Mars Hydro Grow Journal SP 3000: Blue Kush, RDWC, ScrOG

Always look forward to seeing your updates, lovely to see the photos and development - journal pro GG! Perfect Sunday morning coffee reading:passitleft::high-five:
Ah thanks Nugz! Comments like that make it all worth while :love: I'm glad you enjoy :high-five:
 
Hey guys, thanks for stopping by :thanks:

I will be flipping my 4 Blue Kush ladies to flowering in the next couple of days. I thought it would be a great opportunity to show how I grow in RDWC using Mars Hydro SP 3000 LED lights. This run will be in Coco in RDWC.

I really like Mars Hydro products. I bought my first Mars LED light back in 2013, and haven't used any other light since. They're reliable and my plants love them!

Here they are, the stars of the show


I expect to see some roots like these coming from these 4 ladies very soon - watch this space.

1611342469880.png


What strain is it?
Dinafem Blue Kush
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
45% Indica, 55% Sativa
Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Just about to flip
If in Veg... For how long?
18-21 days
If in Flower stage... For how long?
Expect to flower for ~9 weeks
Indoor or outdoor?
Indoor
Light schedule?
Veg : 18/6
Bloom : 13.5/10.5
If indoor...Dimensions (L x D x H) of grow space?
Veg Space : 120cm x 60cm x 160cm
Flowering Space : 120cm x 120cm x 200cm
Soil or Hydro?
Hydro - RDWC
Size of light?
1 x Mars Reflector (For Veg)
2 x Mars SP 3000
Temp of Room?
75f
RH of Room?
25-40%
PH of media or res?
5.8-6.0
How often are you watering?
Coco is watered small amounts multiple times per day. Coco will always be at least barely moist.
RDWC Systems will be topped up as necessary.
Water quality?
I collect rain water. Rain water is 0 EC.
When i run low I dilute tap water with rain water to start at 0.3ec.
Tap water is a last resort for me. My starting tap water EC is 0.6. Tap water and LED lighting don't go well together in my experience without having good control over room temp and RH.
What Fertilisers do you use?
These are all of the nutrients i use throughout the entire lifecycle. Obviously I don't use them all at the same time :)
Base
Coco: Buddhas Tree Coco A + B
RDWC : Canna Aqua Vega/Flores

Boosts
Buddhas Tree Flower Burst (Early bloom)
Buddhas Tree PK 918 (Mid bloom)
Buddhas Tree Metaboost (Mid bloom)
Atami Bloombastic (Late bloom)

Supplements
Buddhas Tree Solar Green Power (Silica)
TA Calcium Magnesium (1-0-0)
TA Fulvic (First week of bloom)
Botanicare CalMap Plus (2-0-0)
Botanicare Sweet RAW
Canna Cannazyme
H&G Drip Clean
Advanced Nutrient Carboload
TA Flashkleen (For flush)

Beneficials
Plant Success Great White
Botanicare Hydroguard
H&G Root Excelurator Silver

How strong will nutrient feeds be?
RDWC EC will start at ~0.9ec, may get as high as ~1.2ec during peak flowering, and will drop off to ~0.8ec, before the 5-7 day final flush.


I look forward to sharing what I've learned about growing and flowering beautiful plants under Mars LED lighting.

:peace:
I’m lucky to have well water so I don’t have to worry about contaminates. But in the last place I lived I was just dechlorinating the water by letting it sit for 24 hours in a 5 gallon brewing bucket.
 
I’m lucky to have well water so I don’t have to worry about contaminates. But in the last place I lived I was just dechlorinating the water by letting it sit for 24 hours in a 5 gallon brewing bucket.
Hey @Jmaninthemiddle420 thanks for stopping by :peace:

if I ever do have to use tap water I also dechlorinate using a water conditioner (ecothrive neutralise). Chlorine will leave the water after 24hrs but Chloramine won’t apparently. Chloramine is present in my tap water.

The main issue for me is the high EC when growing with LED, and tap water eats into quite a bit of my EC budget. It just seems to be a bad combination for me. I get much better results and fewer problems using rain water. I’ve been debating an RO system though.
 
Hey @Jmaninthemiddle420 thanks for stopping by :peace:

if I ever do have to use tap water I also dechlorinate using a water conditioner (ecothrive neutralise). Chlorine will leave the water after 24hrs but Chloramine won’t apparently. Chloramine is present in my tap water.

