Easy Growing With MarsHydro

[Lewydeville]

Hello 420 friends and welcome to my new journal “Easy growing with MarsHydro”.

A quick introduction, I’ve been growing cannabis for the last 5 years documenting a lot of my grows here on 420 magazine. I’m a hydro guy using DWC and over the years I’ve predominantly used LED grow lights after switching from the old power hungry HPS lights.
As you’ve probably already worked out from the title LED Lights are going to be the main subject here as I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on a MarsHydro TSW-2000 and I can’t wait to see what it can do. If your new to growing and can’t decide which light is for you or maybe a well seasoned gardener just looking for an upgrade I hope this journal can be of some help.

MarsHydro
It’s important to say I’ve been given this light for free but I have bought two lights from Mars in the past so I do have real experience of their service and products.
I’ve always dealt with MarsHydro direct through their website and I can remember when placing my first order years back. I was a little nervous as I had just received a refund from another company after waiting months for a light that didn’t turn up. My nerves were soon put at ease with a swift delivery and numerous tracking emails along the way. They even sent an email weeks after delivery asking if I was happy with the light? Amazing! I was so impressed I had no hesitation when buying my next led from them, the Mars Pro Cree 128 and what a fantastic light that is. I’ve grown a ton of bud under it and it’s that very light the new TSW-2000 will be replacing. The 300 watt light should be perfect for a 4x4 tent which is the same size as my veg tent. Price wise you get great bang for your buck with MarsHydro. You’ll be hard pushed to find better value.

So a couple of days ago the light was delivered and if you’re like me and live in a country where growing cannabis is frowned upon you’ll be pleased to know packaging is discreet.
Here are some pics of what you get.

Love the stickers!

After a quick read of the user manual I assembled the lights. I say “assembled the lights” it basically consists of plugging a few wires in and deciding where you want to position the drivers. With heat not being a problem in my tent at this time of year I went with the with the drivers attached on the top of the shade.

Comes with a handy dimmer switch and the ability to daisy chain to cover larger areas.

When sat side by side with the Cree 128 you can see how modern lights have evolved, gone are the built in fans and much of the case, this allowing passive cooling. I like this as it’s less components to go wrong. The extra width should give me much better coverage as well.

Next up hanging the light.

 

[CO Finest]

 

[Paul Squiggle]

Great first post. I will follow along

 

[Timhomegrow]

I'm wanting to try DWC....hitching a ride

 

[Lewydeville]

After 3 years service it was time to remove the Pro Cree from my veg tent.

As great as this light has been over the years the one thing I won’t miss is the Blurple! Taking pictures can be frustrating especially if you plan on journaling your grow. I’d even go as far to say the blurple can sometimes hide early signs of deficiencies so another plus for the new light. Here check out the difference,
The old

vs the new

Something else I notice straight away when hanging the new light is the generous lengh of the power lead. Most of the lights I’ve purchased in the past have been supplied with really short leads and I like to run my cables out through the top of my tents to keep things neat and tidy. I could do this and still reach the plug socket with ease.
With it’s slim profile the TSW-2000 looks the business when all set up and wow this thing is bright, You’ll certainly be thankful of that dimmer switch when tending to your plants.

Now I’m all set up it’s time for some plants. At the moment I’ve got a Blueberry Cookies and a Fro-Yo auto seedling but they are going to my flower tent sometime soon so I needed some new recruits. After rummaging through my seed stash I pick these five strains.

They sound pretty tasty but I’m not getting my hopes up yet. I have a terrible strike rate germinating seeds recently so I’ll go into more detail when I’m sure we’ve got a plant on our hands! I’m already questioning the Cookies Kush bean as it looks slightly underdeveloped.

After a night soaking in water I placed them into rooter cubes and back into the airing cupboard where it’s nice and warm for another night. Today I’ve opened them up and fingers crossed we might see some action in the next day or two.

So that’s where we are today. Please feel free to join in, it would be great to hear about your experiences with MarsHydro.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

[Lewydeville]

Welcome @CO Finest. Glad to have you here mate.

Great first post. I will follow along

Welcome @Squiggle and thank you.

