Rurumo's Mars Hydro FC6500 grow journal

[Rsawr]

Happy new year, Rurumo. Your garden continues to inspire!

 

[Danja-83]

You seem a likeable character mate , lovely old school selections with an efficient and tidy canopy . They are bubbling away nicely. 4 plants is perfect for a 1.2 = nice and compact.

 

[Rurumo]

Happy new year, Rurumo. Your garden continues to inspire!

Thank you!

 

[Rurumo]

You seem a likeable character mate , lovely old school selections with an efficient and tidy canopy . They are bubbling away nicely. 4 plants is perfect for a 1.2 = nice and compact.

Thank's a lot! As much as I dislike the 4 plant limit that's so common in legal states and medical programs, it is the perfect number to fill out a 4x4 tent. It's just hard when you want to do some breeding.

 

[Buddernugs]

Hey guys, great news, Mars Hydro has sent me a tracking number for the FC6500, it's on its way! Thank you again Mars Hydro!

View attachment 5042750

In the meantime, I will give a quick update. Last night I gave the girls their second (and last) dose of aspirin in their nutrient solution. 1 315 mg tablet per gallon. There is an incredible body of research on salicylic acid and plant growth, SAR, as well as its direct anti-fungal properties (I also use it as a foliar). It's impossible to know how well these things work in a home grow setting, but I do it for all my plants (and veggie garden) and one thing I can tell you for sure, is that the plants are always standing tall and look super happy the next day. They are still being fed twice per day at 600 ppms Megacrop a/b (5.8 ph) at pretty close to the Jack's 321 ratio-I add slightly less calnit and epsom salts, but also add 1/4 teaspoon per gallon 80% soy hydrolysate powder. Liquid Kelp and Mr. Fulvic during one feed each day, and Yucca extract powder (1/2 teaspoon per 4 gallons) every feeding. My water is naturally high in calcium and runs at 140 ppm from the tap. I always dechlorinate first with vitamin C-1/8 teaspoon per 4 gallons. Citric acid for PH down. I should have said all of that in the first post, but oh well. Almost forgot....Light was at 22 inches this morning, I raised to 24, lux readings average around 50k.

Tomorrow I will review my new Inkbird Temp Gun and take some leaf temp readings. So far I've tested it on my turtle tank-I put a piece of masking tape on the side just to get the most accurate reading-and it came up with the EXACT same temperature as my digital thermometer: 80.2. Most impressive accuracy.

Hears a link on that fold 8…..this guy does the work so we don’t have to…. All his tests are done with an apogee quantum meter…and now with the new e par that detects far red

 

[Rurumo]

I meant to mention this earlier in this journal, but I did receive my FC-6500 and decided to just finish off this grow with the Fold-8, since it is already a month into flowering. I feel like I'll be able to do the FC-6500 justice by running it all the way through starting with my next grow. I've been super happy with the Fold-8 in every respect so far, and as Buddernugs mentioned, it has an incredible par map in a 4x4 at 80%, which is what my plants are under now. I'd like to thank @MarsHydrofactory for the FC-6500 contest once again, and I can't wait to show off this light once my current plants finish up!

 

[myke]

Happy New Year Ms Rurumo.Tent looks awesome.

 

[Rurumo]

Happy New Year Ms Rurumo.Tent looks awesome.

Thank you very much Myke! Happy New Year to you too

 

[Rurumo]

I'll reserve judgement until harvest, but I feel like my grow was further along at this point during my last grow when I used fewer primary bud sites. After this post I'll show a few comparison pics. Really my goal for my last two grows was to nail down a perfect # of bud sites per plant for yield. I'm thinking that over 20 per plant is a bit crowded, 8 is too few, colas get too big, so for my next grow, I'll mainline to an even 16 each. Anyway, plants are still happy, but I have some concern that the early browning in the white widow might have spread to the plant next to it, and since they are in the back, I may have missed some intersex traits. I always get nervous at this stage of bloom though, so it's probably fine and I'll just ride it out.



Old Red Sour:



Blue D #5, smelling so good!




White Widow, strange little plant that reeks of peach:



Petrol Skunk:



Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Rurumo]

Okay, so, here is the same Petrol Skunk clone on July 13 last year:



And here it is on Aug 2:



For comparison sake, my plants will reach the equivalent time on the 13th of Jan. So they have 9 days to get there. It's possible, but there are a few differences in my current grow. This last grow was weird....I threw some coots mix in the same pots because that's all I had at the time (was planning on a 4x4 bed but decided against it, and didn't have any coco on hand.) Then I started getting crazy deficiencies when the mix was used up in early flower, so I started feeding Maxibloom. Also, I kept the lights closer (to the point of burning some tops). I feel like the # of tops is having the biggest impact, and there is definitely a sweet spot to be found for a given space there.

 

[tuksu6000]

Okay, so, here is the same Petrol Skunk clone on July 13 last year:

View attachment 5060097

And here it is on Aug 2:

View attachment 5060100

For comparison sake, my plants will reach the equivalent time on the 13th of Jan. So they have 9 days to get there. It's possible, but there are a few differences in my current grow. This last grow was weird....I threw some coots mix in the same pots because that's all I had at the time (was planning on a 4x4 bed but decided against it, and didn't have any coco on hand.) Then I started getting crazy deficiencies when the mix was used up in early flower, so I started feeding Maxibloom. Also, I kept the lights closer (to the point of burning some tops). I feel like the # of tops is having the biggest impact, and there is definitely a sweet spot to be found for a given space there.

