Mars Hydro SP-3000 vs Dutch Passion - Orange Hill Special (Supersoil)

A major surprise came when Mars Hydro Global Store contacted us and asked if would like to try out their new SP 3000 light. Being a fan of Mars Hydro for years, we of course accepted their offer. We are totally in love with this light. I was when I saw it in another growers setup and was in awe with its output and results.
So with much pride and thankfulness for the presents the Universe bestowed on us, in the form of MarsHydroLEDS offer and the bountiful harvest of the last grow, (which I am thouroughly enjoying btw, such a great weed to have grown ourselves) we start out on a new adventure that we can't wait to share with you.

With many lessons learned from the previous grow, a mighty producing strain in the form of Expert Seeds Gorrilla Glue #4, a.k.a Expert Gorilla's and a tweaked supersoil mixture, we are setting out to hopefully get over a gram per watt, preferably 1.5.

The Setup

A 4.5 (140 cm) x 2(70) x 6.2 (200) growtent, giving me a .98 m2 workspace. This space is customized to my needs.
A standing fan will provide airflow trhough the whole grow, a top fan will help guide cooler air past my lights onto the grow.
3 56 ltr pots will be the home for the plants when they are 2 weeks old, up to then in smaller jars.

The Light

The leading role and star of the show, will be played by the Mars Hydro SP-3000, so kindly provided by MarsHydroLED, which we will test and review here and I might say, endorse. This light is a beast!! 300 watts, 2.8 uMol super efficient!!





The Strain

Ooooooooh very excited about this strain from Dutch Passion, which Im a great fan of, all their previous work too Ive gotten to know when during my teens I frequented many a Ducth coffeeshop. World renowned, one of the oldest seedbanks in the world. White Widow, Skunk No 11, Blueberry and Power Plant are couple of their classics that the whole world know about.

It was a hard decission, Im a big fan of their classics, but this Orange Hill intrigued me and since I miss the good Orange Buds of old, I wanted to see for myself what this baby can do.

Orange Hill Special®️
Orange Bud X Californian Orange Regular Feminized

Plant size: XXL
Flowering time: 8 weeks
Species: HybridOrange Family
Prize Winner
Indoor
THC: Extremely High

This variety offers unsurpassed quality in terms of aroma, taste and effect. A small percentage of the plants can develop male flowers, which is expressed most heavily when plants suffer from severe stress. It is advised to check your plants thoroughly during flowering and act immediately before the male flowers open and pollinate the other plants.

We have two kinds, with the Expert Gorillas aswell, prone go hermie on me here... So they might grow to love each other. It seems that having many of the same sex in one enclosed space leading to romance is not a phenomenon restricted to Ships and prisons. I must keep a close eye on it though, although personally not preud or conservative, NO FUNNY BUSINESS or hanky panky in this growroom... Ladies...

She has germinated and will be transplanted to a small little pot with some sowing soil and some water PH 6.4 until large enough to be transfered!!


The Soil

Those who saw my Monstercropped Gelato #33 grow (you should see it if you didn't, im so proud of that grow), know about my supersoil and organic nutrients/ permaculture tea combo that starred in my previous diary.
Because of the great results we are going to use the same recipe, adjusted some more with some new ingredients that will complete the mix and give an even more sustained supersoil buffer.

20% Atami Bi-grow (very similar to ocean forest)
20% Atami worm castings
20% Atami Coco Coir
10% Hydrocorn
10% Peat powder
1 cup Fossil seaweed chalk
1 cup bonemeal
1 cup bloodmeal
1 cup Microlife
3-4 teaspoons of epsom salt
3 cups of activated biochar (activated with our own permaculture tea)

I just made layers, starting with hydrocorn on the bottom to aid airflow / run-off. On this I started layering the cococoir, Bi-grow, peat, castings and amendments in a waythat the more mature the plants get, the more phosphorous and less nitrogen they will find. Every time I made three layers, I would mix them by hand. This way we simulate natural soil, which consists of humic layers, composting plant waste, fungal and microbial life and nutrients from fossilized sources.

The Nutrients

I will start with just adding 6.4 PH water, although this soil should buffer ph itself and regulate, after 4 weeks, I'll slowly be adding:

- Biobizz Grow
- Plagron Alga Grow
- Biobizz CalMag

- Biobizz Flower
- Plagron Alga Flower
- Biobizz Topmax
- Melasses

The Tea

Some of you might remember the permaculture tea from my previous grow, I have a short video in my harvestpage showing how we make it), it will star again in this grow.

- (Rain)water
- Comfrey (whole plants)
- Dandelion leaves
- Roots and leaves from the earlier grow
- Minor perriwinkle (Finca minor) this is a plant we have in our garden, it contains an alkaloid that is associated with increased brain function but also is a light toxine for wee beasties and other unwanted guests like gnats (who hate it).
- When flowering I add some woodash to this mix



Thank you for checking in on one of my grows again!

