welcome to the 1st run out of my newest kid on the block The Mars SP3000 (full spec and info here
Game Changer - Mars Hydro SP 3000 ).
I have been fortunate to have this opportunity to test the light against the well established Mars Sp250 in a comparison grow for Mars. I have donen2 grows with the sp250 and love it . I originally bought 2 Mars TSL 2000's and added the sp250 to increase the canooy size to match my tight space even better. The 1st run out with all 3 lights running, smashed my career best by a whopping 10 ounces !!!!!!. I was stoked and cannot believe that this set up has produced BETTER buds and way more terpenes than my previous HPS, 1200w ,cool tube set up. I ran with HPS for decades and after much deliberation and many conversations with
@SmokeSara on the mars forums I switched to the Led side. I have not looked back since and am now learning to use the lights better with each run.
Now that the sp250 is being replaced with the sp3000 , I can try the three lights together in a controlled comparison grow.
I am excited to try the newer tech and spectrum too.
I want to begin with a few invites to the grow as promised and a few familiar friends
@SmokeSara @DonkeyDick @Preston9mm @TraLa @BudShark @ProfessorFlora @MrSauga @Pennywise @McRib @Finesse69 @Jack420 @One Of These Days @Camelion @BubbleBucketz @The Celt @MasterTarzan @Virgin Ground @Heavenly Hybrid @Emilya @InTheShed @farside05 @N420 @carcass @Peter Green . No pressure at all to follow along but wanted to at least offer a welcome and invite to this one.
I hope you are all well and sane in these difficult times and that your grows are prospering. Peace and blessings growmies.
Now on with some info.
LIGHTING: 1x Mars sp3000 , 1 x Mars sp250 and 1x Mars Tsl2000. Total draw at socket:850w.
MEDIUM: I will be doing an open and honest grow with no bells and whistles using 2 x 40L NFT trays and 6 x 20L living organic soil pots .
FEED: The feed line is Megacrop/Calmag/silicon for the NFT and plain water with occasional top dressing with appropriate ecothrive amendments like charge , biosys tea and life cycle to boost them, for the LOS pots. I have also ordered some new coco cubes to replace the 1st pots after germination. They are made from coco and contained in a sack to keep it together while they root and eventually start air pruning until up potting. Will be interesting to see how they help with the process for the soil girls.
STRAINS: Having been fortunate to be given some seeds by sweet seeds I chose
3x Red Hot Cookies ,
3x Sweet Amnesia Haze ,
3x Sweet Afghani Delicious(fast version).
I have also decided to run 2x Original Sensible Seeds ,White Critical. ( 2 failed to germinate last run!)
1x Blue Gelato41 X from my stock that is from the mixed up crosses bag. I have no idea what will come up from it but it should be interesting!!!.
This brings me to 12 plants in my 6ft x 6ft space.
THE PLAN: So here's the basic plan. I will be putting 3 of each strain of the sweet seeds under a light each to compare them, 1 sp series light will cover each Nft tank and the TSL 2000 will be covering the middle of the room with 6 20L pots of los. The 3 remaining pots will contain the white critical and my own Cross. My thinking is that each sp will cover their sides very well and still have a fair overlap to share with the tsl in the middle covering 6 under the tsl2000. I have pushed the space to a further 1ft too as I feel they will easily cover it now. The sp250 has a good spread and why I used it in the middle previously so it will be good to see how this new set up works this way round. I am hoping for around 6 weeks from seed germination in veg and average is 8-9 weeks flowering time on the strains. I intend to show if their is a difference between the sp250 and the new replacement for it the sp3000 with its new chips and spectrum. I expect great things from this light. The 6 under the tsl should be productive too if i keep the foliage to a descent amount. Their space is a little wider now to make use of all that overlapped full spectrum goodness.
I will be going with quadlines again as I do love this method for my space but I want to rely the InTheShed method of keeping the 5th node and holding it down. I will also be taking a lesson in defoliation from the master, Preston9mm when I get the chance.
WHERE ARE WE NOW: I am going with the water bath then straight to cube method for germination as I hate handling the seeds if I don't have to. I put all 3 of the new seed strains into cups and decided on the Original white critical and my own gelato X so put those 3 in their own pots of water. While they were bathing in the airing cupboard overnight . I soaked my rooting plugs in boiled tap water for a couple of hours as they had been stored a while. I have use them a lot now and find that if I tip them upside down and use a pencil to drill a decent hole for the seed , i get a better , stress free , ground breaking this way. The plugs can catch on seed husk sometimes and ruin the whole process if not watched.
I checked the seeds at 7 hours and most had sunk their were a few still floating so I pushed them down a little . All but one amnesia haze stayed down and even after another 4 hours the little sod was still swimming. I dropped the 4th seed i had of it for security and then cracked the floater against the side of the cup gently. She sank after about 10 mins. I have now planted all of them into their cubes after they began showing their tap roots a little. I didnt want to wait too long and risk damaging them as they grow out. They are all nicely settled now on a warm propagator until tomorrow when I will be putting them under the new sp3000 on 25% setting until they begin to grow out..
So here we are folks , a new grow and some exciting stuff awaits . I hope you will all pop in from time to time and say hi as we grow and I welcome any advice or comments that you may want to share. Be at peace and Happy Aquarius one and all a great day to start a grow The solstice, Merry meet x
