The Grow Awards 2026 🏆
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Today put in new light for replace the niello 300w with a mars hydro ts1000 2022 version
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(39 day VEG)(56 day flower)(107 day clone to harvest) Co2@800 Made a huge difference 70klux is to high lighting. 60-65 was best 87f+ leaf temp is to high in flower - 80did well Hot temps made the leaves ugly Auto irrigation went wrong because the water pressure was not even on all 11 spouts. Two box fans were not enough. It seems more wind make denser buds The plants closer to the fans were denser The Liquid humic acid i think made a small difference. That “Grow More Liquid kelp” exploded growths during veg stage The southern AG microbes did well to keep my roots healthy(once a week) I should have topped the clones at the 3rd node so itd be easier to harvest I lollipopped plants day 1 flower, day 21 flower, and start of week5. I defoliated before flower, day 14 flower, wk7 flower, and 2 days before harvest I want to defoliate the week before harvest and flush 5days before harvest ———————— Harvest Wet Trimmed First 3 days 55%RH then 52-60% for 17 days. Ill split branches to speed drying next time Temp 68F Indirect Fans After Drying: Homemade tumbler/trimmer Pvc pipe inserted into a barrel made from chicken wire and bucket lids tacked together. Sits inside of a tote bucket. The tote bucket holds the trimmings and kief that falls from buds Put into mason jars ——- Weight: 1: 71g 2: 48g 3: 78g 4:41g 5:56g
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@CalGonJim
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1/12/26 4:18AM MONDAY.....💪💪💪💪👌 1/12 CANNAKAN DAY MEDICINAL SLAVERY WOULD MAKE HARVEST A BREEZE!! ABOUT THE LEDS Yes, the **Samsung LM301H EVO diodes** in your Mars Hydro lights (likely an FC-E series like FC-E3000, FC-E4000, or similar) are among the most efficient horticultural LEDs available right now—individual diodes hit **3.14 μmol/J** efficacy, pushing the whole fixture to around **2.85–2.9 μmol/J** PPE (photosynthetic photon efficacy) in manufacturer specs and independent tests. That's top-tier for full-spectrum grow lights, meaning they convert more electrical power into usable plant photons than older diodes or cheaper LEDs. If they "seem more efficient than the PPFD meter says" (your plants thriving at lower wattage/height adjustments), that's actually common and not a contradiction—it's often the **real-world efficiency** shining through once nutes/stress are fixed. Here's why this happens and what your recent wattage drop (a few more watts lower) likely means: ### Why Samsung LM301H EVO Can "Seem" More Efficient Than Raw PPFD Readings Suggest - **High PPE + Uniform Distribution**: These diodes excel at producing photons in the PAR range (400–700nm) with minimal waste (heat/loss). Mars Hydro FC-EVOs achieve strong average PPFD (e.g., 750–1000+ μmol/m²/s in tests at recommended heights/power) with even spread—no hot spots wasting energy. When your nutes were suboptimal (Advanced Nutrients issues), plants couldn't fully use the light (wasted photons → stress, stretch, lower efficiency). Now dialed in (GH powder + aminos + mycos), they convert more of that PPFD into growth—making the light "feel" stronger/more efficient even if meter numbers stay the same or drop slightly. - **Meter Limitations & Calibration**: - Handheld PAR meters (especially cheap/older ones) can under-read full-spectrum LEDs like LM301H EVO (strong white + red enhancement). They often have poor spectral response to the exact mix, reading 10–30% low compared to pro tools (Apogee SQ-500) or calibrated apps. - If you're using an app like Photone (mentioned in your diary), it's generally more accurate for Samsung full-spectrum lights (especially on iPhone; Android varies but often close with diffuser/paper). Many growers report Photone matching or exceeding cheap handhelds on LM301H setups—sometimes showing higher effective PPFD than a basic meter implies. - Bottom line: Your plants are the ultimate meter. Thriving (miraculous growth, no burn/stress) at lower wattage means the effective usable PPFD is higher than a potentially under-reading meter suggests—efficiency win. ### Your Wattage Drop & What It Means Lowering by a few more watts (on top of the earlier ~10% drop) is smart and aligns with the efficiency gains: - Dimming on Mars Hydro FC series is **very linear**—tests show PPFD