Welcome to Puffs new series, Grow Tours! These articles will aim to capture all the action behind the scenes of Canadian Cannabis production. Brantford Micro-Grower (BMG) was chosen because of their unique cultivation system, the RotoGrow.
Brantford Micro Grow Inc (BMG) has been licensed since 2022. They are a Micro Cannabis facility based in, you guessed it, Brantford, Ontario, Canada! We are thrilled to bring you the innovative growing techniques employed at this fine facility.
There’s a lot of really neat practices being used here at BMG. The main prize is the Rotogrow, but we dive back to Ceramic Metal Halides, CO2 Diffusion, and the whole process from Clone to Stoned. Let’s get started!
Introducing rotogrow! Initially designed in 2003 by RotoGrow Technologies Inc. these fascinating machines hoped to revolutionize the way farmers and Cannabis growers manage and grow their crops. With an emphasis on reducing the Carbon footprint created by traditional farming methods, Rotogrow is also designed to reduce Human error and product contaminants.
Attached to each Rotogrow is a Bluelab Guardian Monitor – allowing David to constantly monitor The EC, Temperature, as well as and pH Level of the water in the Nutrient Tanks.
Rotogrow is a Hydroponic system. Each wheel rotates fully every 17 minutes. As it passes along the bottom the Rockwool cubes soak up the water and the plants get their nutrients. BMG tailors the spacing and plant count based on Cultivar to optimize light distribution and quality. For most cultivars, 6 plants per rail works the best. Each Rotogrow can fit up to 20 rails! This allows them to have 120 Plants growing all at the same time, which for David equates to around 5-7 Lbs per Rotogrow. Since they stack their Rotogrow’s in pairs, they can get 10-14LBs / 4 x 6 Ft area. This allows them to utilize 7x the amount of space compared to conventional growing.
Which brings us to another benefit of Rotogrow. Due to the size of the machine, plants can only get so big. This is partly beneficial because it allows the user to minimize the amount of time plants spend in the vegetative growth state. David will only have to Veg for approximately 3-5 days before flipping to flower. Any longer and the plants become too big and will suffer light deprivation. Currently, he is experimenting with fast flowering cultivars, 8-9 week strains. This allows for a very fast turn around compared to conventional growing methods.
David is still utilizing old school Ceramic Metal Halide Lights for his mother room. This was super cool to see. The First patent for the Metal Halide Bulb goes all the way back to 1912! They were much more common in cultivation in the 60s. LED’s were invented in 1962, with HPS coming around in 1964. Then, in 1994 Ceramic Metal Halide bulbs were invented. CMH light’s offer more blue light spectrum which results in a more manageable, compact, stockier plant. OG’s Stand up!
Clones are cut from the mother room and placed in 1-inch Rockwool Cubes. From there they are set on a tray of clones which sits under an LED bulb till they are rooted. Once ready, Those clones will go from their 1-inch cube directly into a 4-inch cube. The 4-inch cube fits perfectly in the rails of the Rotogrow. The Rockwool used is from Grodan.
Cure Pucks have internal computers that measure the levels of Humidity, Temperature and CO2 within the Cure barrels. They will automatically off-gas the barrels (Commonly known as Burping) depending on what the desired parameters are. David does a two week dry, followed by a one month cure in these barrels.
We loved photographing the plants in the Rotogrow. Pictured Here is the beautiful Powdered Donuts. These babies were about a week away from harvest and the smell coming off of them was very nice. Sweet and Creamy with a touch of Dough.
Pictured Here is the Twin-Super Nova. This strain is a custom-made, proprietary strain exclusive to BMG. The nose on this one was very berry forward, despite being a Super Lemon Haze cross. You can find this beauty at your local dispensaries!
That’s a wrap! We are absolutely thrilled to be bringing this new chapter of Puff to life. The goal of this content is to highlight the amount of work and dedication behind the product’s in our Industry. If you are a Grower that would like to be featured, contact me at Dougie@Puffthemagic.ca Stay tuned for more coverage of Canadian Grower’s. As always, One Love! – Dougie.
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