A Tale of The Tape HPA vs 21st Century Flood and Drain

I've been really fortunate to never have any amount of bothersome pests- never even seen a spidermite in real life thank god. Worst case scenario is ants sometimes live in my pots and my plumeria trees are susceptible to whitefly. I keep my pots upstairs on a balcony so perhaps it keeps them up above where some of them will come. There is something you could probably do to sterilize your soil. You could lay it out on a flat surface like a slab or wherever makes sense. Mist it with water then cover with a clear sheet of plastic like a disposable painter's tarp and let it heat up in the sun for a few days. It should get hot and steamy enough to kill everything that might be an issue including weed seeds. I have a pressure cooker and have considered sterilizing some iffy soil with it, but it would take a while to sterilize more than a pot's worth as it only holds 8 quarts.

Originally Posted by Trichy Bastard

I've been really fortunate to never have any amount of bothersome pests- never even seen a spidermite in real life thank god. Worst case scenario is ants sometimes live in my pots and my plumeria trees are susceptible to whitefly. I keep my pots upstairs on a balcony so perhaps it keeps them up above where some of them will come. There is something you could probably do to sterilize your soil. You could lay it out on a flat surface like a slab or wherever makes sense. Mist it with water then cover with a clear sheet of plastic like a disposable painter's tarp and let it heat up in the sun for a few days. It should get hot and steamy enough to kill everything that might be an issue including weed seeds. I have a pressure cooker and have considered sterilizing some iffy soil with it, but it would take a while to sterilize more than a pot's worth as it only holds 8 quarts.

I'm done with soil. It's bontanicare coco gro all the way for me now. That and hydro. I just haven't been able to mix hydro and soil in the same place without complete destruction so I have to stop one or the other. Bye bye soil. All my fresh cuttings are doing well after day 1. I've been having really good luck rooting directly into coco gro. I wish I would done that yesterday instead of using these stupid root riot cubes. I only get about 50% success rate in those. Shit, what was I thinking. Oh yeah, I wanted to transplant into a flood and drain and those root riots make it easy.

Originally Posted by polyarcturus

live an learn right? i know FF and roots both suck ive gotten bugs from both. will never buy a bagged soil again personally.

I've successfully gotten bugs from every MF'in bag of soil there is except "miracle grow moisture control potting soil". I don't really like using it though. The pro-mix I just bought a few months ago was like dried up dust too so I'm not going back that route either. My plants hated it. I too will never buy another bag of soil.

Originally Posted by Trichy Bastard

I've been really fortunate to never have any amount of bothersome pests- never even seen a spidermite in real life thank god. Worst case scenario is ants sometimes live in my pots and my plumeria trees are susceptible to whitefly. I keep my pots upstairs on a balcony so perhaps it keeps them up above where some of them will come. There is something you could probably do to sterilize your soil. You could lay it out on a flat surface like a slab or wherever makes sense. Mist it with water then cover with a clear sheet of plastic like a disposable painter's tarp and let it heat up in the sun for a few days. It should get hot and steamy enough to kill everything that might be an issue including weed seeds. I have a pressure cooker and have considered sterilizing some iffy soil with it, but it would take a while to sterilize more than a pot's worth as it only holds 8 quarts.

Oh yeah, I coulda pasturized the shit in my oven, come to think of it, that's what I was gonna do and I forgot. I've pasturized quite a bit of soil in my oven over the years growing mushrooms and never had one bug. I gotta start writing things down more. Sorry for the triple post, I'm kinda new to the whole forum thing. I just started a new thread for anyone to take part in. It's for general discussion of everything kinda like we've been doing here in PF's journal. lol, here's the link. Take note I have a tendency to miss a few keys here and there.
Link Link, http://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/540222-not-just-one-subjec-thread.html#post7634083

I really appreciate you moving non journal stuff elsewhere. There are people here who are focused on my results not shop talk

I'm still looking for my next light. Been leaning toward an Inda-Grow, until I read this. Can somebody elaborate, put it in lay people perspective?


I don't think i`d want to be spending a lot of time in the near field of what is effectively a 2.65mhz transmitter/antenna operating at several hundred watts

Originally Posted by PetFlora

I'm still looking for my next light. Been leaning toward an Inda-Grow, until I read this. Can somebody elaborate, put it in lay people perspective?


I don't think i`d want to be spending a lot of time in the near field of what is effectively a 2.65mhz transmitter/antenna operating at several hundred watts

sounds like a cellphone tower? a guess anyway

Here is IGs reply




I don’t know where he got that information. We’re running the drivers @ 240 kHz. To equate that with AM radio bandwidth; @ 560 kHz we operate at less than half that bandwidth.

In lay people terms what it really means is that when compared to 60hZ magnetic or 50kHz digital ballasts we simply operate at a much lower current but a higher frequency to excite the gasses via the two coils that wrap around the glass bulb. The driver, cable and coils are all insulated and we meet all FCC standards for EMF suppression which without the use of electrodes is exceptionally energy and PAR efficient when compared to electrode style lamps.

Hope that helps


Darryl Cotton
President

EDIT: I picked up a potential tip from a IG v hps YT video. For those who use IG for the first time, on a strain they are familiar growing, the IG may not do as well as advertised. HOWEVER, it seems the next gen of clones (and likely seeds) will be acclimated to the IG bulb spectral balance and then outperform 1000w