Rurumo's Mars Hydro FC6500 grow journal

Grow total: 19.85 oz of prime bud, and 14.5 larf, for a total of 34.35 oz. The Old Red Sour really saved this grow yield wise, as well as being a beautiful plant and an excellent overall Sour Diesel x. I would highly recommend these three Old School Genetics strains the next time you order from Attitude or one of the other European banks, I really love the terps/effects of these strains. The ORS produces both yield and buds of good size despite having 30+ primary bud sites, so I can't generalize and say that is too many sites for a 4 plant grow in a 4x4, but looking at the results from my Petrol Skunk clone, it did reduce the % of prime bud from that specific plant. Like everything else with these plants, the type of topping you do, and the # of bud sites you plan for for each plant will have extremely genotype specific results. It's impossible to say whether a plant will produce more as an 8 cola plant than as a 30 cola plant without testing it out.

W

Rurumo said:

I've just finally finished trimming and have all the nice bud in Grove bags and the larf in paper grocery bags for making hash, probably next month when the weather is nicer-just because I don't want to be out hosing out buckets with snow on the ground. I decided to weigh out the Petrol Skunk first, since my last entry showed the difference between this clone when grown with 8 tops vs 24. During my last grow, I mainlined to 8 primary bud sites, and used Maxibloom-those were the main differences-same light, same EC, temps were slightly higher on average-that plant produced 8 oz total, one ounce of which was larf. This time, I grew it to 24 primary bud sites, used Jack's 321, and ended up with 4.5 oz prime buds, and 4.6 oz larf. So similar yield (slight increase), with a much higher % of larf with 24 tops. I'm really glad I tried this little experiment-I knew I'd end up with a lot more larf, but I thought I'd also end up with a higher overall yield-but a one ounce increase isn't worth all the extra larf. In my next two grows, I plan on growing to 8 primary bud sites in my new 3x3, and 12 sites each in my 4x4 to further dial it in. Here are a few pics of the Petrol Skunk from Old School Genetics, a great night time strain with earthy purp flavor and strong skunk notes. I'll post more results and pics for each strain-I have a terrible time taking pictures, but I've been playing around with my new LED ring light and it's freaking cool. Oh, and no botrytis this time! This strain is prone to botrytis as a critical mass cross.
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Wow. Looks like you rolled those buds in sugar. That’s very sticky looking. Scissor hash heaven. I love scissor hash. Nicely done!

Rurumo said:

Grow total: 19.85 oz of prime bud, and 14.5 larf, for a total of 34.35 oz. The Old Red Sour really saved this grow yield wise, as well as being a beautiful plant and an excellent overall Sour Diesel x. I would highly recommend these three Old School Genetics strains the next time you order from Attitude or one of the other European banks, I really love the terps/effects of these strains. The ORS produces both yield and buds of good size despite having 30+ primary bud sites, so I can't generalize and say that is too many sites for a 4 plant grow in a 4x4, but looking at the results from my Petrol Skunk clone, it did reduce the % of prime bud from that specific plant. Like everything else with these plants, the type of topping you do, and the # of bud sites you plan for for each plant will have extremely genotype specific results. It's impossible to say whether a plant will produce more as an 8 cola plant than as a 30 cola plant without testing it out.

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Well done Great job man respect it all looks great how did that widow end up tasting and smelling you sample any or you waiting ?

Dr.Amber Trichome said:

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Wow. Looks like you rolled those buds in sugar. That’s very sticky looking. Scissor hash heaven. I love scissor hash. Nicely done!

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Thanks a lot Amber!

conor c said:

Well done Great job man respect it all looks great how did that widow end up tasting and smelling you sample any or you waiting ?

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I did try it last nigh Conor, it's actually really potent. A strong Afghani hashplant stone. I think I'll run this plant again and just let it grow how it wants-some plants just don't react well to being topped that many times. It's very strong for a 90s widow, I can see why he made s1's of it.

Rurumo said:

I did try it last nigh Conor, it's actually really potent. A strong Afghani hashplant stone. I think I'll run this plant again and just let it grow how it wants-some plants just don't react well to being topped that many times. It's very strong for a 90s widow, I can see why he made s1's of it.

