BCP F5 - Mars Hydro FC4800 Diary

*** These are not the Blackcherry Pie BX. There was no option for the F5 version. *** A Mars Hydro sponsored diary. The FC-4800, or any of the FC-series, is a great light. It has the diode count to warrant the advertised efficacy of 2.9umol/J. It's spec sheet is above, and it is accurate. If you have bought a light before, you know this alone sets it apart from most... honest. It has a solid build. The frame and heat sink is great. While not as important with high efficacy lgihts, heat dissipation always helps. You will get 50,000 to 60,000 hours of use out of this light. It is running the diodes at (480/2016) about 0.24watts per diode. This is roughly the same as how samsung tests their diodes, which is why the spec sheet from mars is more accurate than most others, especially the less expensive units out there. Cost of ownership will often be lower with this light compared to those that cost less up front. Not only will you save a few dollars each month, but you will get tens of thousands of hours more use out of the light, because it will retain intensity for a longer period of time. How hard the diode is drive is paramount to what you should expect out of it. So, we have Blackcherry Pie F5 by In House Genetics along with 3 other strains sitting under this light. It is only day 10 after sprout for these plants. Nothing too exciting to say at this point, but it seems to be growing just fine. I'll be keeping a male plant of this srain for future breeding. *** Again, these are not the Blackcherry Pie BX. There was no option for the F5 version. *** Check out Mars hydro instagram and GD profiles: @marshydro_aliexpress2 on Instagrm https://growdiaries.com/grower/marshydroled

Week 2 completed.. give or take... Actually it is 18 days from breaking ground according to notes. These plants received a bit too much light for 2-3 days before my dumbass recognized the issue... Meh, it's only a couple curled leaves... Meh, it's getting worse.. Meh, it got bad, maybe i should do something about this? JFC.. Partly exacerbated by accidentally leaving light on for 24 hours at the height of the problem. Now that the harvest is done, I have some spare timers, which have been put into use. Running the light at 50% today has had a good result on most. I've further reduced to 40% and will amp it up for tomorrow. I would have stuck with a smaller light for early vege, but it was in use. First time with this light and always a little learning curve. Blackcherry Pie F5 (i didn't choose to spell "black cherry" it wrong, lol, not my fault...) is doing okay, considering.. Just irrigated last night. Assuming it hasn't been stunted by stupidity, it should respond well the next couple days. This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress2 on Instagrm @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

So, i bombarded them with too much light early on. I haven't used a large light like this for early vege in quite some time... oops. Anyway, they quickly recovered... but, i've probably set them back 5-10 days. This is an issue for me as there are time constraints involved if i want to get 2 runs in during short days (less concern about light leaks if impossible, right?) and before it gets warmer upstairs. Blackcherry Pie F5 is moving along. These were just sprayed with neem, so they are a little unhappy. Transplant was done earlier this week. I have to sex these BCP F5s, so they'll remain in these 1-gallons until then. --------------------------------------------- This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress2 on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Blackcherry Pie F5 - 34 days completed and in midst of 35th day in pictures above. Just irrigated the plants. I topped them this week and they have responded well. FYI 6 different strains and 1 nutrient formula. The perceived pickiness of this plant is severely overblown by people feeding it poorly. Just my 2 cents... Same formula i use for nearly all grows the last 3 years. Rarely is there a leaf symptom due to nutrients. Occasionally, i have to drop N slightly, but other than that... it is rock solid. I did not remove any fan leaves after topping. Initial stretch is not a concern if you never intend to have buds on those nodes -- within reason. So, i'll let the first few nodes stretch to reach light. They need to distance themsleves from apical meristem as well as each other. This length will mostly be horizontal and it never has a chance to grow good buds, so don't worry about it. I won't strip leaves or secondary branching until i can easily see the stronger 6 or 7 primary vertically growing colas. Then, i'll break apical dominance until all terminal nodes are equal in vertical height. I may even prune a branch back before it is all said and done. I want consistency in my canopy as i did before. I've gotten away from trying to control it and just let it go free, and i have not liked the results, lol. By the time it is mostly organized, the things i prune off will be used to create temporary clones. If any phenotye shows amazing traits, i'll likely keep that strain for future breeding fun. I don't want mother plants eating up my time.. i want seeds... extra genetic variety? no problem with hundreads of seeds. Simply plant 2x or 3x what you need and only keep the strong ones. throw out a few? oh well they were free. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile @marshydroled on GrowDiaries *** seems the IG account dropped the "2". Pleasue double check as IG likes sto ban accounts related to marijuana. Best to follow link from growdiaries.com profile @marshydroled to be certain***

