Need Advice ASAP

[TyDeF]

So here's the situation and I'm getting a bit stressed about what to do.

I have a basement grow that I start about 3 weeks ago. This is my 4th grow.

I hooked up my 4 x 1000w MH last monday, three days ago after transplanting the seedlings into 7 gallon pots.

I have a total of 36 plants.

So today while I was at work, my wife calls and tells me that the local cable company has shown up because there is an issue with RF interference and the source is my house. It is causing service problems for about 400 people past my house.

Before I can get home, one of the guys opens my basement door ( yes, I normally have it locked but today of course I hadn't because I was planning on going down there at lunch to check on the plants... kicking myself)

So he sees the setup and at that point my wife tells him I will be home in a minute. Once I get there, I play it cool, ask em what's going on, they tell me and I proceed to tell them that I started growing tomatoes indoors, that I have a greenhouse at my other land, blah blah...

They seem to buy it, in fact they have stories of their own about gardening and one guy even tells me he's done hydroponics in the past... Turns out my ballasts are causing enough interference to mess up the signal and for now I have to keep my internet and tv unhooked if I want my lights on.

The big question... do I close up shop, waste all my time and money from my effort so far, or take the risk of them knowing it was not tomatoes and turn me it. Any experiences similar?

I feel like the wise thing is to clear out everything asap... but it's killing me to even consider it.

Counsel?

 

[dirtWeevil]

buy magnetic ballasts is the short answer, or shielded digital ones

 

[TyDeF]

buy magnetic ballasts is the short answer, or shielded digital ones

Yea.. I don't mind doing that... But keep the grow going?

 

[ipeeinpools]

So here's the situation and I'm getting a bit stressed about what to do.

I have a basement grow that I start about 3 weeks ago. This is my 4th grow.

I hooked up my 4 x 1000w MH last monday, three days ago after transplanting the seedlings into 7 gallon pots.

I have a total of 36 plants.

So today while I was at work, my wife calls and tells me that the local cable company has shown up because there is an issue with RF interference and the source is my house. It is causing service problems for about 400 people past my house.

Before I can get home, one of the guys opens my basement door ( yes, I normally have it locked but today of course I hadn't because I was planning on going down there at lunch to check on the plants... kicking myself)

So he sees the setup and at that point my wife tells him I will be home in a minute. Once I get there, I play it cool, ask em what's going on, they tell me and I proceed to tell them that I started growing tomatoes indoors, that I have a greenhouse at my other land, blah blah...

They seem to buy it, in fact they have stories of their own about gardening and one guy even tells me he's done hydroponics in the past... Turns out my ballasts are causing enough interference to mess up the signal and for now I have to keep my internet and tv unhooked if I want my lights on.

The big question... do I close up shop, waste all my time and money from my effort so far, or take the risk of them knowing it was not tomatoes and turn me it. Any experiences similar?

I feel like the wise thing is to clear out everything asap... but it's killing me to even consider it.

Counsel?

Damn....Sorry to hear bro, but thats one hell of a situation....only reason I'd ever considering closing up shop is that someone has now seen my set up and I'd be worried about one person secretly knowing what it truly is. But i'm also a paranoid, My landlord seems like a square bear kinda person and has seen all my tents set up....a 10x10, 8x4 and a 5x5 and I'm just waiting for the day when we have that conversation because I have people lined up to call for my "back story" lol.

As for the lights, maybe you can sell you 1000w set up and buy 315W CMH's. Thats how I'd fix that issue, being that I was able to spend a little cash.

 

[TyDeF]

Damn....Sorry to hear bro, but thats one hell of a situation....only reason I'd ever considering closing up shop is that someone has now seen my set up and I'd be worried about one person secretly knowing what it truly is. But i'm also a paranoid, My landlord seems like a square bear kinda person and has seen all my tents set up....a 10x10, 8x4 and a 5x5 and I'm just waiting for the day when we have that conversation because I have people lined up to call for my "back story" lol.

As for the lights, maybe you can sell you 1000w set up and buy 315W CMH's. Thats how I'd fix that issue, being that I was able to spend a little cash.

Yea... I don't know what to do...
These guys didn't seem to be suspicious, seemed to buy my story, I was fine with letting them see from a distance, but there's always that chance they want to be a white knight and report it...
Sucks!

 

[ipeeinpools]

Yea... I don't know what to do...
These guys didn't seem to be suspicious, seemed to buy my story, I was fine with letting them see from a distance, but there's always that chance they want to be a white knight and report it...
Sucks!

Do you live in a legal state? Cuz i'm in a legal state and I don't care about my plant counts, I've always been over either in flower or in veg or both. This is the first time i'm actually under my plant count in the flowering stage lol.

1000W MH seems like overkill too TBH. If I was running HPS, I'd only go with 600's. But the 315W CMH's are by favorite light in veg....like holy shit awesome, I was getting over 2 inches a day in growth on the plants i'm flowering now. You can string a few of the lights together too and get a much bigger footprint than the 1000's.

 

[TyDeF]

Do you live in a legal state? Cuz i'm in a legal state and I don't care about my plant counts, I've always been over either in flower or in veg or both. This is the first time i'm actually under my plant count in the flowering stage lol.

1000W MH seems like overkill too TBH. If I was running HPS, I'd only go with 600's. But the 315W CMH's are by favorite light in veg....like holy shit awesome, I was getting over 2 inches a day in growth on the plants i'm flowering now. You can string a few of the lights together too and get a much bigger footprint than the 1000's.