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I expected strong still good to hear it confirmed tho cheers

Congratulations on a fine grow! I'm pleased to see your conclusion re yield quality and numbers of tops. I like 4 to 6 max for myself for light penetration and weight bearing capacity. And less large! Thanks for documenting so well.

shnkrmn said:

Congratulations on a fine grow! I'm pleased to see your conclusion re yield quality and numbers of tops. I like 4 to 6 max for myself for light penetration and weight bearing capacity. And less large! Thanks for documenting so well.

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Thanks shnkrmn! I'm always trying to make little adjustments to improve my grow, all part of the fun.

Larf not large lol.

Well I've cleaned my 4x4 and set up the FC-6500 I won in the Thanksgiving contest, thanks again @MarsHydrofactory! One thing I like about the FC6500 right off the bat is that it's light enough for one person to set up without fear of damaging it or myself. Getting my Medic Grow Fold-8 taken down was rough, that thing is much heavier and more awkward to maneuver. The setup was simple and for now I've decided to leave the driver on top of fixture, rather than run it outside of the tent-BUT I love how easy it is to take off and set up outside, that's a new feature for me that I'll probably insist on for all future lights. It worked great from the moment I turned it on, so I set it at 50% and moved in my 4 plants for this grow after potting them up to 2 gal air pots. I've decided to try 2 gal pots this round over 3.5 since I'm planning on fewer primary bud sites this grow (and who doesn't like saving on nutrients and media).



For this grow, I decided to do something different and grow out a bunch of the same seeds as my IRL circle of grow buddies, who tend not to grow the same stuff that I like. Honestly, I'm excited to try some some stuff that I would never ordinarily buy myself, since we all traded seeds and coordinated our grows last December....plus if any of us find something special, we'll trade cuts, and now I have a couple of people willing to help me pheno hunt for good breeding material. My theme this round is "fotm crosses" so I ended up with 2 In House strains, Jelly Breath S1(Mendo Breath X Dosido), and FlapJacks (MacFlurry X Pancakes), Solfire "NSFSHEEESH" (GSC X Bahama Mama), and an Apples and Bananas cross from Starfire...or is it Firestar....I get these new breeder names mixed up. I thought it was one of the Compound crosses, but then later my friend "remembered" it wasn't LOL. I'll post the exact name of it once I find out. Anyway, I will be watching VERY carefully for herms, I'm looking at you Flapjacks, I've heard so many of the In House Pancake crosses are loaded with hermies.


I'm really happy with these plants so far, they are all good growers that responded well to topping. So far all I've done is top at the 5th node and keep either node 3/4 or 2/3 depending on node vigor and then train the branches straight out while they were in smaller pots. I just transplanted these yesterday and will resume training tonight. I'm planning on 8-12 nodes max per plant and will flip in 1-2 weeks.


This is the NSFSHEEESH, really excited about this one, she's a beaut!


This one is the A&B cross


Jelly Breath, got a bit of N tox due to my Spirulina experiments lol


FlapJacks

Been feeding Jacks 321 at .9 EC, also adding 1 ml Mr. Fulvic per gal, 1/2 t yucca extract (per 4 gal bucket), 1/2 t spirulina (per bucket), and once per week I'm feeding .3 ml Grow Genius silicic acid per bucket and also giving it as a foliar once per week. I'm dosing with Photosynthesis + once per week and rolled the root balls in Dynomyco at transplant:



I've been testing Spirulina out as a biostimulant (substitute for seaweed extract). All of my plants showed signs of N toxicity when I was feeding Spirulina at 1/4 t per gallon, which surprised me until I remembered reading that Spirulina is 60% amino acids...well, my soy amino acid supplement is 80% amino acids, so Spirulina comes very close to being a serious amino acid supplement (even though the aminos aren't hydrolyzed). I'm loving it as a substitute for seaweed and I think we're going to see a big industry push into microalgae supplements in the next few years.

Hmm, I always forget major details at the start of a new grow, so I'll just fill them in as the grow continues. I will be getting a PAR meter soon, so I'll post my results using the FC6500 at different heights, and compare those readings to my Lux meter and see how those conversions match up, just for fun. I'm also going to practice my photo skills this time around so I'm hoping for some pretty plants. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my new grow!