40 vege days completed. 41st in progress for pictures. -- "Blackcherry Pie F5," NOT strain listed. this strain didn't exist as an option at time. Blackcherry Pie F5 is going strong as is its sister. Been removing leaves from most of the plants. These four have looked great. Everything is nice and lush. Since topping, axillary growth has been excellent. The lower branches are about to lose apical dominance to the top 2. They are no long little nubs and will be demanding and getting more resources if i don't bend or tie them down. Basically, the nodes that exist now will more likely be stripped when they go into flower, especially all the stuff underneath. These will be mostly horizontal/barrent areas of the limbs. May hve to buy some more stakes. Think 4 3'-4' stakes in each 3.6 gal pot will do a body good. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

7 weeks of vege give or take. Waiting on these to show some preflowers... weed out the males. If BCP1 gets switched out, that'll be why. Blackcherry Pie F5 continues to grow well. Stripped quite a few leaves the past 7 days. Removed some lower axillary growth that would only be a weak link for disease. Also, reduce light schedule to 16 hours per day. May reduce intensity to 80%, too. I want a little more stretch as i plant to keep more than 4 primary colas per plant. Hopefully 6-8 can be managed into a level canopy. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Nearly 8 weeks of vege phase for Blackcherry Pie F5. Still waiting for preflowers to show. I may have to transplant and flip to bloom regardless. This will result in some inconveniences across the board, but time is running short relative to constraints. I'll have to wand water extra pots. It should be at least 7-10 days before stretch clutters things up. Stripped most but not all plants as of yet. Must leave 2-3 opportunities for clones and enough otherwise to fill the space. Pot size is constraining growth of some more than others. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Total days above ground: 62 Flower nights: 4 This particular Blackcherry Pie F5 (1) had some spots of wpm on stems near bottom. removed some extra stuff. Still plenty of vege growth remains, despite 12/12 schedule starting 4 nights ago. Hit it with neem oil and soaked the hell out of those stems with some 3% H2O2 with some paper towel. Hopefully, this one is a male and hopefully i have another good male candidate to keep. Just realized this will re-vege and i will have to worry about pollen sacs forming on a "keeper" despite every intention to remove males from 12/12 area within 5-7 days as their preflowers present themselves. Best case scenarioo is that the clones root fast and i only have to manage a small plant or 2. Either way, i will have to avoid contamination. Overall, things are okay. Some hints of WPM on a few plants while others remain clean. I need to clean up plants this week to help reduce that risk. Some have had work done while others have had fewer leaves stripped so far. BCP you can see was over-stripped and soaked some H2O2 on a few spots on lower stems. Removed more than normal on that one. Applied neem oil to all and hopefully able to do that one more time before flowers start growing. Transplants are done, but I need to take some clones before end of first week of bloom phase. Should be able to sex the BCP plants very soon. They were 58 days above ground at flip. If it takes more than 7 nights of 12/12, i'd be surprised. See some nubs of preflowers on a few, and the one i looked at today hints at being male, but i did not have my glasses to see well enough. Looked to have a little stem-like connection vs a solid nub in the nook. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