Hug

Bud

We are a week further now and thanks for reading with me on my adventures. The seedling is growing very well!
We did have some problems, regarding the other seedling but I will tell you in the other diary, but also with this grow.

I had made the mistake of leaving my supersoil out for a day or two. I can strongly advise against that now, since all sorts of fiies had time to nestle in it. Last week I have been fighting the flies, but I cant fix it unless I put a layer of inert cover on top. I have no clue as to what.

So far my stickytraps and mixture of water/soap/vinegar are catching a lot of them but I want the out.


The seedling is growing well. I love Orange Hill Special so far!


The middle one is the Orange Hill Special

So now Im off to the store, looking for some inert toplayer material... Jury still out on what kind... But prob will be some kind of diatomaceous soil.

Will post again soon, don't mind feedback on my journals!


See you soon!!

BioBuds said:

We are a week further now and thanks for reading with me on my adventures. The seedling is growing very well!
We did have some problems, regarding the other seedling but I will tell you in the other diary, but also with this grow.

I had made the mistake of leaving my supersoil out for a day or two. I can strongly advise against that now, since all sorts of fiies had time to nestle in it. Last week I have been fighting the flies, but I cant fix it unless I put a layer of inert cover on top. I have no clue as to what.

So far my stickytraps and mixture of water/soap/vinegar are catching a lot of them but I want the out.

View attachment 4993318
The seedling is growing well. I love Orange Hill Special so far!

View attachment 4993319
The middle one is the Orange Hill Special

So now Im off to the store, looking for some inert toplayer material... Jury still out on what kind... But prob will be some kind of diatomaceous soil.

Will post again soon, don't mind feedback on my journals!


See you soon!!

Click to expand...

You could also pick up some citric acid (powder form) and create a contact killer.

Plenty of recipes for mix ratios online.

You said mars contacted us* and we* accepted
Who is us or we?
It looks like your trying to tout as Dutch Passion while promoting mars but you're a new member?

I'm a bit baffled?

Star Dog said:

You said mars contacted us* and we* accepted
Who is us or we?
It looks like your trying to tout as Dutch Passion while promoting mars but you're a new member?

I'm a bit baffled?

Click to expand...

Hi Stardog, us and we is Sunshine and me, we do the growing together, Sunshine is my wife. We just started posting but i´m a longtime visitor and reader of the blogs. We always wanted to make our own journals and now that we have our inside setup and a good camera, we love to share our experiences.

We are also active on other fora, I just like the formatting here better.

After the earlier succesfull grow, we were offered a light to try out by Mars Hydro, this is why we feature it, as a review.
Our older grows were with Rubol lights.

We are not affiliated with anyone. I just like to make my reviews nice and feature the breeder, this is the first time I grow a DP strain.

So please, no harm intended or hidden agenda!
Have a great day! Thank you for your feedback!!
Sunshine says she will introduce herself soon!

jondamon said:

You could also pick up some citric acid (powder form) and create a contact killer.

Plenty of recipes for mix ratios online.

Click to expand...

We have that in the house right now, with all the jarring we do of the stuff coming out of our garden....
Thanks a bunch friend!!!

Another youtuber is my guess. What's the plant on the left?

Star Dog said:

You said mars contacted us* and we* accepted
Who is us or we?
It looks like your trying to tout as Dutch Passion while promoting mars but you're a new member?

I'm a bit baffled?

Click to expand...

My other account is GreenhouseXpert, but didnt like the name for posting our journals and I mostly only read the growreviews w/o loggin in.

JonathanT said:

Another youtuber is my guess. What's the plant on the left?

Click to expand...

Nope just hobby of me and wifey! Dont have the time for all the editting. The left one is an oddball strain I got just to try something else. It is called Xtrakush by weedseeds.site.

After asking for more info about the strain they sent nothing So mystery landrace... Its unfeminzed so I planted two in hopes one will be female.

It looks really weird

Like basil

Ah the visible leafs are from a squater... by leaving my growbags out too long I have some guests.... To the right of that you can see two little sprouts. Those are th Xtrakush.

It was a week of balancing. Some yellow leaves and battling flies. Something is not optimal with either my climate, the amount of light, or the seeding soil. My PH meter is broken so I'll have to order a new one.

I've been giving un PH'd water just, for now, my best guess was my water and soil combo was too acidic and this seems to alleviate the problem.

So after a period of stress, we lost some weeks of growing, which I will add to the total growing time, as it looks now at least another couple of weeks before flowering.... But.... Due to my problem with germinating the gorilla's my other plants are way behind.

I'm going to have to check and foresee uneven growth again. Where I'll have to find a middle ground between all plants since I have only one grow space.



I bought a tripod and already had a gimble which make for nice steady shots and can do time-lapses, overviews but also, make photos and films while I work to make the diaries a little more interesting!

Still very happy with the SP-3000 by @MarsHydroLED, amazing how cool she runs and the amount of light she puts out. So cant wait for flowering and getting her on full blast. Be very careful with this light when your plants are young.

