Mikedin's 2022 FC-E8000 Run!

[Mikedin]

Hello all, just joined but have lurked for some time, current run is using a @Mars Hydro FC-E8000

Light’s side bars have been cut in half as to run a 8’x2’ light down one side of the tent to allow access to all plants equally down a walkway on one side, did a lot of lighting research and talked to a lot of people specifically for the ability to get the coverage I wanted, at 100% power at 20” I can achieve 1150 PPFD evenly under the lights (I’ll stay below 80% power as I do not have a sealed room or supplemental Co2 yet

Currently at 20” at 70% power, schedule 19/5 getting approx 650-700 PPFD to the canopy, brought it up to 75% but started getting some leaf curl after 24 hours, so backed it back to 70% and curl has flatted out mostly on all plants

Flower Tent is a AC Infinity 8x2 (I believe 7’ high) with a 6” @SpiderfarmerLED exhaust


Homemade veg tent is a 4x4.5x7’ high homemade tent with a 4” @SpiderfarmerLED exhaust with a single KingLED 1500w light (250 actual watts) my veg tent (and I’m damn proud of it ) that was a previous grow tent and worked great, hey who knew what a ton of black contractor bags, some 4x4’s and screws can make right )

Genetics are growers choice seeds (all autos)
Hindu Kush x2
Candy Kush x2
Gorilla glue x1
Master OG x1

Seedling mother starting is a Barney’s Farm Cookies Kush, as well as a few Cinderella 99 clones in the veg tent.(all photos)

5 gallon fabric pots
Medium: coast of Maine stonington blend
Coast of Maine kelp/lobster/oyster dry amendment blend
Happy frog jump start (dry)
Happy frog fruit and flower (dry)
Coast of Maine earthworm castings
Vermiculite
Perlite
Great white shark MYCO

Cannassour cover crop (50% clover)

Have been fed once with a tea, other than that dechlorinated tap water PH’d to 6.5-6.7 is all they are drinking so far

Any questions or anything I missed please let me know!

 

[Phytoplankton]

Welcome! Your plants are looking good! Very nice set-up you have!

 

[Mikedin]

Thank you! It’s my 2nd grow in at least 20 years and that was outdoor, my first grow went well but I know I could

Welcome! Your plants are looking good! Very nice set-up you have!

do wayyy more with better equipment I was running 2x kingLED1500’s side by side in a 4x4 section of the tent I have some pics


Yield was about 14 oz so I was happy for my first run same strains I’m running this run as well

 

[Mikedin]

Up close of a bud of candy kush

 

[Mikedin]

Got a few runts but they seem to be catching up a bit now, if not no biggie this is a filler run with autos as well as getting used to the new light, the photo run will be the main run

 

[Mikedin]

 

[Tokin Roll]

Very nice @Mikedin

They are coming alone happy and healthy.

 

[HashGirl]

to the community, Mike! Why is the top of your medium covered in clover (?)?

 

[Mikedin]

to the community, Mike! Why is the top of your medium covered in clover (?)?

Cover crop, when I top feed I’ll turn over the top inch of soil and let it break down, it also helps keep moisture in the soil so the microbes stay happy I don’t water extremely heavy, I water very slowly with a sprayer I modified to be more of a drizzle tip so I put a gallon of water in it, and use about 1/6th per plant and go down the line, then refill and do it again, I do that 3 times so each plant ends up with about 1/2 gallon of water, I’m running all organic dry amendments and adding in microbes also feed with neut/compost teas, don’t want all that goodness and microbes running out of the pots, about once a month I’ll water heavy enough to get a bit of runoff but my goal is to keep the soil moist but not soaked, you don’t want a dry period with living type soils or your microbes that you are feeding and adding in will die

My goal on each watering is to get all the soil evenly moist without runoff so I water a bit lighter than I would in my last grow with liquid neuts and 10% runoff with each watering to get rid of the salt buildup

And thank you for the welcome!