70 days above ground (too much light in early vege) 12 FD Blackcherry Pie F5 is moving along. This is BCP2. Previously, BCP1 was doing the modelling, but turns out she had balls and/or WPM. I threw out 3 plants with a seemingly systemic problem. Snipped a branch at bottom and it looked like xmas. So, after finding 2 males and 3 with wpm, only 2 BCP females remain. Of those, one is proper. The other did not recover from my early light intensity fuck up and not enough time to allow it to do so. It's potential won't be met. Not a good success rate with a healthy amount of stepping on my own dick. Anyway, this one has a chance to be a beaut. It has proven it's more robust than most plants given its treatment. Crossing my fingers for a good smell, flavor and yield. It's got the structure for it. It just has to fill in well. Fairly robust stems, though still pliable at moment. That will change soon, so i'll keep bending them slightly in multiple spots along each branch. Plant has been stripped of most lower growth, like all the others. Should have about 2 more weeks of vege growth lingering before plant ceases stem elongation and leaf growth. Excellent airflow through plant. Light hits several levels of the plant, and the canopy will fill back in shortly. Unlike previous crops, i'm not fucking around this time.. any extreme symptoms, like wpm on trunk and lower branches in general, is cause for immediate removal. There is no point fighting a losing battler for next 8 weeks. Need to plant more seeds to ensure enough good plants. 25% more? 50% more... better than wasted space in bloom phase. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Blackcherry Pie F5 from In House Genetics Mars Hydro LED FC-4800 Total Days: 77 FD: 19 Think this onen is showing most trichomes relative to current point of development of all the plants in garden at FD 19. Crystal Candy is equivalent or more but is clearly further along. Thank god one of these females turned out well with no major issues of WPM all over the trunk making it look like a snowy winter day when agitate. I smell hints of cherry when defoliating or training plant as i bend it open a bit over time. Two good males are dropping pollen about 30' feet away with 2 doors between - 1 being closed all the time and fans turned off inside. I still expect some contamination. I may also paint a few buds with some pollen. Put somem tin foil underneath plant to catch what falls. It's got a nice layer of pollen 24 hours later. These are re-veging male plants.. not sure if that impacts virility of the pollen? This strain seems to be a bit weak against infection, although once i removed the 3 plants i spoke of, the garden has had virtually no signs of WPM. I still find a rare spot here and there but simply remove the leaf carefully. Once in normal light, it's quite difficult to see the initial colony, but under the grow lights it reflects more and becomes visible. I'm doing more daily defoliating to keep plants open but maintain full multi-level canopy to catch photons. Regardless, this will be my choice of a male plant and i don't expect to be very sophisticated about it. Hopefully, that comes with time. I'll have 4-5 female plants, if worthy, and one of which will be this BCP-2 in the diary. A blueberry muffin will be included and also will be my first(2nd attempt) fem-seed project. I'll keep tryingn until that works over the spring and summer. If i paint a bud with pollen from this crop, It will just be a single bud on BCP-2. I'll cover it in a paper bag for a bit, mist it when done and hope it is contained as well as possible. At the least, it hedges my bets. I'll have some reg seeds to grow out and select if anything happens in the next 9 months that i cannot predict. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Blackcherry Pie F5 from In House Genetics Mars Hydro LED FC-4800 Total Days: 84 FD: 26 Starting to turn on the jets in regard to frost. These are developing well, but i only expect a medium yielding plant. Buds are not stacking up as well as i like, but if they turn out dense, it could surprise a bit. Some of this may be my poor choices in pruning. I have getten away from stripping my plants as much as i used to, and other than Green Poison Fast, it didn't work out, so it is far past time to revert to old strategies. Can smell a bit of cherry after touching stems. I don't get that from touching the trichomes, though. Hope thise one has good flavor to it. The more i grow the less i care about potency. i can always roll a fatter joint, and 'less potency' nowadays is still plenty. it's still great weed even if not "30%." Flavor is everything... smell is only important if it impacts the palette. (personal opinions...) Trying to irrigate these more frequently. I'm not waiting for top layer to dry. Guesstimating when it has lost at least 1/2 of its weight. With the mosquito dunks, i'm not worried about any potential larva gaining a foothold. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Blackcherry Pie F5 from In House Genetics 34 Flower nights complete, on 35th flower day. Had high hopes for this F5, and i counted my chickens before they hatched. I'm pulling off 5-6 leaves a day at this point due to infection. This is the strain i had to throw out a bunch to start -- I should have known. They have been disease vectors in my garden, lol -- Epicenters of the problem, repeatedly. These clearly are some weak tea plants when it comes to microbial issues. In fact the only strain so far that i've overspent on that hasn't had this major issue is Platinum Gelato, which looks really pretty on camera, but has a very bland taste. PG was right next to a dumpster fire Garlic storm and it resisted the infection. Too bad on Garlic Storm, because it was a tasty and potent result... when not covered in WPM. HUGE buyer's remorse. Will not make that mistake again. At least when compared to anesia, these strains were frosty AF, consistently as opposed to just run-of-the-mill barney farm type quality. this is one data point.... take it as a grain of salt. ... well 30 data points... LoL... wasn't 100% germ rate, either - excluding the carnage caused by my sudden and drastic change in my tap pH last year, it was still a bad percentage overall for the 30 seeds. When you pay that much, should be robust, potent, taste and heavy yielders... anything less is a huge disappointment. So, this is going to be a struggle to finish.. i blasted the shit out of it with H2O2 today. Seems like safest thing to use in flower. It definitely singed the pistils. If i see it spread to another nearby plant, i'm going to lose my shit. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Black Cherry Pie by In House Genetics 42nd day above ground... Fixed the ppm screenshot of formula. Not much changed. I've kept an archive of what i've adjusted over 2 years and just recently clicked through it... can see an overt progression to this point and less changes as time goes by. Each tangent i tried, then regressed back to something akin to this. The only thing i might adjust in future is a little top-dressing of the Triple Superphosphate (0-45-0) i bought a while back. So, the formula will be static from now on, but i'll be trying varying amounts of a top-dress and playing around with frequency of that action You can see in pics what i am dealing with on this plant... it is one of a couple epicenters of problems. also, threw out 3 of these before bloom because they were dumpster fires, too... this one i thought i could keep it in check, but i am pretty sure i'd feel regret if anyone smoked this weed. Floppy plant, too. The only reason it doesn't need stakes like the other 2 is because the yield is so light, lol. Since it's a pile of shit anyway, I will douse it with an h2o2 solution until it is dripping wet all over as last ditch effort to preserve what little i can - including lower branches and stems. I keep stipping leaves and spraying it... slows it down for a few days then it pops back up. if i spray too offten it'll defintiely burn the pistils but at this point i think it is worth it. There is a pm spot near almost every single bud... ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries

Blackcherry Pie F5 by In House Genetics FD: 47 *** - edit (2/12/22) - well, this was just riddled with WPM once i started to cut into it. So was a majority of another plant not listed in a diary. Of the 10 seeds... only 7 germinated.. had 5 females... threw out 3 heading into bloom because they were so fucked up... now this one i doused often and repeatedly to try to salvage it, but where the foliar spray could not reach it definitely took ahold. There is 1 blackcherry pie remaining and i do not have high hopes for it either. Dunking it in h2o2 for a few seconds is not going to sanitize these buds. Certainly wasn't exposing my new trimmer to it. leaving what is below.... it is older info. Harvesting tonight... they'll get darkness all day. Will be 24+ hours of darkness at time of harvest.. This is last update until the crop is dried and ready for curing. Due to issue in garden and amazingly developed flowers on 47th day of 12/12 schedule, I am going to be harvesting all my plants, including Blackcherry Pie F5. Nearly all the plants have retracted pistils - some aren't even visible anymore and some are a bit too hairy for my liking. Extenuating circumstances are focring my hand, but it's only a few days early at most for a few of the plants... and with a couple plants i probably should have harvested them a couple days ago. Most of them have significantly slowed water uptake as of last 2-3 days, too. The 2 or 3 that need a few more days are still chugging away, though. I don't know what i did differently, but i had crazy fast development all over. At just over 6.5 weeks plants are nice and plump, dense nugs and i see some amber in trichomes. It's quite a bit warmer than my previous runs over last 3 years. There is some serious light in the tent, too -- high efficacy lights, but i've always been pushing that boundary given little environmental control. However, there is a lot more 'side' lighting and more space between plants. Maybe this is part of that? While i still provide similar DLI to canopy, i'm providing signifcantly more photons to the plant as a whole. More photons flying around in a larger space... bouncing here and there and getting better penetration from all angles underneath the canopy. If this is the result from that, i really like it. Fwiw, blueberry muffins, which is supposed to be a 45-day bloom isn't even the most developed plant in the room. Plants listed as 9-weeks are done.. not drinking, dense, pistils barely visible etc etc... Except for the severely stunted, the yield relative to size of plant is seemingly "normal" too. One muffin pheno is ready by 45ish days, but one needs 2-3 more days, preferably.. but is 'ripe enough,' otherwise. In regard to blackcherry pie specifically -- the yield looks low-to-medium, but MUCH better than i originally thought. Until recently, it seemed i would only get tiny nugs up and down the cola, but it has filled in fairly well of late, surprisingly. Overall, i wouldn't judge the plants in these 4 coinciding diaries by my results. Who knows what kind of ramifications i had from stunting the plants with too much light for too long in vege before i reacted. The resistance of the plants though... there are clearly some weaker plants in the bunch, this is one of them. You look at it sideways and it picks up some WPM spots. Other plants directly next to it and downwind from it are only recently showing hints of spots on some fan leaves after weeks of potential exposure. The severely stunted plants that did not grow out of it (crystal candy and purple shot included) are difficult to assess in this regard. The amount of foliage and congestion is too big of a factor for wpm. Other strains with no excuse on the other hand... they also exhibit signs of genetic depression with a 1:1 correlation in a small sample. Some of these fancy plants are just inbred AF. Probably why they have poor resistance. Can't inbreed an "outcrossing" plant so much without major negative repercussions in as few as 3 generations or even 1. The "next" run is looking great. I have not damaged them and they are on pace to fill the space with ease. I've been compiling a "Best Practices / SOP" manual as i go through the stages of the Winter-2 run. I've always been fairly systematic when approaching what to do in bloom phase, but i've never respected the intracies vege phase as much. I am looking to correct this mistake with a more systematic approach from seed -to-harvest that can evolve more efficiently than relying on my memory and decentralized notes. I've outlined best practices for each of my lights relative to seedlings, early vege, vege and bloom. This should avoid the stupid mistake of stunting my plants as severely as crystal candy, purple shot, et al. Come next winter, i won't have to rely on habits or memory. I will have an outline to quickly regain them. ______________________________________________________ This diary is sponsored by Mars Hydro. Check out Mars Hydro instagram and GD profiles: marshydro_aliexpress on Instagram - follow link through their GD profile as these can change due to IG rules. @marshydroled on GrowDiaries