Not in a legal state... I went with the 1000's for budget reasons over 315s
Wish I would have gotten em now... either way I guess they could still cause RF

 

[cindysid]

I would grit my teeth and hang in there....but that's me, but I would also address the ballast problem immediately.

 

[cindysid]

buy magnetic ballasts is the short answer, or shielded digital ones

How do you shield a digital ballast?

 

[greg nr]

Your story didn't fool them. Fuhgettabout it. Grow light interference is common enough with cable companies they know to look for it. And nobody burns 4kw a month growing tomatoes in the summer. They know exactly what you were growing.

The question is are they chill with it as long as they don't have to come out again? Did they put a code on their trouble ticket? Did they tell a supervisor?

If you are in a red state, it's probably best to take a hiatus at this address. Sucks after all that investment, but lawyers will cost you a LOT more. Tough spot man......

 

[TyDeF]

I would grit my teeth and hang in there....but that's me, but I would also address the ballast problem immediately.

For now, I'm literally disconnecting the cable to my house while I run my lights... if I want internet and tv for the other 6 hours they are off I have to go screw it in. Temporary fix...

 

[TyDeF]

Your story didn't fool them. Fuhgettabout it. Grow light interference is common enough with cable companies they know to look for it. And nobody burns 4kw a month growing tomatoes in the summer. They know exactly what you were growing.

The question is are they chill with it as long as they don't have to come out again? Did they put a code on their trouble ticket? Did they tell a supervisor?

If you are in a red state, it's probably best to take a hiatus at this address. Sucks after all that investment, but lawyers will cost you a LOT more. Tough spot man......

Ok, so next question then... cause that's what I'm leaning towards... I'm a couple weeks in so the plants are just starting. I have a piece of private land located 10 minutes away.
Is it to late in the season for me to put them outside? how bad will yields suffer?

 

[TyDeF]

Your story didn't fool them. Fuhgettabout it. Grow light interference is common enough with cable companies they know to look for it. And nobody burns 4kw a month growing tomatoes in the summer. They know exactly what you were growing.

The question is are they chill with it as long as they don't have to come out again? Did they put a code on their trouble ticket? Did they tell a supervisor?

If you are in a red state, it's probably best to take a hiatus at this address. Sucks after all that investment, but lawyers will cost you a LOT more. Tough spot man......

And I don't know what you mean by code in the ticket, but they didn't give me anything... Once they figured out what it was, they just packed up and left after we where done talking. They even when on their laptop and showed me the interference I was causing and the difference once I had the lights turned off... He said it was a first for him...
No supervisor was called...
Don't think I'll take a chance though.. I have kids and a wife... not worth it

 

[greg nr]

Good question for the outdoor section. My guess is it depends on your location. Here in the ne, people only recently planted and we won't get summer drought for several weeks. It's still safe to plant here.

 

[TyDeF]

Good question for the outdoor section. My guess is it depends on your location. Here in the ne, people only recently planted and we won't get summer drought for several weeks. It's still safe to plant here.

I'm in Southeast... And I can water on a regular basis... I'm just thinking they will go into flower to fast = small yield

 

[greg nr]

And I don't know what you mean by code in the ticket, but they didn't give me anything... Once they figured out what it was, they just packed up and left after we where done talking. They even when on their laptop and showed me the interference I was causing and the difference once I had the lights turned off... He said it was a first for him...
No supervisor was called...
Don't think I'll take a chance though.. I have kids and a wife... not worth it

Every service tech has to fill out a trouble ticket or work order stating what they found or fixed. They usually have codes for common problems and fixes. It's all part of resource management and monitoring. Everyone fills out paperwork, most of it is digital. Hence codes.

Once they enter a code for "electrical interferance - lighting", it becomes searchable. The law can request data dumps based on the codes.

 

[TyDeF]

Every service tech has to fill out a trouble ticket or work order stating what they found or fixed. They usually have codes for common problems and fixes. It's all part of resource management and monitoring. Everyone fills out paperwork, most of it is digital. Hence codes.

Well hopefully there's not a tick box for illegal grow room haha

 

[TyDeF]

Every service tech has to fill out a trouble ticket or work order stating what they found or fixed. They usually have codes for common problems and fixes. It's all part of resource management and monitoring. Everyone fills out paperwork, most of it is digital. Hence codes.

Once they enter a code for "electrical interferance - lighting", it becomes searchable. The law can request data dumps based on the codes.

So now that you have me really worried... when you say searchable, by who? and how long do I have to get that shit out of there!

 

[greg nr]

Not trying to spook you. But you asked. The data is only searchable by the cable company, So unless they have a policy of reporting certain issues - (they will report things like theft of service straight off) - you probably don't have to worry about them initiating it.

BUT, if they get a request form law enforcement they can honor that with the data. It usually doesn't even require a subpoena. There are members here who have been visited based solely on their electric usage. LEO's do look at utilities for clues. But not all do.

It's only a possibility. Your risk went way up, but it isn't sure fire.

Note: I'm not a lawyer and I'm not playing one here. I'm not giving advice, just pointing out a few things you might not have been aware of......

 

[TacoMac]

Better to be safe than to go to jail.

Get rid of it. All of it. Don't even think about doing shit for another year.

This is why people go to jail: they get stupid and greedy.