Rurumo's Mars Hydro FC6500 grow journal

Jeffislovinlife

Well-Known Member
That's an awesome light Jeff! Have you grown any plants under it yet? When I first switched to LED I was shocked at the growth I was seeing once I got the magnesium levels tuned in, especially during the stretch phase. You are going to LOVE the results you get with that light!
Not yet still waiting on the 4×4 new tent to put it in
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
First I have to say that i have really enjoyed following this thread. A lot of good info in here and Im definitely gonna check out the nsfsheeesh in a future grow.
I was recently given some left over maxi grow and maxi bloom by someone who finished up a grow. I just popped a Killer A5 Haze seed from Ace and it has sprouted as of this morning. I thought I might give the maxi series a try with this grow. I currently have a Panama from Ace in week 6 flower using Jacks and I am comfortable using Jacks but since the maxi was free.......Hey why not.
My question is have you used both the grow and bloom throughout a grow? Seems like I've seen a bunch of threads in these forums of folks using the bloom only for the entire grow. Also seems like I have read that the bloom doesn't have any micros in it? What are your thoughts about using the grow and bloom?
Hi Rotty, and thanks for checking out my grow! So, yes, some people do use the Maxibloom through the entire grow-I have done so in the past more than once. Honestly, it's weird that it works so well because it is missing most of the micronutrients, but I never got deficiencies when I did that. I like to use both grow and bloom now though-the grow just works so well for mother plants and clones, I would keep it around for those no matter what, so I figure, why not just use both parts during my grow. So the plants get plenty of micros during Veg, and then survive off that supply during Flower. You can also use Maxigrow all the way through the stretch phase, or even better, use 1/2 grow and 1/2 bloom during stretch. Then switch over to all bloom for the rest of the flowering phase. I also use epsom salts with both Maxigrow and Bloom. I use about 1 gram of epsom salts per 3 gallons of nutrient solution. I've also used .5 gram epsom per gallon of nutrient solution with good results. I just mix the epsom up right along with the Maxibloom and never have problems with precipitates forming. Then after I mix those, I adjust the PH with citric acid. My tap water is about 7.5 and 140 ppm, so it's somewhat alkaline. When I mix about 3 gallons of Maxibloom, I end up using about 1/4 teaspoon (even) to bring the PH down to around 6. Just to give any folks interested in Citric acid as a PH down an idea of how much to start with-it's very potent stuff! Let me know how you end up liking Maxi series and if you have any other questions on using it.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Not yet still waiting on the 4×4 new tent to put it in
Oh wow, you are going to have some fun with your next grow then! It takes some tinkering with distance and with the light % at first because the light is so powerful, but once you dial in those, you will see your plants take off like crazy. I'm excited for you, I love seeing people's reactions to their first LED grow with a powerful fixture. Can't wait to see some pics once you get the new 4x4 going.
 

Jeffislovinlife

Well-Known Member
Oh wow, you are going to have some fun with your next grow then! It takes some tinkering with distance and with the light % at first because the light is so powerful, but once you dial in those, you will see your plants take off like crazy. I'm excited for you, I love seeing people's reactions to their first LED grow with a powerful fixture. Can't wait to see some pics once you get the new 4x4 going.
I will have to admit I'm a little anxious about that my previous LED lights from Philzon aand a Hortibloom cob light witch I love that being said for my first time led I'll take my hat off to philzon love that purple light
 

