WELCOME TO THE KRIP KEEPERS FROST FEST SPONSORED BY MARS HYDRO!
Welcome everyone to what should be a pretty exciting journal!
Of the plants I've been able to flower since getting my grow back up a little over a year ago, I've kept the four best strains (the "Krip Keepers"
), three of which are some of the frostiest strains I've ever seen. 
These are IHG's Dolato, Platinum Kush Breath, and Platinum Cake along with Cali Connection's Blackwater.
Well, for this grow, we're gonna flower out all the mothers and we have some new gear to do it with!
Back in 2016, I tried one of the Mars Reflector 144's for a 2' x 4' tent I was using and was so pleased with the light that, when I upgraded to a 4' x 4', I just added another Reflector 144. It worked out perfectly and gave some fantastic results. I've always said that I'm sure there are better LED's available, but the price/performance on the Mars lights is hard to beat.
So, when @SmokeSara asked me if I'd be interested in reviewing their new SP-250, I jumped at the opportunity (although, perhaps too early sorry @420!
).
In order to demo the LED's in their best possible "light" (yeah, pun was intended there!
), Sara also wanted to send a new 4' x 4' Mars Grow Tent since she believes the plants will receive greater PPFD in the Mars tent and Mars advertises 50+% more PAR (though, they really mean "PPFD" 
).
I actually like my existing 4' x 4', which is practically new having only been through a few grows, and it was going to be some work to disassemble and set everything back up; but if Sara says I get more PPFD, I'll give it a shot!
(NOTE: Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) is a measurement of how much light that's actually usable for photosynthesis is reaching the plants.
)
So, this past weekend, this arrived:
I assembled the tent alone and in just 10 minutes (no directions, but I have done this before! ) , it looked like this:
After about another 15-20 minutes of me wrestling with the outer "skin" (anyone who's assembled any large grow tent knows exactly what I'm referring to! ) plus another 20 minutes of setting up the electric, ventilation & lights, we had this:
Easy-peasy on the assembly and, wow, it sure is bright in there!
The tent is 48" x 48" x 80" with zippered front and (smaller) side doors on both the right and left sides of the tent:
Each side and the back have passive intake vents covered with velcro on the outside to allow adjustment of the airflow:
There are two 3" electrical ports on the back-left side (one higher, one lower):
And, there's a total of six 8" duct ports including two located in the top of the tent and two (one higher, one lower) on each side:
There's also a velcro-covered view port in the front so you can peek in the tent without having to unzip it:
The viewing window does have some mesh screening embedded in the plastic, but it still allows for a good view and decent pic. These two were taken through the view port:
It also comes with a mesh bag that clips on the inside of the tent. I keep the thermometer there so can check temps by looking through the front view port:
And, perhaps the only thing I really don't like about the tent, so far (it's still early so I may decide I like this later, and/or may find more things I don't like!
), is that, instead of a velcro strap that allows you to velcro the door open to the outside of the tent, this just has a non-velcro strap that you tie to another strap on the outside:
Not sure why they didn't use velcro since it would save the work of tying & untying knots every time one needs the door held open.
I'll discuss the lights and plants in more detail in upcoming posts, since this one is getting kinda long, but here are a few shots of one of the lights:
And, here are the five plants we'll be flowering out (there are two Dolatos on the right but only one pictured and the last pic is the Blackwater):
They've been kept as Bonsais and, right now, they're transitioning to @Doc Bud's High Brix Soil. With these nice, mature moms, veg time should be fairly short and we'll be able to flip and start having some real fun soon!
Happy Harvests!
K
Welcome everyone to what should be a pretty exciting journal!
Of the plants I've been able to flower since getting my grow back up a little over a year ago, I've kept the four best strains (the "Krip Keepers"
), three of which are some of the frostiest strains I've ever seen. These are IHG's Dolato, Platinum Kush Breath, and Platinum Cake along with Cali Connection's Blackwater.Well, for this grow, we're gonna flower out all the mothers and we have some new gear to do it with!
Back in 2016, I tried one of the Mars Reflector 144's for a 2' x 4' tent I was using and was so pleased with the light that, when I upgraded to a 4' x 4', I just added another Reflector 144. It worked out perfectly and gave some fantastic results. I've always said that I'm sure there are better LED's available, but the price/performance on the Mars lights is hard to beat.
So, when @SmokeSara asked me if I'd be interested in reviewing their new SP-250, I jumped at the opportunity (although, perhaps too early sorry @420!
).In order to demo the LED's in their best possible "light" (yeah, pun was intended there!
), Sara also wanted to send a new 4' x 4' Mars Grow Tent since she believes the plants will receive greater PPFD in the Mars tent and Mars advertises 50+% more PAR (though, they really mean "PPFD" ).I actually like my existing 4' x 4', which is practically new having only been through a few grows, and it was going to be some work to disassemble and set everything back up; but if Sara says I get more PPFD, I'll give it a shot!
(NOTE: Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) is a measurement of how much light that's actually usable for photosynthesis is reaching the plants.
)So, this past weekend, this arrived:
I assembled the tent alone and in just 10 minutes (no directions, but I have done this before!
) , it looked like this:After about another 15-20 minutes of me wrestling with the outer "skin" (anyone who's assembled any large grow tent knows exactly what I'm referring to!
) plus another 20 minutes of setting up the electric, ventilation & lights, we had this:Easy-peasy on the assembly and, wow, it sure is bright in there!
The tent is 48" x 48" x 80" with zippered front and (smaller) side doors on both the right and left sides of the tent:
Each side and the back have passive intake vents covered with velcro on the outside to allow adjustment of the airflow:
There are two 3" electrical ports on the back-left side (one higher, one lower):
And, there's a total of six 8" duct ports including two located in the top of the tent and two (one higher, one lower) on each side:
There's also a velcro-covered view port in the front so you can peek in the tent without having to unzip it:
The viewing window does have some mesh screening embedded in the plastic, but it still allows for a good view and decent pic. These two were taken through the view port:
It also comes with a mesh bag that clips on the inside of the tent. I keep the thermometer there so can check temps by looking through the front view port:
And, perhaps the only thing I really don't like about the tent, so far (it's still early so I may decide I like this later, and/or may find more things I don't like!
), is that, instead of a velcro strap that allows you to velcro the door open to the outside of the tent, this just has a non-velcro strap that you tie to another strap on the outside:Not sure why they didn't use velcro since it would save the work of tying & untying knots every time one needs the door held open.
I'll discuss the lights and plants in more detail in upcoming posts, since this one is getting kinda long, but here are a few shots of one of the lights:
And, here are the five plants we'll be flowering out (there are two Dolatos on the right but only one pictured and the last pic is the Blackwater):
They've been kept as Bonsais and, right now, they're transitioning to @Doc Bud's High Brix Soil. With these nice, mature moms, veg time should be fairly short and we'll be able to flip and start having some real fun soon!
Happy Harvests!
K
Love the setup and you do take great pictures with attention to detail.
, but that just shows how new to thus game i am. 
...