Do u remember which flowering week it was going on that july 13 pic? Pic from August looks super nice! Im pretty much in same situation trying to find out which amount of tops is perfect. Now there is about 12 in 6 plants, next one will be mainlined 16 and same 6 plants. My space is 3x5.

 

[Rurumo]

Do u remember which flowering week it was going on that july 13 pic? Pic from August looks super nice! Im pretty much in same situation trying to find out which amount of tops is perfect. Now there is about 12 in 6 plants, next one will be mainlined 16 and same 6 plants. My space is 3x5.

So, last time, my yield for that 8 cola plant was the same as my two other plants that had around 16 colas, problem is, they were different strains so not a great comparison. I ended up losing half the colas on the 8 cola plant due to bud rot-they were just too big and dense. I'm not sure what day of flower that was, but I can probably figure it out from my pics. I'll take a look.

 

[tuksu6000]

So, last time, my yield for that 8 cola plant was the same as my two other plants that had around 16 colas, problem is, they were different strains so not a great comparison. I ended up losing half the colas on the 8 cola plant due to bud rot-they were just too big and dense. I'm not sure what day of flower that was, but I can probably figure it out from my pics. I'll take a look.

Yes rot and mold are my biggest worries too, leds seems to make so much denser buds than hps.
Anyway your plants looking awesome!

 

[MisterKister]

Oscillating fans help immensely with bud rot

 

[cobshopgrow]

very nice canopy managment and plants.
regarding soil mixes/cocos i just encounter the oposite regarding deficiencies, having usually more work to get it dialed in in cocos then in the soil mix.

 

[Rurumo]

very nice canopy managment and plants.
regarding soil mixes/cocos i just encounter the oposite regarding deficiencies, having usually more work to get it dialed in in cocos then in the soil mix.

Oh I totally agree, once you dial in a good soil mix the plants grow so nice and easy. My problem was, I got covid last summer right when I needed to transplant, so I didn't have the ability to drag all of the soil I had mixed inside my house to fill up my 4x4 bed, so instead I just filled up my 3.5 gallon air pots with it. I knew I would have to start feeding at some point, that's just not enough soil. The plants looked amazing all through veg and they would have killed it in that mix in a bed or even in 15 gal pots. Coco is a challenge to dial in, I still have trouble with it at the seedling stage and in trying to keep bonsai moms alive in it.

 

[Rurumo]

Oscillating fans help immensely with bud rot

Totally agree. I've got a ton of air movement above and below the canopy, and I keep my RH at 50% during flower. The problem was just the sheer size and thickness of the colas. There wasn't a trace of rot on the outside, it grew deep inside of them. I've had that problem in the past in skunk and critical mass plants with big colas, some plants are just prone to it. That's why I'm growing it with 20+ bud sites instead of 8 like last time, just hoping I can shrink those beasts down and avoid the rot.

 

[cobshopgrow]

i think in the end its all a bit trial and error, especially with organics.
am prob just lucky, found a premixed soil which isnt too hot and found some good worm castings it seems (sold in a pack with charged biochar, both together are a complete meal).

maybe my dry salt isnt optimal for cocos, as its pretty rich in K by default, more trial needed, even i had all the ppms calced in hydrobuddy, could be perfected for sure.

my tents are pretty small, but i have no problems so far with 4 x 3 gallon pots in the squaremeter tent and the smaller 86x86cm tent is looking also very good with 2 x 5 gallons of soil, i knock on wood as they have quite a few weeks to go.

i do have my first soil cooking in the kitchen waiting to be reused, am curious if thats going to work as well or even better, its a bit flying blind without analysis.
alternative is to mix some fresh soil every run, then i would know at least what i have.

 

[MisterKister]

Totally agree. I've got a ton of air movement above and below the canopy, and I keep my RH at 50% during flower. The problem was just the sheer size and thickness of the colas. There wasn't a trace of rot on the outside, it grew deep inside of them. I've had that problem in the past in skunk and critical mass plants with big colas, some plants are just prone to it. That's why I'm growing it with 20+ bud sites instead of 8 like last time, just hoping I can shrink those beasts down and avoid the rot.

Air purifiers will stop rot as well

 

[Tikbalang]

Salicylic acid controls a plant's immune response to infection. There is a large and growing body of research showing that aspirin (which is acetyl-salicylic acid, and appears to work the exact same as regular salicylic acid in plants) can increase yield, reduce the impact of various stressors, and enhance immunity against bacterial and fungal pathogens. There are a lot of studies out there now, but it's hard to nail down a dosage that isn't totally arbitrary, I think weekly is too much. My last dose was on Tuesday, so from there, I plan on feeding it every two weeks during flower. Too much and you can stunt growth and greatly interfere with auxin transport. There is also some interesting research on grapes and strawberries as a post harvest treatment for botrytis. Basically, applying aspirin to harvested grapes/strawberries that have been exposed to botrytis greatly reduces it's spread. So I think it might also have a use in a post harvest bud bath, especially if you've had some bud rot in the crop.

Foliar application of ASA works for tomatoes as well, something to do with stimulating the plants “immune response”. From my limited understanding, when the plant is attacked, it produces similar chemical responses in defense, the foliar application kick starts this response without a “pest” trigger thereby bolstering defenses.