I'm wanting to try DWC....hitching a ride

Welcome @Timhomegrow. DWC is the best! But don’t tell the organic soil growers I said that. Seriously it’s a lot of fun and easier than people would think.

 

[Timhomegrow]

Welcome @CO Finest. Glad to have you here mate.

Welcome @Squiggle and thank you.

Welcome @Timhomegrow. DWC is the best! But don’t tell the organic soil growers I said that. Seriously it’s a lot of fun and easier than people would think.

It allows one to be away from the grow for 5-7 days? Trying to plan for when Covid ends and life gets back to normal ha

 

[Rexer]

Hey @Lewydeville

1st, congrats on the sponsorship
Nice introduction! Count me in, I'll follow along best I can.

Am I skipping ahead by asking what your lining up nute wise?

 

[Lewydeville]

It allows one to be away from the grow for 5-7 days? Trying to plan for when Covid ends and life gets back to normal ha

5-7 days away from DWC can be done during veg quite easily, once your nutes and system are dialled in. During the later stages of flower I personally struggle to be away for more than 24 hours as the size of plant I grow are more than capable of drinking their bucket dry in this time. RDWC with a sizeable reservoir would allow longer periods away from the grow so maybe that might be an option?

 

[Lewydeville]

Hey @Lewydeville

1st, congrats on the sponsorship
Nice introduction! Count me in, I'll follow along best I can.

Am I skipping ahead by asking what your lining up nute wise?

Hey @Rexer, welcome buddy and thank you. I think it’s great how @Mars Hydro send their products out to be tested by real growers. Shows me they have a real confidence in what they’re selling.

Nute wise I’ll be using the Shogun Hydro range. I have been toying with the idea of trying something new but I’ve been using these nutes from the start and have complete confidence in them.

 

[Rexer]

Hey @Rexer, welcome buddy and thank you. I think it’s great how @Mars Hydro send their products out to be tested by real growers. Shows me they have a real confidence in what they’re selling.

Nute wise I’ll be using the Shogun Hydro range. I have been toying with the idea of trying something new but I’ve been using these nutes from the start and have complete confidence in them.

Awesome! Haven't even heard of that lineup for nutes- intrigues me that much more.
Mars makes good products indeed, I've been eyeing the FC6500 on a short list of possibilities for my next light.

 

[Mars Hydro]

 

[Lewydeville]

Awesome! Haven't even heard of that lineup for nutes- intrigues me that much more.
Mars makes good products indeed, I've been eyeing the FC6500 on a short list of possibilities for my next light.

That’s a really nice light. Definitely post some pictures here if you do decide on the FC6500, bet the coverage is great.

 

[Rexer]

That’s a really nice light. Definitely post some pictures here if you do decide on the FC6500, bet the coverage is great.

Thanks, I'll be doing another grow journal for sure with that light, or the HLG scorpion diablo, so far those are the main two I'm looking at (for a new 5x5 setup I'm putting together).

Can't wait to see and hear how the TSW2000 does!

 

[Lewydeville]

Hey 420 it’s time for an update. Exciting news as we now have some seedlings.

This time I’ve managed to germinate four of the five beans which is a decent result for me. We have a Lemon Candy, Big Tooth, Strawberry Eclair and the dodgy looking Cookies Kush seed did ok, in fact it was the first to break ground!! I’ll go into more detail about each strain as the grow progresses. It wasn’t long before I had four seedlings stretching for some decent light so I needed to get them a reservoir set up. While my plants are small I normally use a tote instead of the single buckets. Mine will hold up to six plants and It’s much easier checking on the one res. I can usually go two weeks before I need to think about separating them saving a ton of work. I also reinstalled some heating as the grow room has been getting a bit chilly some nights.

Into the tote went 30 litres of fresh water along with 40ml of grow nutes, 15ml of CalMag and 20ml of beneficial bacteria. After a good mix I then set the ph at 5.7 with ppm around 500. Next I moved the young seedlings into their own net pots and into the system. It was great to see some of them already pushing out some decent roots.

The seedlings have been in the system 24 hours now. I’ve taken a quick peep while the lights are off and already the plants look to be opening up instead of stretching so that’s a relief.

Hope everyone is enjoying your week and thanks for stopping by.