Rurumo's Mars Hydro FC6500 grow journal

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
I got pretty much same setup as u do. Im using those 2gal smarts too for veg. Im probably going to try that plastic anyway, i can lets u know if there is any difference.

How is the next round going, have u started mainlining already?
I'm sorry, I meant air pot-the plastic "nipple" pots like I have in this grow. I always mix up smart and air pots. I used smart pots up until my last grow, then switched to the air pots and haven't looked back. Now I've got 3.5 g, 2g, 1g, and liter air pots, I love them so much. I'm actually a bit behind for the next round-the power outages really messed up my schedule. I didn't want to start a bunch of expensive seeds while the power was so unreliable, but I'll get on that this weekend. I did a lot of seed trading with my RL friends and family and now I've got 4 strains from all American breeders I've never tried before that my friends all love, pretty much all stuff I would never try usually. Some of them are seeds my friends are pheno hunting, so if I find anything special, I'll give the cut to the others (and vice-versa)-it'll be something different for me and should be fun. Plus, then I can do sort of a comparison grow to my current one, the difference between $20+ dollar seeds to $10 seeds. I'm constantly telling these guys that price doesn't equal quality, so now I guess I'm putting my money where my mouth is, lol.
 

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
Humidity is severe around here regularly 90/100% with 75/80% for the year there's no dry spells.

I've also noticed that inside the canopy has a higher ambient rh, what I find odd in this is that bud rot hasn't ever started down there it's always been at the canopy level where it's always relatively drier and warmer.

Only based on my own observations rot appears to be more plant health related than the mean rh% figure, Ime rot is normally associated with a burnt cola.

I must have one the worst humidity level you can imagine but I've not seen rot in years?
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Humidity is severe around here regularly 90/100% with 75/80% for the year there's no dry spells.

I've also noticed that inside the canopy has a higher ambient rh, what I find odd in this is that bud rot hasn't ever started down there it's always been at the canopy level where it's always relatively drier and warmer.

Only based on my own observations rot appears to be more plant health related than the mean rh% figure, Ime rot is normally associated with a burnt cola.

I must have one the worst humidity level you can imagine but I've not seen rot in years?
I've only seen budrot a couple of times, both times in strains known to be prone to rot (some plants seem to get it a lot, others never do, I think genetics plays a huge part). I think air circulation matters more than RH does too. The last time I had rot it wasn't visible from the outside of the cola at all, it spread outward from the stem and just infected the core of a few colas on the plant. Honestly, I think 90% of people would have missed it and just happily smoked those buds. I just want to be extra careful since I'm growing a clone of the same plant that got that budrot last year.
 

