View attachment 6535 Hardware: 48x48 Tent 2 Mars II 400 watt LED 80 x 5 watt Lights (only have 1 full spectrum now, hopefully will have money for a flower spectrum to add next month, eventually I want to purchase 2 of each for the 48x48 Fabric Pots Software: Fox Farm Nutrients Tiger Bloom & Big Bloom, & solubles - Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, Cha-ching Media: Fox Farm Ocean forest cut with 10% Vermiculite, 20% Perlite layer of Groton on bottom of pots Music: (Day 17 of Veg): 2 AK 48 1 Northern Lights Just got the Mars 2 today was running 3 2011 Spectra 3watt/single chip lights before, but 2 of the panels blew rows of lights, the company is defunct, I thought it was some blown power supplies before but replaced power supply with a known good working one and had same issue, possibly burnt out due to an inadequate heat sink, the Mars 2 however has some heavy duty sinks clearly visible through the cooling vents and it's very well built in every other regard, very impressed with this light, it's visually much brighter than my older ones-you'll definitely need some eye shades with this, but not earplugs- also it's much quieter than my old lights. Looking forward to the results-very reasonably priced too! Let's see if the girls POP over the next week with the new light, took this picture 5 minutes after hanging the Mars though it seems on a whiter balance in person rather than the picture depiction...
I would leave the vermiculite out. That's just my opinion. Subbed. Looking forward to see what the Mars II 400 can do!! Thinking of getting the 900 myself. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
The plants definitely have perked up since I hung the Mars II in there yesterday. Now, I need to get my soil temps up just another notch to 70. View attachment 147179
Just adding some pics from today, Day 18 Veg... View attachment 147198 View attachment 147197 View attachment 147196
I think you'd be ok the lower the light a bit... I keep my 700 about a foot away...I think I got burns at about 8"-9"
Thanks for the advice, dropped it a bit, but leaving it high enough for good coverage Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Day 21 Photo update. Girls also got a feeding yesterday of Buffalo Loam Compost Tea with Fox Farm Big Bloom and molasses bubbled with air stone & fish tank bubbler for 24 hours (also added a touch of Open Sesame to begin preparing for bloom cycle in the next 2 weeks. I'm going to let them have 5 weeks in veg. View attachment 147392 View attachment 147391
Veg Day 25 Photo Update Girls have picked up the pace since the feeding and light lowering. Going to give them several more days before I top them, then a week until I start the 12/12 cycle with a 24 hour period of darkness. I'll be installing a grid into the tent after topping. Close up is the same AK48 as from Day 21, you can really see the progress. The Northern Lights is in the center between the 2 AK's View attachment 147563 View attachment 147564 View attachment 147565
Veg Day 28 Update I topped both of the AK's, giving the Northern lights (the middle plant) a couple more days till topping, still intend on giving them 5 weeks of veg. It's been awhile since I've had a garden, I just remembered I need to keep my grow room temps in the mid 80's a few days back, they responded right away, ran temps about 85 degrees in the tent View attachment 147653 View attachment 147654
Veg Day 31 Update The second Mars II 400 came in today, I hung it right away. Girls also got a feeding this morning. 2 tsp/gal Grow Big 1/2 tsp/gal Open Sesame 2 Tbsp/gal Big Bloom bubbled mixture overnight with air stone and fish tank bubbler View attachment 147707 View attachment 147708
Veg Day 32 Update Installed the grid in the tent, grid height is 20 inches, have the lights hanging 16 inches above the grid, moving to flower here in the next couple of days I'll lower the lights to 12 inches then. View attachment 147750
Bloom Day 3 Update... Well, I changed my mind and ended veg after 32 days on Saturday, at midnight. I kept the girls in dark for 36 hours until noon Monday when I started the 12/12 shift for them. Temps.. Soil just measured 69.2 degrees, ambient in the grow tent is 82.4 degrees, both just a touch too cold, bumping up the central heat a couple degrees so I"m sure they're in the optimum range for metabolism. FYI: Plants rate of metabolism;the speed of cell division/growth and processing of nutrients is influenced by the temps in their immediate environment. Soil temps should be maintained between 70-75F while you want to target 85-90F for your ambient temps, this is particularly important when growing under LED and you don't have the heat of a HPS lamp. Lights... 12" above grid, pics were shot with a 24mm wide angle lens so there's a perception of more distance. Watered yesterday with 74 degree RO water bubbled for a half hour or so. View attachment 147872 View attachment 147873
Bloom Day 6 Update... Girls got a feeding yesterday, I'm using reverse osmosis or RO water for short. 1/2 tsp Open Sesame/gal, 2 tsp Tiger Bloom/gal, and 2 Tbsp Big Bloom/Gal, I mixed these into the water and bubbled with air stone and fish tank bubbler for the better part of the afternoon. Last I threw in a dash of hydrogen peroxide 3%. Little problem I'm facing is the sides of the fabric pots are not being wetted and this concerns me because I don't think the outer most roots are well developed as they should be, the pots are still somewhat soft and mushy on the outside, not firmed up with a typical fabric pot root mass-that I've experienced before by this point in the grow. I think this has more to do with these new fabric pots I'm using being more stout, or in other words shorter and wider. The last grow I did was with some 3 gallon pots as well, those were the Smart Pot brand and they were taller & narrower so when I pour in liquids from the top they'd saturated out to the sides more evenly. So I figured I'd spray a light nutrient solution on the outside of the pots to help even this out. View attachment 147948 View attachment 147949 <div> View attachment 147950 View attachment 147951 View attachment 147952 </div>
Bloom Day 9 Update... Nothing new to report other than I flushed the girls yesterday with plain RO water, here's some pics so you can gauge their progress, enjoy. View attachment 148023 View attachment 148024 View attachment 148025 View attachment 148026
Looking good! Our plants are very close on days spent in flower, believe I'm at day 11 since flip. Vegged my mauis for about 5 weeks.. Cheers!
Bloom Day 12 Update Getting hairy. Fed yesterday, 1 tsp/gal Tiger Bloom, 2 tsp/gal Grow Big (for the nitrogen because they're going into stretch) 1/2 tsp gal Open Sesame-last dose of this, on to Beastie Bloomz next. ph'd water back to 6.5 and bubbled overnight, re-checked ph before watering. For those asking about the efficacy of the Mars 2, I think the picture below speaks to that, the northern lights plant underneath my old 3 watt led lamp has more blooms and favors the light coming from the Mars 2. Not paid to say this, nor was this grow sponsored, they are a good deal. View attachment 148131 View attachment 148132 View attachment 148133 View attachment 148134 View attachment 148135
Bloom Day 13 Update... Quick check in, when I opened the tent this morning at "sunrise" I was amazed at the amount of development in the last 24 hours. The girls are really just getting into stretching their legs...I think you'll agree, compare this against shot 5 from yesterday's update. View attachment 148188