street lights..

01greenv8

Active Member
Oh for Christ's sakes, does everyone who grows indoors, for whatever reason, have to explain why they grow indoors and not out? Do either you or marley'man know what season it is in the northern hemisphere by any chance, either? Since you haven't noticed, we're less than a month away from the WINTER solstice. You know, the SHORTEST day of the year in the northern hemi? That might be just one reason why someone's trying to find a decent bulb and set-up. It's just one reason.
Don't ask marley'man what season the northern hemisphere is in, he'll hop on the 'world wide web' and look it up yo. Haha :peace:
 

Hayduke

Well-Known Member
Interesting tid-bit: Lowe's was founded by the ex-wife of the founder of Home Depot. When they divorced... she decided to build her own chain of similar stores and most of the Lowe's stores are located right next door or across the street from Home Depot. I think Lowe's was created out of spite and the decision to put one right next to almost every home depot was another spiteful move.
I freakin hate lowes! It is like a k-mart/DIY store. When you walk in you dont see tools and hardware, you see seasonal crap!

This makes so much sense. A fluffy chick-made home improvement store.

I so rarely go there (home depot of course just across highway), but now I will definitely stay away! spiteful beatch! When I go into a hardware store, I want to smell lumber and grease and sweat! And see stuff I want to buy. Not cool lighting, polished tile floor, shelf paper and seasonal crap decorations.

Thanks for the tid-bit. Plus they are generally a little pricier than home sinkhole!

Sorry Faroos, it is a wonderful place...screw disneyland...I'm goin' to home depot!
 

cleef

Well-Known Member
GrowSpecialist, are you sure about that Lowe's tidbit? I'm 99% sure that Lowe's was originally a hardware store founded by a guy named Lowe before WW2. Home Depot wasn't founded until like 1980.

I'm a contractor, and I've never gotten better pricing from Home Depot. They are a larger company from Lowe's so it makes sense that they would be cheaper from a consumer perspective.
 

GrowSpecialist

Well-Known Member
GrowSpecialist, are you sure about that Lowe's tidbit? I'm 99% sure that Lowe's was originally a hardware store founded by a guy named Lowe before WW2. Home Depot wasn't founded until like 1980.

I'm a contractor, and I've never gotten better pricing from Home Depot. They are a larger company from Lowe's so it makes sense that they would be cheaper from a consumer perspective.
I'm not 100% sure. Thats what I heard though. *Goes to do some research*
 

xXMaslanXx

Well-Known Member
lol I would love, NO! I would pay to see someone climb a street pole to steal a light to grow bud :p


n e way try ace
 

Faroos

Well-Known Member
This thread is still here thats kinda stupid
Why did you click on it if it's "kinda stupid"?
couldn't put it better my myself cleef.:twisted:

lol I would love, NO! I would pay to see someone climb a street pole to steal a light to grow bud :p

hahaha me too. I just bought mine :mrgreen:

I think I will give it a shot and go ahead with the MH once I get my hands on a good thermometer. For the meantime, it'sO CFLs for until she becomes one month old.

How far away from the plant should I put the MH if I decided to use it?

p.s found this site, could have sworn I had the exact same bulb. Same maker (Osram Powerstar)

thats the bulb;s description

Osram Powerstar 400w HQI-BT/D (Daylight) Metal Halide Lamp


which can be found here: www.freewebs.com/lamps006/
 

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
Those Osrams are used byr miniature reefkeepers if I recollect. That means they're gonna probably be strong in the blue end of the spectrum.

I've never used MH or any other high intensity lighting for growing or lighting anything other than corals/photosynthetic marine organisms. We do one of three things or a combination to acclimate organisms to the light; either use an extra piece of glass, or raise the light, or lower the coral/organism in the water column. I'd start out about two feet (less than one meter, though a meter may work just fine to start) away from the seedling, it is definitely not going to be acclimated to the MH and it's easier to start slow (low intensity/further distance) and bring it closer than it is to deal with burning the hell out of it then trying to correct that.
 

Faroos

Well-Known Member
damn lol.

I'm so impatient. I think I'm going to plug the MH tomorrow.

Do you think it;s ok so early in my plant's development. It'll be 12 days old come tomorrow.
 

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
If they can grow under the sun, they can grow under the MH. Just remember that they must be acclimated.
 

cleef

Well-Known Member
Seamaiden,

You say you used an extra piece of glass between your grow light and whatever it was that you were growing? What kind of setup was that? How well did that work? I was just thinking the other day that I should try hanging a piece of glass a couple inches below my light. I figure with a fan on the glass it will be cool enough for the plants 1/2" below the glass. Based on your experience, is that feasible?
 

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
Seamaiden,

You say you used an extra piece of glass between your grow light and whatever it was that you were growing? What kind of setup was that? How well did that work? I was just thinking the other day that I should try hanging a piece of glass a couple inches below my light. I figure with a fan on the glass it will be cool enough for the plants 1/2" below the glass. Based on your experience, is that feasible?
Specifically, with marine tanks, coral, clams, macro-algaes, that sort of stuff. It worked well, except for the salt creep. I don't think you'd have that problem. Dust can be a problem, but it depends how dusty your area is. In any event, for corals, it can work GREAT as long as you watch the heat, if it gets too warm your corals are going to bleach. The big thing with new MH lights and corals that have been in captivity for some time is the UV radiation emitted by MH, much more of a problem than any other wavelength in the spectrum or the heat directly from the bulbs.

I would think that if your hood is ventilated/exhausted, and you leave that bit of space for air to move in and around the bulb, it would work well. It doesn't have to be thick glass, we used 1/8" plate because it was easier than trying to raise the lights. Also, that allowed us to position the glass over the area where the new corals were places, allowing those already established to continue with the light exposure as it was. The glass was just laid across the top of the tank (open-topped set-up, with pendant MH lights). However, you should expect the glass itself to heat up a lot. I'd probably put the glass about 1/2" from the light, and keep the plants at LEAST a couple of inches away until I knew the heat dissipation was sufficient to not burn them. Make sense?
 

cleef

Well-Known Member
Yeah that does make sense.

Do you know if other plants are sensitive to UV light in the same way? Do you know if there's a way to measure the light that will burn the plant? I'm familiar with the "if it won't burn your hand, it won't burn your plant" adage, but if UV or other non-visible spectrum light is going to burn your plant, I guess all you can do is practice trial and error?

Assuming the glass is clean, how much light do you think you lose?
 

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
There are other plants that make hairs or trichomes, and the reasons for that are varied, from retaining moisture to preventing predation. I don't know how many of these evolved to live in full, day-long sunshine, but I'm sure more than a few have. So.. I think that even though we're not sure of the role of UV, we may ultimately find that getting as close to mimicking sunlight as possible is best.

I do also believe that there are different levels of sensitivity to UV due to evolving in, say, different latitudes, shade plants versus full sun, plants that grow at altitude, and so on.

Loss of light.. you know, years ago I'd seen a chart.. YEARS ago. It's been found to be (relatively) negligible, but also not something you want to make a permanent situation. The technique is used over two to four weeks at most. 1/8" plate if I recollect, no special coatings or treatments. Yes, 1/8" plate, have the edges sanded.
 
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