tuksu6000

Well-Known Member
I'm sorry, I meant air pot-the plastic "nipple" pots like I have in this grow. I always mix up smart and air pots. I used smart pots up until my last grow, then switched to the air pots and haven't looked back. Now I've got 3.5 g, 2g, 1g, and liter air pots, I love them so much. I'm actually a bit behind for the next round-the power outages really messed up my schedule. I didn't want to start a bunch of expensive seeds while the power was so unreliable, but I'll get on that this weekend. I did a lot of seed trading with my RL friends and family and now I've got 4 strains from all American breeders I've never tried before that my friends all love, pretty much all stuff I would never try usually. Some of them are seeds my friends are pheno hunting, so if I find anything special, I'll give the cut to the others (and vice-versa)-it'll be something different for me and should be fun. Plus, then I can do sort of a comparison grow to my current one, the difference between $20+ dollar seeds to $10 seeds. I'm constantly telling these guys that price doesn't equal quality, so now I guess I'm putting my money where my mouth is, lol.
Ah yeah I was wondering how are u rolling those fabric pots :p Nice that sounds cool! Have u decide already which strains u run next? My next mainlining project is trying to escape from that 2x2 and i still gotta keep them there like 2 more weeks or so. IMG_20220212_114546.jpg
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Ah yeah I was wondering how are u rolling those fabric pots :p Nice that sounds cool! Have u decide already which strains u run next? My next mainlining project is trying to escape from that 2x2 and i still gotta keep them there like 2 more weeks or so. View attachment 5084158
I love it, you've got a nice jungle going on! Nice looking leaves too, doing really good with those.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Well folks, we are nearing the end....of this grow. I've noticed several signs of ripening, the buds taking on a different tint of color, more and more of them sagging every day, etc. They are just starting to get more of a general look of ripeness and end of life to them. So I busted out my scope and there is a fair bit of amber in all of them, I'm thinking I'll give them one more week and then reevaluate and will most likely chop. They could easily come down today though-they even smell ripe. My neighbor came to my door yesterday about something and he was like "man, I smell a skunk!" and I was like, yeah there is an infestation of those little suckers around here, I see fresh tracks in the snow every morning! It wasn't even a lie. I dropped the ball on getting my next crop going-for one, that solo cup challenge plant totally took over my 2x2 germ/clone tent, and those power outages really messed me up, but I have no excuses now-I'm going to get those started. I'm setting up a new 3x3 and will do a grow journal for it-my cousin who lives nearby is probably my last family member who isn't growing and we convinced him to get his medical card, so I decided just to set up the tent at his house. He's more than happy to let me run the show and just learn how to do things, and honestly I'm thrilled not to have to feed more plants, but still be able to grow what I want and look for good females.
I'll be growing 4 OG S1s from Cannaventure over there, 2 Irene and 2 LouisXIII, so that should be awesome! I've mostly grown landrace and classic older strains over the years and almost completely ignored the FOTM strains. I literally tried GSC for the first time last year-it was okay. Well, I trade seeds with my RL friends who grow each year in December, and they roped me into growing out a bunch of strains with them, the idea being, if any of us find an "elite" plant, we can just spread the cut around. I can't remember exactly which strains we are growing, but I have the seeds-they are all FOTM strains from like the past 5-10 years, there is even an Apples and Bananas cross in there, which I find hilarious. I mean, what a terrible name. Anyway, it's something different from what I usually do, and they are all super excited to be growing out the same plants from a competition standpoint, so that will be fun. After this, I'm going to focus more on growing out IBLs and landrace stock for breeding. I'd like to pick up a few more S1s from CSI, their Chemdog 91 and Triangle Kush for sure, and look for more good females. Later this year I will look for good males (and females, always) from the Afghan Selections Sholgar seeds I have, Greengenes Cherry Bomb, Tom Hill Pine Tar Kush, and the Heath Robinson Black Rose IBL seeds I just got. This will all stretch into next year, but the new 3x3 will help, and I'm also going to rope in some of my friends for doing this next grow with them. Next, I'll do my last quick update for this grow prior to chopping them down!
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
My biggest takeaway from this grow is that my tower fan is too powerful and has been drying out my tops/top leaves a bit too much, so I'm either going to try just aiming it more at an upward angle or I might drop it for smaller fans. It works incredibly well and it hasn't hurt my yields, but I don't like seeing those dried out leaves on top or, if you look at the OG in front on the right side, you can see some tacoing-it really has affected the plants against the far wall. I'd hate to stop using it altogether because I've never had such good circulation, but we'll see.
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Old Red Sour, really the star of the grow. The straight up sour smell has changed to sweet and sour as it ripened. I love when people cross classic old cuts to quality landrace genetics and this is a good example of that:

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Blue D #5:

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Petrol Skunk-I didn't get any good closeups before my light turned off this morning, but I'm going to take plenty of bud shots when I harvest so you can see how good this plant looks up close:

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Old 90s Widow:

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Thanks for following along with my grow guys! I'll do another update when I harvest and one when I trim. I'm also going to test out Grove bags to cure in this time, woo hoo! I'll start new journals soon, when I install my FC 6500, so keep an eye out. Have a great Sunday!
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
I'm planning to cut in the next couple of days, which will be week 13. I picked up 6 -1/2 lb grove bags to test out just for fun this time so I'm all ready to get harvesting/drying/trimming. I've got my next set of seeds germinating, so pretty much I'm just waiting for those to sprout before I chop, since I want to keep those seeds nice and toasty warm until they hatch, then I'll lower the ambient temp to dry my current crop. I've posted these pics before, but I wanted to show you guys the difference in the Petrol Skunk clone this time.
Last summer's Petrol Skunk-purp plant in front:
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Clone of same plant from current grow:

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Last grow I stuck with 8 colas, this grow I think there are around 20 (I need to double check that). My goal this time was to decrease the size of the colas to help prevent botrytis, which I think worked-we'll see for sure when I trim and can check inside the buds. I just find it interesting how different the same clone can look from grow to grow, depending on conditions. Last time, even the fan leaves turned purple, but they were exposed to extreme temperatures during the heat wave last summer. Once they are dry/trimmed, I'll post some up close bud shots from each grow to see how they compare-I'm very curious about final weight differences too.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
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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Rurumo