percentage tracks close to (or slightly above) the dimmer % because diodes run more efficiently at lower currents (less heat/loss). - Example: Dropping from 100% to 90% might only reduce PPFD by ~8–10%, not full 10%, due to that efficiency curve. - Your plants handling it (still "miraculously better") without stretch or pale leaves confirms the sweet spot: likely 450–650 μmol/m²/s veg/late veg range now, with room to push if pistils emerge. - Solar bonus: Every watt saved = less battery drain on cloudy days, cooler tent (less fan/AC draw), and more headroom for extra plants without spiking consumption. **Practical next steps**: - Recheck PPFD (if using Photone/handheld): Average multiple canopy spots at current height/power—aim 450–600 for late veg autos, 600–800 early flower. - Watch response: If nodes stay tight/dark green/no cupping, you can drop another 5% or lower height slightly for denser canopy. - Log kWh if your inverter shows it—track the drop to celebrate the savings. - If meter still "under-says" vs. plant performance, trust the plants more—Samsung EVOs are proven beasts when the rest of the grow is dialed. This is textbook optimization: nute fix → better photon use → lower power for same/better results → solar efficiency skyrockets. You're building a truly lean system. How low are you at now (e.g., 70–75W total?)? Any pistils or new growth explosions today? Keep the momentum—it's paying off big. 🥊🍌👨‍🔬🚨🌞💪💪💪💪💪 1/15/26 12:36AM L-Phenylalanine: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/L-Phenylalanine#section=Crystal-Structures That’s your Mars Hydro bar-style LED grow light setup in a compact grow tent (looks like a 2x2 or similar Spider Farmer tent branding on the mylar walls), running super efficiently right now! Breaking down what I see from the photos: • The light is a multi-bar LED fixture (probably from Mars Hydro’s FC series, like FC3000, FC4000, or a smaller EVO variant) with Samsung LM301H (or similar LM301B/H EVO) diodes—these are high-end, efficient chips known for uniform distribution, low heat, and great full-spectrum output (warm white + red/IR boosts for veg/flower). • It’s hung at 19 inches (measured from the light bars to the canopy or sensor plane, with that white dotted line marker). The tent shows a hygrometer/thermometer combo reading 76°F / 53% RH (nice stable veg conditions—cooler side helps prevent stretch). • Your PAR meter app is showing 327 μmol/m²/s PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) at that spot/height—solid reading for where you’re at. • Plants look like young cannabis in veg stage: multiple small pots (fabric or repurposed buckets like Krøger cottage cheese tubs—classic budget move!), healthy green canopy with some colorful accents (maybe early purpling or strain traits), topped or in early training, sitting in coco coir or similar media. • Power draw: ~50W current (from the energy usage screenshot), averaging super low over time (0.48–0.76 kWh daily average). That’s impressively efficient—likely dimmed way down or a lower-wattage model (e.g., 150–300W rated, but running at partial power). Total consumption over 30 days at ~14.5 kWh is pennies on the electric bill. This aligns perfectly with your earlier plan to target ~500 PPFD but getting great results at lower wattage/intensity. Right now at 19” and 327 PPFD: • That’s in the sweet spot for early-mid vegetative stage cannabis (typical recs: 300–600 μmol/m²/s for veg, starting lower ~300–400 for young plants to avoid stress, ramping up as they bush out). • Bar-style lights like this excel at even spread (no hot center like older quantum boards), so your canopy is getting consistent light without bleaching or stretch in spots. • Low power (49.6W) means minimal heat buildup—fans and passive cooling handle it easily, keeping temps/RH dialed (76°F/53% is golden for veg; prevents mold and encourages compact growth). Why it feels “great results at lower than recommended”: • Samsung diodes are top-tier efficient (often 2.8–3.1 μmol/J), so you hit usable PPFD without cranking full power. • Many Mars Hydro FC models recommend 18–24” for veg at 50–75% dim (your 19” fits right in). • Your plants are responding well—lush, no obvious deficiencies/stress, and you’re feeling physically ready to top/fill pots after the delay. To push toward your 500 PPFD goal without overdoing it: • Lower the light a few inches (try 16–18”) incrementally—PPFD scales roughly with the inverse square