I wanted to get one update in right at 12/12 flip for comparison once stretch starts. I flipped these at 6 weeks, and topped just once-I'm going with less veg time and fewer bud sites than my last grow and I expect a much lower yield, which is fine. I defoliated around 10% of leaves before taking these pics, and I plan on thinning out any less optimal primary bud sites at the end of stretch. Right now they are just getting .9 EC once per day, but I'll begin fertigating twice per day as of tomorrow and will keep an eye on the leaves and increase to 1-1.2 as stretch occurs. I was thrown off a bit by the N tox some of these girls showed, but they've mostly grown out of it since I reduced the amount of spirulina I feed them-it's incredibly potent stuff and I wonder if the high iron content was contributing along with the high level of amino acids. Now they are looking pretty happy though!




Jelly Breath


Flapjacks


NSFSHEEESH....I love this plant in spite of the name, it has such cool massive dinosaur leaves and the stems are amazingly gnarly and tough, it's hard to supercrop because the stems don't "pop" they are just rock solid, so I'm having a hard time training it even.


I found out the cross, it's Apples and Bananas X Medellin. I looked up "Medellin" hoping for some cool story about Colombian origins but of course there is no such story, some dork just crossed Wedding Cake and Chemdog and was probably binging Narcos at the time. Anyway, I love that Chemdog is a grandma, maybe this plant will have potential!

Thanks for stopping by!

6 days since flip (flipped at 6 weeks), I went through and defoliated and supercropped a bit last night and removed some bud sites that weren't competing well for a final spot. The girls are all happy and growing fast. I'm still at just 1 EC and I'm ready to bump that up a bit but so far so good. Feeding twice daily. Loving the new Mars Hydro FC6500! I'm slowly increasing light % during stretch until I hit 80% at 2 ft distance, then I will adjust solely based on distance. Right now these are close to 30k lux but I'd like to get them to 45k in the next couple of weeks-I'm always overly cautious about increasing light.




Jelly Breath s1


Flapjacks aka "please don't hermie on me"


Apples and Bananas X Medellin-this is a lovely plant


NSFSHEEESH-very very cool plant with an interesting growth pattern and stems of iron, I think this plant supercropped my finger last night instead of the other way around\


One of the cool giant leaves from the NSFSHEEESH, I like it

That's all for today folks. This is my last run of polyhybrids before I dive back into landraces and old school genetics for breeding, and I'm having more fun with this group of plants than I thought I would. Thanks for stopping by!

Nice! Are u gonna use net/rings etc?

tuksu6000 said:

Nice! Are u gonna use net/rings etc?

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Nope! I've ditched all that stuff and just try to make strong stems by supercropping each branch regularly through veg (and flower if needed). I don't think my tent will be as crowded as last time since I'm focusing on about half as many primary bud sites as in my last grow, so I'll probably have to add a few bamboo stakes to prop them up in the final weeks.

Rurumo said:

Nope! I've ditched all that stuff and just try to make strong stems by supercropping each branch regularly through veg (and flower if needed). I don't think my tent will be as crowded as last time since I'm focusing on about half as many primary bud sites as in my last grow, so I'll probably have to add a few bamboo stakes to prop them up in the final weeks.

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I see. They look pretty strong already!
That one on the right corner is crazy

I've been reading about using foliar MKP (monopotassium phosphate) as a Powdery Mildew treatment/preventive and decided to try it. There are several studies on the topic: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261219498000775
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8539619/ plus a few more.

It seems like a great addition to an IPM program if used just prior to flower formation-so I mixed up a 1% solution, per the studies (1 gram MKP to 100 ml water). I also added a drop of Southern Ag GFF (because why not?) and a little yucca extract powder and sprayed a test branch first. The next day it looked fine-no burning, just a little white residue- I sprayed the entire garden. I know some of you are interested in IPM and I hadn't heard of using MKP as a fungal preventative agent before, plus I love the idea of giving the plants a little p/k boost just as they flower without altering my nutrient formula.

