Recent content by norman

"The theoretical lm per watt maximum threashold for LED lighting was surpassed a few years ago by CREE and thier latest R&D has broken their own 264lm/w barrier with 276lm/w on Feb 13th. I've always said that when you see the streetlights around your town replaced with LED, it's time to start...

I was looking for CMHs for my next use... having used my last for most of a year, i thought it best to get new. Yes, I have an old magnetic 400 W HPS ballast, and these bulbs are GREAT. To my dismay I saw that the much loved Retro-White from Philips is being discontinued. Yet they are...

I briefly reviewed the pdf files, and my short answer is that it looks like a nice, but reeeeaaalllyyy pricey, reflector. I do not doubt that their product sends light in a more even fashion than horizontal reflectors; it looks very much like a scaled up version of reflectors in nice LED...

some folks round these parts run ceramic metal halide lights- they are MH bulbs that run off of HPS (old fashioned, buzzing magnetic, not cheap new fangled dimmable digital) ballasts. They were designed as replacements for warehouses and workshops running the older HPS ballasts but desiring...

the OC+ we loved so well in these parts has been discontinued (sob, sob...) I'd look for one with a bit less nitrogen. Also, you'll need micro nutrients as well because the standard stuff doesn't have those.

I'd just dig it up and bring it in... leave it where it'll get light, supplement with extra if you need to re-veg or keep alive. It really is a weed- it'll survive most abuse like this. Just be wary of critters for the first few weeks- thrips, mites, etc.- there will be no predators (other...

Yup... anything short of complete breakage is easily dealt with like you dealt with it- simple tape. In fact, you can probably even save complete breakage if the broken off hunk does not need too much water (i.e., it's a small stem). I say this because one can graft this plant- so one takes...

I'd expect that squash borers would also be an issue- they sure are here in MI.

Someone I met told me that 5 gal garbage cans (office, rectangular) with a few holes drilled around and on the bottom gives rise to several oz of goodness each... just rinsed coir plus ~1/3-1/2 perlite by volume, 1/2c OC+, very rarely some molasses, diatomaceous earth and epsom salts. No pH...

Ditto above- you've got at least a month to go. And no matter how tempting, don't settle for "almost peak".... follow the advice here, and wait till the trichomes are your preferred colors. Remember that ~1/2 your final, harvested weight is put on in the last 2 weeks.

You can, with a bit of effort, calculate the day length for whenever you'll be out- if it's shorter than 14 hours it should work- 4 weeks in, 4 out. Just a matter of timing!

Mine might be doing the same. Any thoughts from the experts? I've got some sativas (lemon skunk; something else I forget...) in a place where the temperature easily reaches 90F, often mid 90's in the tent... with lots of ventilation day-n-night. Unlike my winter grow, these are really, really...

BTW- one can even get the plant stem (and the buds up top) to survive a near-total severing... like if you bend a tender shoot a bit too much and it mostly snaps off- just tape the darn thing together. It will almost always survive if the broken parts are physically stuck together and allowed...

There are a couple of posts here that cover magnetic ballast wiring. I rebuilt mine, so I know it's a little confusing. OK, kinda a lot confusing. Ditto what the OP sed re. grounding. It's important. Also... these magnetic HPS ballasts have at least one super great "feature"- you can...

Also, prisms and diffraction gratings spread out the spectrum very differently- diffraction gratings (like the CD here) spread the light out evenly (but give rise to secondary and tertiary refractions- not real important here- you just get a weaker duplicate spectrum), while prisms compress the...