law, so dropping height boosts intensity noticeably (could jump 20–50% depending on spread). • Or bump dimmer % if it’s not maxed (your 50W draw suggests plenty of headroom). • Retest PPFD at multiple canopy spots for average (center often higher, edges lower in bars). • Watch for tacoing/upward leaf curl (too much light) or stretch (too little). This setup is dialed for low-energy, healthy veg growth—perfect for your “lower wattage wins” approach. Plants are happy, tent’s stable, and you’re crushing it efficiency-wise. If you drop the height or dim up, snap another meter reading/pic—I can help fine-tune further. How old are these ladies (weeks from seed/clone)? Any specific strain notes, or planning to flip to flower soon? Keep the momentum—today’s a win! 🌱💪😂 1/18 11:58AM. BRAM STOKERS TRAILER PARK DRACULA........I SHOULD BE WORKING ON THE PLANTS BUT THIS IS REALLY GOOD. MINA AND HER DAD ARE RUNNING PROPETY SCAMS, SHE CONVINSES THESE LOSERS THEY HAVE MAGIC DRACULA POWERSS....AND WE STEAL THEIR TRAILLER. REINFEILD RANDY , JULIANFIGURES IT OUT AND BLACKMAILS BOTH OF THEM. AND MUSICAL GUEST KISS!! A GREAT HALLOWEEN EPISONDE.... OH I FORGOT I AM SUPOSSSED TO BE GRWOING PIT.
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@RFarm21
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9/11 - Harvest day for Kiss 1. Her sister will take a little bit more time.
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re run ! lets learn and get more out of these!
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Hola a todos!!!. Les comento como le fue esta semana a la Auto divine rapier. La he regado en 2 ocasiones, en una solo con agua y en la otra regue con top auto 1.5ml x l y la última de top veg 2ml x litro de agua. En ambas ocasiones regue con 400ml . Ya comenzó a mostrar los pestillos, asique la próxima semana intuyo que será de floracion. El ph de dichos riego anduvo en los 6.4 , las ppm no las he medido..creo que no me olvido de anotar nada más. Hasta la próxima semana, y buenos humos!!!. Las imágenes corresponden al periodo 04/09 -10/09 inclusive.
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@mikemobes
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8/5 -Fed both plants with bloom nutrient solution. Lowered the concentration of nutrients by 1 mL/gal--14 mL/gal seemed to be too concentrated. -Cream Cookies is just exploding with growth. As she gets older she's getting much less sensitive to things like watering--super healthy looking. -Ca deficiency spots have not worsened or spread which is exactly what I was looking to see. Last week I raised the pH of the nutrient solution to 6.25 immediately after seeing those deficiency spots--nutrient solution pH was too low and consequently locked out calcium. Fixed the issue and the plants are doing amazing. -Cheese has seemed to stopped explosive vertical growth and instead focusing on flowering. Going to do some more defoliation this week to bring the light down under the canopy. -Cream Cookies canopy was beginning to become uneven with respects to even height-some heavy LST was done on all of the nodes (>10) to again even out the canopy height. Cream cookies is going to go through its second stretch very soon. 8/6 -Cream Cookies is going through a hardcore stretch. Going to do some LST once the super stretching subsides. -Cookies is filling out and I have a feeling is going to go through another stretch soon. -Plants still look extremely healthy--really amazing how hearty these plants are. -The time lapse videos I've been making have been hugely helpful in identifying patterns in the plants' growth. It helps me identify when any drooping is just part of the normal day/night cycle of the plant. Its also really cool to see how it grows over time. -Fed both plants with 500mL nutrient solution 8/7 -Both plants responded to the most recent watering extremely well. The droop was no where near as substantial as past feedings. Makes me feel confident in nutrient solution concentration. Im not going to increase concentration of nutrient solution past 13 mL/gal. -LST done on Cream Cookies--some nodes were stretching and creating an uneven canopy. LST done to even out the canopy. -Defoliation and LST done on Cheese. Defoliation was done to allow for some light to penetrate the canopy and get to the lower bud sites. 