overcome your challenges.