 

[Mikedin]

On top of that I plan to re-run this soil again, once these are finished I’ll re amend the soil and put it back in the bags so the neuts that take a long time to break down from the cover crop will be available for uptake later in the grows

 

[Mikedin]

Here is my old tent I was using just for seedlings etc and converted it into a mother “tent” lol

First pic was before, only had about 3.5’ of height
Now I have 80” of height in there it’s about 4’ wide and about 5’ long

I’ll be using this tent to keep mothers/ possibly flower autos while photos are running in the main tent, I’ve completed auto runs under those lights and they did quite well actually

 

[Phytoplankton]

Cover crop, when I top feed I’ll turn over the top inch of soil and let it break down, it also helps keep moisture in the soil so the microbes stay happy I don’t water extremely heavy, I water very slowly with a sprayer I modified to be more of a drizzle tip so I put a gallon of water in it, and use about 1/6th per plant and go down the line, then refill and do it again, I do that 3 times so each plant ends up with about 1/2 gallon of water, I’m running all organic dry amendments and adding in microbes also feed with neut/compost teas, don’t want all that goodness and microbes running out of the pots, about once a month I’ll water heavy enough to get a bit of runoff but my goal is to keep the soil moist but not soaked, you don’t want a dry period with living type soils or your microbes that you are feeding and adding in will die

My goal on each watering is to get all the soil evenly moist without runoff so I water a bit lighter than I would in my last grow with liquid neuts and 10% runoff with each watering to get rid of the salt buildup

And thank you for the welcome!

Clover, legumes, and several other plants have nitrogen fixing nodules on their roots. They can utilized N from the air to form compounds the roots can utilize. It’s commonly grown as a cover crop. It can be quite efficient in supplying N to the soil.

 

[Mikedin]

It’s my first time using cover crop but I’m also a no till permaculture vegetable grower nothing leaves my garden stalks stems roots all are left to decompose, no fertilizers, I only used water and compost (with supplied MSDS sheets to know the composition)

Also be careful, some companies are known to use human waste in their compost, that’s why I use a specific local company I can go and see the compost be made if I wanted those piles on the counter are every 3-4 days lol

We can a lot, did applesauce, peppers , spaghetti sauce, crushed tomatoes, peaches, homemade pickles froze tons of stuff like eggplant, celery, cherry tomatoes, zucchini.

I’m also a fan of making homemade pasta, bread etc I have 12 loaves of zucchini bread frozen right now haha, last pic is right when we planted it, that’s 15 cubic yards of compost, 50 bags of natural non-dyed wood chips for paths etc after this pic was taken

Garden is 65’x45’ next year we are adding another 20’ to the length and 5-6’ to the width

 

[Phytoplankton]

Great garden! I do a lot of canning too, pickles, garlic, blackberry Jam, and I'm just finishing up about a gallon of salsa, which I put in seal a meal bags and freeze.

 

[Mikedin]

Great garden! I do a lot of canning too, pickles, garlic, blackberry Jam, and I'm just finishing up about a gallon of salsa, which I put in seal a meal bags and freeze.

I just did 10 quarts of salsa last week lol, gunna have some green tomato salsa coming soon, tomatoes are slowing down turning but plants are buried in them. When I do the green tomato salsa is when I make it spicy, that’s when the habaneros get out to use haha. Filled a deep freezer as well as 2x full size fridge freezers with veggies as well on top of the canning

Just planted 4x blueberries and 4x raspberries this year so they’ll ale some time along with the fruit trees 2x honeycrisp apple 2x dwarf red haven peach, 2 non dwarf red haven peach, 2x dwarf nectarine and 2x cocktail fruit trees (5 kinds of fruit in the same tree), it’ll be 4-5 years before I get fruit but well worth it

 

[Phytoplankton]

I pick my blackberries in the “wild”, I grow Fresno, jalapeño and serrano peppers for the salsa. Also pickle asparagus, I have a big patch of that. Very strange year for tomato’s, planted in mid-may, didn’t get a ripe tomato until Labor Day, then it seems like everything is coming in at the same time. I already have enough Roma tomatoes for another batch of salsa. All my excess veggies go on a stand in front of the house, free for whoever wants/needs it. Lately, I’ve been putting about 20 a day out, and they’re gone in morning. Keeps the neighbors happy!