8/9 -Both plants continue to absolutely thrive. They are both doing amazing. Great color. No issues so far. They are loving the nutrients, as am i. -Cream cookies is really really wanting to stretch to the stars right now which is kind of annoying since it makes making a even canopy rather difficult. -LST done on Cream cookies to even out the canopy. Pretty extreme LST--branches bent almost 90 degrees. -Cheese is a slow but steady grower. Seems to be focusing a lot on undergrowth rather than stretching which is good. Im hoping the main cola branches will be evenly distributed. -Cream cookies looks to have around 10 main cola nodes now. FIMing created 4 and LST brought the undergrowth nodes to the canopy. So very extremely happy with the FIM method. I personally don't even consider it a "High-Stress" training. Sure you cut the main stalk of the plant but its not like you are damaging the roots. Just new growth. ITs like a scrape for the plant, it just slaps a bandaid on and focuses on other growth instead. Super efficient training method. -Ive been doing defoliation around once a week to keep some breaks in the canopy to get light down into those node sites under the top of the main cola branches. -Cream cookies is around 2 inches taller than Cheese is with the evened out canopy which might become a problem as I continue to raise the lamp. Cream cookies is really stretching. 8/10 -Plants look amazing as always -Cheese raised 3' and put on "stilts" -Lamp raised back to 18 inches. -Both plants watered with 500mL nutrient solution -Cream cookies canopy FINALLY evened out. -Cheese LST evened the canopy out very well. Very happy with results.
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@gr3g4l
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14º Semana 9º 12/12h. Semana de lavado, regando cada dos días solo con agua de ósmosis inversa. Esta semana siguieron mostrando un cambio de color más acelerado. A los 59 días ya presentaban un alto porcentaje de tricomas ámbar, más que suficiente para cosechar antes de los 60 días. Un cultivo sencillo y sin complicaciones: las plantas son realmente gratificantes, no tanto por la cantidad de tricomas como por su crecimiento, rendimiento y aroma; un aroma que sugiere que será delicioso, posiblemente terroso, dulce, quizás a pino, o quién sabe, incluso con un toque cítrico, a limón. Algo parecido. Lo que sí puedo decir con certeza es que huele muchísimo, no se recomienda para cultivos que quieran pasar desapercibidos. Week 14 9th 12/12h Flush week, watering every two days with only reverse osmosis water. This week they continued to show a more accelerated color change. By day 59, they already had a high percentage of amber trichomes, more than enough to harvest before day 60. A simple and uncomplicated grow: the plants are truly rewarding, not so much for the quantity of trichomes as for their growth, yield, and aroma; an aroma that suggests it will be delicious, possibly earthy, sweet, perhaps pine, or who knows, even with a citrusy touch, like lemon. Something like that. What I can say for sure is that it smells incredibly strong; it's not recommended for grows that want to go unnoticed. Después de 61 días, cosechar y secar en el armario.
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@NorCal311
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10/29/19 - All is going good. The stretch always amazes me on how fast they grow! Watering 4 cups of water each plant every three days. I did not switch to 13/11 yet. I will do that the last few weeks. I moved the lights up to compensate for the stretch so lets see what that does. 10/31/19 - Moved the one that is not flourishing from the net to the side. The other are rocking the house!!! Did a bunch or rearranging and LST in the net. Should be set this week to leave it all alone. I also did a bunch of defoliation. Too bad I was not going to clone this strain anymore, cause there was some great cuttings. 👌
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@jporfiado
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Esta semana aplique la tecnica lst. Hubiera preferido hacerlo antes pero estaba esperando por que antes queria trasplantarlas. Pero no he podido comprar macetas, ni el medio de cultivo. Entonces decidi hacerlo en las macetas actuales para comenzar a guiar la planta, ya que va creciendo muy rapido. Junto con la tecnica lst tambien hice defoliacion a todas las plantas. Comence a regar con fertilizante en polvo Green House para la etapa de vegetacion. Uso 0.5g / 1L . Ocupo unos 2L para regar cada planta.