The main issue for me is the high EC when growing with LED, and tap water eats into quite a bit of my EC budget. It just seems to be a bad combination for me. I get much better results and fewer problems using rain water. I’ve been debating an RO system though.
Love your girls G.G. :green_heart:
 

Undercurrent RDWC Setup​


I'll put together a proper post at a later date about:

- Which parts I use
- How i make sure it's leak proof
- How i put it all together
- How i maintain it

It will be easier to do this with a system in front of me. So in a few weeks, when a system frees up, i'll put together a more comprehensive post.

I'm designing a new one at the moment, but will create a separate post about that too. The only really change is the size of the tank connectors on some of the buckets. It's still an undercurrent system, the principle is the same.

:peace:
 

Day 13 Flower continued...​

The readings this evening:

EC : 0.8
PPM : 380
PH : 5.8

PH has drifted back up a point by itself. EC is stable. Water level is dropping at a steady rate.:thumb:

If it stays like this, I'm going to leave them as they. I'll top up the system tomorrow.
 
Great minds @Northern Hydro :) haha

Awesome dab press you have there too. Looks like it means business!
Can’t recommend anything but dab press if you are not mechanically inclined to make your own. :nomo:

I’m a plug and play girl ... it suits my needs :ganjamon::snowboating:
Love your garden
 

Day 12 Flower​

RH is still very low today. Will keep the Humidifier on all day to try and keep it at 30% minimum.

The readings this morning are:

EC : 0.8
PH : 5.6

I'm actually quite relieved. I thought I was going to be doing the "PH Down Dance" all this week, but that might not be the case. I would have expected it to take a bigger plunge if we had a bigger problem.

Bumped it up to 5.8 and will keep an eye on it. I don't want to top up the system again as the water level isn't quite low enough yet. There will be a nice air gap between net pot and water as it stands, so i'll let it drop a little, and top up with weak nutrient solution later.

Here they are this morning. You can see the flowers now. You can also tell they have sativa in their genetics, look at the stretch on them (except for the runt front right).


Some of those branches are so stretchy, If they keep stretching I'm going to have to rearrange the screen a bit. But hopefully they're letting up now.

And here are some close ups. You'll notice some minor tip burn. This could be due to the nutrient solution strength being too strong, or the low RH recently. I'll be keeping a close eye on this either way.



Looking at your trimming....how are you choosing which bud sites along each stem to keep? I'm never sure how far up each branch to go and which sites to keep and which to snip.
 
I have the light at 75%. I was hoping that the roots would have come through by now and I don't want the ladies to grow too much before the flip. This is a handy feature of the SP 3000 light. As soon as i flip it will go to 100% and won't come down until the week before flush (potentially).

Maybe if you put em at the top of the tent. Don’t do all that work then fry your plants during transition to flower... I think you should take it slow or gradually adjust it... I will be watching. Nice setup bro bro!
 
Maybe if you put em at the top of the tent. Don’t do all that work then fry your plants during transition to flower... I think you should take it slow or gradually adjust it... I will be watching. Nice setup bro bro!
Welcome @Enjoil :thumb: and thanks. Appreciate you coming along
 
Looking at your trimming....how are you choosing which bud sites along each stem to keep? I'm never sure how far up each branch to go and which sites to keep and which to snip.
I haven't actually done any trimming yet. I did a very light defoliation pre-flip but just lower growth.

I'll be doing a defoliation at Day 21-25.
I will be removing any growth at the bottom that isn't going to get direct light.
I will be removing excess fan leaves for the sake of improved air circulation.
I will reluctantly remove fan leave blocking well established bud sites.

Last time i did this strain (which is still flowering actually - Day 43), I vegged for too long, it looked like this 10 days into flowering:


This was an absolute nightmare to defoliate. Especially being in a screen. I massively underestimated the prominence of the sativa in this strain.

This time, I deliberately flipped them as early as possible to avoid the same fate. I also put the screen on low to really make the most of the stretch, and keep defoliation to a minimum.

I'm still experimenting with this strain.

:peace:
 
Can’t recommend anything but dab press if you are not mechanically inclined to make your own. :nomo:

I’m a plug and play girl ... it suits my needs :ganjamon::snowboating:
Love your garden
Thanks a lot :high-five:

I love yours too. You have some really beautiful plants in there. I see you DWC too :love:

And you have the fancy BlueLab Guardians :slide:
 
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