Yucca extract is also a powerful antifungal agent, so this is a 3 in one foliar! https://bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1365-3059.2011.02517.x

It is almost two weeks since 12/12 flip, all plants are starting to produce pistils and no sign of intersex traits, which was a big concern for a couple of these plants. They are all doing well and are happy plants! The white residue you see in a few of these pics is just the MKP from the last foliar I gave them. I've been supercropping these plants every other day to keep them compact and they've totally bushed out again after the defoliation I gave them-the boost in growth you sometimes see after defoliation is known as "overcompensation" and it's genotype specific, and it's interesting how some of these plants really responded well to the defoliation-like the Apples and Bananas and NSFSHEEESH, while it actually slowed/stunted the Jelly Breath. This is why it's good to take notes for the future! These plants are being fed 1.1 EC twice per day, 50% RH, 80 deg temps. My lux meter shows the canopy at between 38k and 40k lux, and the FC6500 is now at 80%, which I will leave it at. The light is outstanding! I've just let these plants grow into the light without adjusting it much, and they're now getting close to 45k lux which is where I'll maintain them for the flowering period.


Front right: Jelly Breath S1, Front left: Flapjacks, Back right: NSFSHEEESH, Back left: Apples and Bananas X Medellin


Jelly Breath


Flapjacks


NSFSHEEESH: love this plant, it's so cool


Apples and Bananas X Medellin-I like this plant a lot too, it has really cute leaves


I like to supercrop at least once between each node, as you can see in this pic-it makes the stem widen and become super strong so it doesn't need much if any support later.


This branch nearly snapped off, so I just tapped it up and left it, and now it hulked out of the tape.

Well, soon these ladies will start flowering and things will get interesting! Thanks for stopping by.

Hello everyone! The girls are doing excellent this week, everyone is showing proper flowers and the tent is pretty well filled out. One big difference I notice with the smaller 2 gallon pots I'm using this time is that I'm not getting the massive trunk size at the base-I think the trunk thickness might be proportional to root ball size. They've grown a LOT in the last two days, so I don't think stretch is quite over. Nutrients same as last week. I now have clones of all of them, including the Jelly Breath which took a few tries-she really didn't want to develop roots. As you know I'm a huge fan of salicylic acid and citric acid (i use it for a PH down) and use both in foliar sprays, as well as root drenches. Here is an interesting study that showed a foliar spray of both increased mineral absorption, stem thickness, and other growth parameters: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2014.00573/full. Citric acid is my favorite PH down-I think it has a lot to offer over phosphoric acid in terms of plant growth and not just economy. There is your research study for the day, on to the plants!






Jelly Breath-smallest plant in there by far, she's sitting on a booster seat


Jelly Breath


Flapjacks-The little flowers and surrounding leaves are dripping with resin already on this one!! Getting sticky early is always a good sign-my best plant in the last grow-Old Red Sour-was like this.


Flapjacks


The lovely Apples and Bananas X Medellin-just a beautiful plant all around


A&BXM


NSFSHEESH-still my favorite, but the A&B is a close second. This plant is a beast, really interesting leaves, strongest stems ever, and incredibly vigorous.


NSFSHEEESH

Well that's it for this week folks, happy to have flowers to take pics of! Now the fun starts....

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Rurumo what do you feed your plants to keep them so green?

I even added nitrogen with every feeding 3 weeks into flower and they still went yellow 5 weeks into flower.

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Spectacular grow as ususal!

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Hobbes said:

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Rurumo what do you feed your plants to keep them so green?

I even added nitrogen with every feeding 3 weeks into flower and they still went yellow 5 weeks into flower.

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Spectacular grow as ususal!

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Thanks Hobbes! It's funny, I'm not 100% sure why they are so green this time-I'm feeding them almost exactly the same as the last grow. The only additional thing I'm feeding them is Spirulina-about 1/2 teaspoon per 3 gallons. I realized quickly that the spirulina was a highly available source of N early on when I started getting N tox at low EC-when I reduced the amount of Spirulina, the N tox went away. Well, I did raise it back up for the past two weeks of stretch, thinking they could use the extra N at this time anyway. Spirulina also has a lot of Iron. It's much more powerful than I thought it would be when I started experimenting with using it instead of my usual kelp extract.