It is easy to underestimate the sheer amount of light the SP-3000 puts out. Remember that they still have an end-of-summer deal with discounts of up to 20% at the factory global outlet on aliexpress!



To conclude I totally underestimated the growing speed of the roots and they had already rooted in the super soil in the grow bags that I have in the room already to acclimatize. So its time to put them in the super soil next week.

- Things I learned this week:

- Get a good PH meter
- Citric acid and controlled drought work well against gnats
- Seeding soil must not be too acidic
- Peat soil seems to make everything more acidic
- A FIM can lead to stress when conditions are not optimal
- Place the seedling pot on a plate or tray, so the roots do not go into my super soil before I want them to.

Thanks for checking this week and see you next week!!
Happy growing!

jondamon said:

You could also pick up some citric acid (powder form) and create a contact killer.

Plenty of recipes for mix ratios online.

Click to expand...

Your solution worked like a charm by the way. No flies left, when combined with sticky traps and temporary drought, could not see one today, so thanks again!

BioBuds said:

Your solution worked like a charm by the way. No flies left, when combined with sticky traps and temporary drought, could not see one today, so thanks again!

Click to expand...

Tbh it’s not my solution I learned about it from @xtsho in the last few months.

Vegetation stage week 4

This week could not have gone any better. Shiba Inu went through the roof, as it should. 'Dog coins is greats', we all know this by now and should be the only logic when selecting crypto's. Next to that my ladies have recovered from whatever was happening before.



Well finally I have fixed all the stress, what they needed was apparently some good old BioBuds Super Soil love... You guys need to check out the recipe I posted below. This is some awesome shit even for younger plants. I think I nailed it with only European ingredients, to match Master Mark and Subcools recipes.

You can clearly see how the transplant only made them better instead of further stressing the plants. I'm so happy. With one or two weeks delay, finally, we are underway.



The FIM I did last week did not hold so fimmed her again, I think I might have been too careful.
But now the light (still many thanks to MarsHydroLED, hook 'em up for a great discount on your SP-3000 or other light) and the soil are proving to be a great team in even recovering stressed and hurt plants.


Watered with the Perma tea for the first time and it works like a dream again, it seems to start up all the microbial processes, after using this CO2 is noticeable.

The climate in the tent could be a little moister but for now, I'll mist just the plants to keep the gnat problem at bay. The gnat problem seems over by just spraying all the topsoil with a solution of 5 tablespoons of citric acid in a liter of water. Just a fine mist covering most of the topsoil kills the larvae and sticky traps and a bowl of vinegar with some dish soap did the rest. Thanks again @jondamon for pointing this out!!





My Gelato #33 diary had won a prize on another platform. A selection of their best seeds and some merchandise. Very happy with that so thanks Fastbuds!!! I have a feeling the coming diaries will feature FastBuds Autos.

Thank you for checking in this week, to find a happier BioBuds after last week's struggles. See you on the next one and happy growing.

I had time to complete my open-source European super soil recipe for anybody to use, improve on and pass on to their children. The project was born out of frustration that most super soil recipes use American ingredients, unavailable to us Europeans.

So I ventured out in search of worthy replacements for all ingredients. It lead to the following recipe and setup.

I've got the sp3000 in a 4x2 tent just getting started so far everything going well just sprouted my seeds , gave them first feeding today

horribleherk said:

I've got the sp3000 in a 4x2 tent just getting started so far everything going well just sprouted my seeds , gave them first feeding today

Click to expand...

Nice!!! You are going to be so happy with it. Do you have a diary up of your setup, by any chance for a looksee?
It is unbelievable what amount of light comes out of this thin strip! But also how relatively cool it stays.

As a question since you mentioned? How old are your sprouts that you feed them, I give them nothing until lower leaves start to discolor to yellowish.to prevent overfeeding the seedling... Usually one to two weeks on poor seeding soil. Just a cup of water (6.4 PH) every
other day and in humid conditionsuntiltwo weeks old. Ive burnt my seedlings with feeding early....

Hope you have a great harvest!!

BioBuds said:

Nice!!! You are going to be so happy with it. Do you have a diary up of your setup, by any chance for a looksee?
It is unbelievable what amount of light comes out of this thin strip! But also how relatively cool it stays.

As a question since you mentioned? How old are your sprouts that you feed them, I give them nothing until lower leaves start to discolor to yellowish.to prevent overfeeding the seedling... Usually one to two weeks on poor seeding soil. Just a cup of water (6.4 PH) every
other day and in humid conditionsuntiltwo weeks old. Ive burnt my seedlings with feeding early....

Hope you have a great harvest!!

Click to expand...

My seedlings are in coco & 2 weeks old I feed 1gr. megacrop per gal I have a journal started the title is in my signature on my avatar I'm at the slowest part of the grow right now the strain I'll be running is superlemonhaze-×- las Vegas triangle kush from esosseeds.com it's called superlemon crush the title of my thread at bottom of this post