RottyRzr

Well-Known Member
Hi Rotty, and thanks for checking out my grow! So, yes, some people do use the Maxibloom through the entire grow-I have done so in the past more than once. Honestly, it's weird that it works so well because it is missing most of the micronutrients, but I never got deficiencies when I did that. I like to use both grow and bloom now though-the grow just works so well for mother plants and clones, I would keep it around for those no matter what, so I figure, why not just use both parts during my grow. So the plants get plenty of micros during Veg, and then survive off that supply during Flower. You can also use Maxigrow all the way through the stretch phase, or even better, use 1/2 grow and 1/2 bloom during stretch. Then switch over to all bloom for the rest of the flowering phase. I also use epsom salts with both Maxigrow and Bloom. I use about 1 gram of epsom salts per 3 gallons of nutrient solution. I've also used .5 gram epsom per gallon of nutrient solution with good results. I just mix the epsom up right along with the Maxibloom and never have problems with precipitates forming. Then after I mix those, I adjust the PH with citric acid. My tap water is about 7.5 and 140 ppm, so it's somewhat alkaline. When I mix about 3 gallons of Maxibloom, I end up using about 1/4 teaspoon (even) to bring the PH down to around 6. Just to give any folks interested in Citric acid as a PH down an idea of how much to start with-it's very potent stuff! Let me know how you end up liking Maxi series and if you have any other questions on using it.
Do you remember what EC you ran? I assume lower than GH recommends.
Looks like your water is just the opposite of mine. I have well water that is acidic. It also has very little magnesium in it (2.07ppm) so I usually try to keep ph 6.0-6.1 to allow better mag uptake and always add extra epsom salt. I haven't had a mag issue since.
Thanks for the reply.
Oh. I just saw some NSFSHEEESH seeds on North Atlantics site. 3 seeds $60.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Do you remember what EC you ran? I assume lower than GH recommends.
Looks like your water is just the opposite of mine. I have well water that is acidic. It also has very little magnesium in it (2.07ppm) so I usually try to keep ph 6.0-6.1 to allow better mag uptake and always add extra epsom salt. I haven't had a mag issue since.
Thanks for the reply.
Oh. I just saw some NSFSHEEESH seeds on North Atlantics site. 3 seeds $60.
I usually run .8 pretty much from the start, then up to 1 EC towards the end of veg. I run pretty low EC #s and rarely even go up to 1.2, but I will if the plant likes it. That works well for two feeds per day, in coco DTW.

So, with the NSFSHEEESH, it is by far the best GSC type bud I've ever had, but it is definitely still a GSC. The terps aren't very strong on her, but the mental effects are so refreshing and potent, it really is a standout strain, and I look forward to crossing it with something that has potent terps. This plant would be legendary if it had really strong/good terps. I love it, and from here on out, I'll look at Solfire first when I want to try something new. I mostly like to grow the classic strains and landraces, but this plant made me realize there is actually some good stuff being grown by the new breeders. Solfire's new drop looks incredible.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Well, I've just finished testing all four of these strains, with the last one being the Apples and Bananas X Medellin (wedding cake X Chem D). I decided to try this strain because Chem D is a grandparent and those terps are often very dominant through the generations, and this did turn out to be the case. This bud is pure Chem all the way through. I don't think the Apples and Bananas cut is going to be improving anything over what you cross to it, I'm not overly impressed. The Chem was the star in this cross even as a grandparent. And I'd like to repeat how stupid the name "Medellin" is to this cross, since Columbia has nothing to do with it. It would have been a cool name for a Colombian Gold cross or something relevant like that. Anyway, this turned out to be excellent Chem smoke, with great pain relief qualities, but not overly sedative. Best Chem I've had is the Corey cut, but this is very good, almost, but not quite as good as the Sour D I grew last round. I would pick that Old Red Sour over this Apples and Bananas cross any time-it would have been better if it were just Chem D. Not to be overly harsh, because it is good stuff and I'm glad to always have a strain like this around for the pain relief qualities.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
I've seen this study before, but since I just came across it again and because it's a good one, I thought I'd share it with you guys. Only keep reading if you are interested in optimal potassium levels in your grow, otherwise this will be boring!!.... Here is the link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.764103/full

To begin with, I've had the feeling for a long time that we are overfeeding out plants with Potassium (K) in general....but then, "potassium deficiency" questions are pretty common, if you keep up with the new posts here. Of all the "deficiency" type questions, "cal/mag" is the most common, but I think potassium comes next in popularity. Well, it's just a feeling I've had for a long time. I think most of those potassium "deficiencies" are actually due to having too much potassium, or in some cases, too much calcium.