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D99. At the start of week nine of flower, and there's not much to report. I gave each girl 1.25 liters of water @ pH 6.7 with fulvic acid and bokashi juice. ------------------------------ D102. The flowers are slowly putting on weight. A few of the thinner branches have started to lean under the weight. Lower leaves are slowly dying. A couple of weeks until chop. Maybe...? I'll let the trichomes decide. I brewed up some compost tea (worm castings, neem, kelp, rock dust, biochar, molasses) and gave each girl 2.5 liters of tea @ pH. 6.3. ------------------------------ D105. At the end of week nine of flower, there's still not much to report except that their senescence is slowly progressing. I took a quick peek at the trichomes and saw plenty of clear, so it will still take a while longer before the girls are done. I gave each girl 2 liters of water @ pH 6.8 with humic acid and FFJ. ------------------------------
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@osmrducks
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Day 50: Girls are looking great! 💪 A couple of them are a little further along than the others. Pistils are starting to change colors. PPM's going in are higher than runoff PPM. No change in the PH. In at 6.5 and out at 6.5.... Still have some rust spots. Still thinking that I need to dial in my light distance/intensity. Day 51: Got one girl that the issue of rust spots is not going away. Not getting worse, but just will not leave. Other than that they are still bulking up and looking beautiful. Can't wait to start checking the tric's! Using AN Big Bud for a couple feeds and MOAB for a couple of feeds. Have been feeding every water as my output PPM's are less than what is going in. Will keep this cycle until needed to flush or an issue occurs.. Day 52: No new updates. They still look basically the same as 5 minutes ago when I checked em!! 😂😂 Day 53: Went ahead and ran 2 gallons of PH'd water through them. This rust spot issue is driving me crazy!!! Will just use PH'd water for a day or 2 and hope that it stops! Day 54: Well, no new spots that I see. Probably too early to tell, but I feel better about it :) Day 55: No new updates today. Watered with Recharge. Day 56: The girls look wonderful and smell the same. Gave them a good defoliation today as they were extremely bushy! Thanks, B for the pointers!! 👊
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White Widow week 2. Showing some nice growth so far. Once she starts putting out a few nodes I think I am going to give here a 90 degree LST bend - that seemed to work GREAT with my Mexican Airlines (the colas from the lower branches were huge). 👍
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@Cultiv8or
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First week of flowering!! I’m glad to have 4 weeks of veg and start flowering. It’s August 17th and this tent can only be out on my balcony until the end of September to early October. So I have about 6-9 weeks of flower time before it’s too cold. I feed 1L every other day with an 8-10ml per litre of the 3 nutes I’m using Royal Gorilla is growing ugly , it’s bush is lush and tangled Day 34 update - Royal Gorilla is actually in vegetation... next week it’ll start flower for sure
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@Drtomb
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Just did another pruning of the plants. The stretch on these girls does not appear to be much. Also node spacing is nice and close. I have not done a full screen of these and im looking forward to this.
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*Jan20th added video *-Jan18th added more photos. -* Had some fun with these. Learned ALOT , honestly just glad they survived lol. Had their first full meal of bloom nutrients. Keeping things simple for the time being. Tight so just been using the base nutrients with the power si for a few weeks .. but that's about it. Kinda thinking about running the TPS ultra again, really liked how the Skywalker turned out using it so , we shall see that'd be the biggest change id make besides once I can upgrade lighting. But their starting the second week of flower and going pretty well no signs that have me worried or anything. See how these look in about 3 weeks should be fun. Always appreciate anyone's time taken to check these out ! Hope ur gardens are doing well !!
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So you've all seen the problems with this grow. The buds are all foxtails every one of them. Despite that she somehow managed to bring a decent yield. The smell is still the same, sweet and lovely.