 

[Mikedin]

I pick my blackberries in the “wild”, I grow Fresno, jalapeño and serrano peppers for the salsa. Also pickle asparagus, I have a big patch of that. Very strange year for tomato’s, planted in mid-may, didn’t get a ripe tomato until Labor Day, then it seems like everything is coming in at the same time. I already have enough Roma tomatoes for another batch of salsa. All my excess veggies go on a stand in front of the house, free for whoever wants/needs it. Lately, I’ve been putting about 20 a day out, and they’re gone in morning. Keeps the neighbors happy!

Lol nice, I’m a manager at a plant I bring in full shopping bags of stuff people jump in like rabid dogs for it haha. I did hear a LOT of people who grew GMO genetics had reduced sized vegetables this year small peppers, tomatoes etc plant size was the same as usual but the actual veggies themselves where much smaller, I did see some peoples gardens that represented that , I grabbed everything heirloom that I could Also picked up tons of seeds so I can start them in a grow tent for next summer

Lemme see if I can remember everything in the garden lol

habaneros
jalapeños
hot Hungarian wax pepper
hot cherry peppers (for stuffing only lol my wife and myself love them
Bell peppers
Sweet banana peppers

Romas
Big boys
Beefsteak
Cherry tomatoes (all frozen whole)

Zucchini
Eggplant

Celery
4 kinds of lettuce staggered planting 20 days apart
4 kinds of radishes staggered planting 20 days apart
Green beans
4 kinds of cucumber
Onions

Watermelon
Cantaloupe

Thai ya that did horrible,
Carrots, and potatoes l, I didn’t have time to amend the soil enough it was just too compact for root veggies, I’ll get some peat and perlite in there next year before planting

I know I’m missing at least 2 things I can’t remember lol, I was picking wild raspberries all summer down at the river by my house the grow everywhere down there

 

[Mikedin]

Figured I’d throw another update, I’d love to update every day, may just we’ll start doing it

They are all just over a month old 2 are staring preflower but they all seem to love this FC-E8000 so far, they are still getting around 650-700ppfd at about 22” and 70-75% power I think I’m gunna leave it right there for awhile they seem to like it right where it’s at, tons of new tops popping up everywhere

Gotta give them a top feed today or tomorrow, just watered them 2 days ago they probably still have another day or 2 before they’ll be ready for watering

 

[Mikedin]

Figured since I’m gunna water when I top dress, why not make up some tea to water it in with, it’s been about 2 weeks since their last tea

4 tbs happy frog fruit and flower
2 tbs happy frog jump start
3 tbs coast of Maine kelp /lobster/oyster blend
6 tbs earthworm castings (coast of Maine)
1/2 tbs great white shark myco

Just a light tea for some NPK


I’ll let that aerate till tomorrow and then do some top dressing, pots are starting to feel light, but still have a bit of moisture in there so they’ll make it to tomorrow

Also the Barney’s farm cookies kush is doing well, roots coming out the slots I cut in the bottom of the solo cup, still only about 2.5” tall but starting to get moving!

When she’s ready she (probably at least 3-4 days before leaves reach the edges of the cup) will up pot to a 1 gallon pot with my strawberry fields blend

 

[Mikedin]

Figured it’d take awhile to work the cover crop in. I was right haha, but that’s ok I did 3 of them so far took about 30 minutes, I have the plants tied down pretty low so I had to work my hands in carefully so I didn’t break any branches. Some of These girls are putting out a ton of tops, just making sure I get everything pulled in the right direction. It’s a shitty day out so perfect day for this. Opened up the tent while I was workin in it and got a few full tent pics, it’s a work in progress still haha, gotta give the floor a good wipe down when I’m done today I’ll tell ya the 2nd smaller plant is putting out some HUGE leaves for such a small plant.

Had the inspector stop by too