Well-Known Member
The Blue D #5 from Old School Genetics turned out incredible, just an amazing blueberry OG terpene bomb. I love OGs but they aren't big producers-this girl produced 3.5 oz of prime buds and 2.7 oz of larf for a total of 6.2 oz. It was a pretty plant with great bag appeal and it hits like an OG with a sharp pinesol nose and blueberry on the exhale, highly recommended for OG fans. I feel like this new light is improving my pics, but my hands are like the Crypt Keeper's, so I need a tripod or something.

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Rurumo

Well-Known Member
The Old Red Sour was the star at 10.5 oz of primo bud and 5.2 oz of larf, close to 1 LB! Just goes to show how much impact strain/individual plant has on yield. My last grow yielded 40 oz, I'm guessing I'll end up around 2 lb this cycle, due to the very runty white widow, and the OG, but man, this plant was a great yielder, and also had the biggest buds despite having the most # of primary bud sites at 30+. Great Sour Diesel dominant strain, with fruity notes on the diesel, very tasty. I'd highly recommend it and any of these other Old School Genetics strains except for the White Widow-which could have just been the seed I popped. You can't make generalizations based on single seed grows, but when you get great plants from 3 individual seeds, it tells you that these strains are definitely worth growing, and at just about $10 per seed. For my next grow in this 4x4 tent and under my new FC6500, I'll compare them to $20-$25 seeds just to see how big an impact price has on quality. (I mean, I already know the answer but it seems like a fun comparison) I'll put up pics of the White Widow tomorrow, but I'm not curing any of the bud, it's all just going into paper bags for hash next month. Here are some pics:
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Baccamsauce

Well-Known Member
Wow well done loved this grow its been great and I've learned a thing or 2 following along! Thanks for that :clap: n love the pictures that ring light really made them buds shine almost gotta put a xxx rating trigger warning on them lmfao .and what a nice yield to that will be some nice looking hash! :peace: :weed:
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Wow well done loved this grow its been great and I've learned a thing or 2 following along! Thanks for that :clap: n love the pictures that ring light really made them buds shine almost gotta put a xxx rating trigger warning on them lmfao .and what a nice yield to that will be some nice looking hash! :peace: :weed:
Thanks for the kind words Baccamsauce! I had a lot of fun with this grow, I'm glad you liked it.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Very nice. Thanks for the journal!
Thanks tuksu! I'll be doing a couple more, one in a 3x3 with an FC3000 and one in my 4x4 with an FC6500. I'm going to play around with # of bud sites again. Really packing in the bud sites like I did this time resulted in a lot more larf than I wanted, but hey, it's a good opportunity to honor the great Frenchy Cannoli and make some hash! I think I'll go with 8 tops each in the 3x3 and 12 each in the 4x4. My theme for the next 4x4 is "a tribute to the flavor of the month strains." Each of the 4 plants I'm growing has a FOTM cut for a parent, ranging from GSC to Apples and Bananas. Pretty much, I just want to compare good cheap genetics to the more $$$ genetics to show what home growers can expect from single seed grows with no pheno hunting. These are strains I'd normally never grow, but I'll have my 4 OG plants going in the 3x3 for guaranteed quality meds as a backup (and I'm looking for a quality OG mommy to breed the next cycle)! I'm going to keep working on my pics too and hopefully upgrade my phone or get a camera at some point. After this cycle, I'm going to focus on finding good males-I'll be growing out Sholgar from Afghan Selections, looking for a special funky Afghani, and also Cherry Bomb (Greengenes genetics from Swami) and AKBB's Deathstar. So many seeds, so little time and space. I was planning to write all this in my post later today with the Widow results, sorry for the novella! lol
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
Okay, I've got some quick pics of the Old 90's Widow and the final #s for this grow. To be fair, I haven't tested the widow yet. I wasn't really careful with the drying of this one since I figured I will just use it all for hash, but I did cut all the little tops off and set them aside. Totals for the Widow are 1.45 oz of buds, 2 oz even of larf. It doesn't look too bad once I took a closer look at the buds, I expect the hash will be great! When you grow out single seeds, sometimes you get the runt of the litter, but with 3/4 excellent plants, I'm really happy with this grow.

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