What got me thinking about this again the other day is because someone mentioned to me that they "read" that canna coco has about 100 ppm of potassium available by the time the flowering phase comes around. I heard something similar years ago, but I can't seem to find any official mention of it, but I'll send canna an email because I'm sure they have that data. Anyway, if that is true, then it means a lot of folks feeding a moderate to high EC of pretty much any 2 part nutrient system is right on the edge of K toxicity. In that scenario, all that excess K also reduces the amount of available calcium and magnesium-perhaps explaining a lot of the "calmag" deficiencies we see (and also the K "deficiencies").

This article found no increase in flower yield when the K ppm went from 60 to 340 ppm, also, if found no increase/decrease in cannabinoid content in that range, which surprises me because usually in cannabis as yield goes up, cannabinoid levels go down, also, as nutrient EC levels go up, cannabinoid levels also decrease. So, according to this study, feeding high ppms of K doesn't increase yield or THC, though it does potentially lock out cal/mag as the levels increase.

There is one other recent study that looked at optimal K levels- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01369/full

This study came to some of the same conclusions. First of all, optimal K supply is genotype specific, like everything with this plant. As growers, we need to experiment to find the optimal K supply to fit our specific cultivar. Next, it found 240 ppm to be the max concentration of K before overfeeding damage was noticed. If you use a nutrient calculator you'll see 240 ppm K is not uncommon....add into that 100 ppm extra K from coco (for those of us using that media) and even more people are probably overfeeding K with absolutely no benefit. It isn't just people who use "bloom boosters" who are overfeeding K.
 

Tvanmunhen

Well-Known Member
I've seen this study before, but since I just came across it again and because it's a good one, I thought I'd share it with you guys. Only keep reading if you are interested in optimal potassium levels in your grow, otherwise this will be boring!!.... Here is the link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.764103/full

To begin with, I've had the feeling for a long time that we are overfeeding out plants with Potassium (K) in general....but then, "potassium deficiency" questions are pretty common, if you keep up with the new posts here. Of all the "deficiency" type questions, "cal/mag" is the most common, but I think potassium comes next in popularity. Well, it's just a feeling I've had for a long time. I think most of those potassium "deficiencies" are actually due to having too much potassium, or in some cases, too much calcium.

What got me thinking about this again the other day is because someone mentioned to me that they "read" that canna coco has about 100 ppm of potassium available by the time the flowering phase comes around. I heard something similar years ago, but I can't seem to find any official mention of it, but I'll send canna an email because I'm sure they have that data. Anyway, if that is true, then it means a lot of folks feeding a moderate to high EC of pretty much any 2 part nutrient system is right on the edge of K toxicity. In that scenario, all that excess K also reduces the amount of available calcium and magnesium-perhaps explaining a lot of the "calmag" deficiencies we see (and also the K "deficiencies").

This article found no increase in flower yield when the K ppm went from 60 to 340 ppm, also, if found no increase/decrease in cannabinoid content in that range, which surprises me because usually in cannabis as yield goes up, cannabinoid levels go down, also, as nutrient EC levels go up, cannabinoid levels also decrease. So, according to this study, feeding high ppms of K doesn't increase yield or THC, though it does potentially lock out cal/mag as the levels increase.

There is one other recent study that looked at optimal K levels- https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01369/full

This study came to some of the same conclusions. First of all, optimal K supply is genotype specific, like everything with this plant. As growers, we need to experiment to find the optimal K supply to fit our specific cultivar. Next, it found 240 ppm to be the max concentration of K before overfeeding damage was noticed. If you use a nutrient calculator you'll see 240 ppm K is not uncommon....add into that 100 ppm extra K from coco (for those of us using that media) and even more people are probably overfeeding K with absolutely no benefit. It isn't just people who use "bloom boosters" who are overfeeding K.
I believe Bruce Bugbee claims 20-10-20 is optimal for cannabis.
 

blueberrymilkshake

Well-Known Member
I saw a thread recently that glossed over this


Thanks for the articles. Love me some boring science shit, that's my jam :-D
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
I saw a thread recently that glossed over this


Thanks for the articles. Love me some boring science shit, that's my jam :-D
That's all I hope for when I write something like that, is that it will touch one or two lovers of boring shit!
 
Top