Much to discuss this morning, so lets get right to it!
First, bugs. I took the plants out last night for some inspection and photographs, and much to my surprise did not see a single gnat. It must be the sand. Maybe I caught them early enough? Don't know, but it's a nice start. Also, have not seen a single ant since I used the cinnamon. They must REALLY hate that stuff! I worry that they still could be tunneling around in my soil like they do, but its been a couple days since the cinnamon application so maybe it deterred them enough to just move out! So, the preliminary assessment is positive, but I'm not so brash as to think they could/will not return. I'll continue looking into deterrents, as it there is a long summer about to set in.
Next, A/C. I figured out why it kept tripping...in an attempt to preserve the stealthness of my operation, I blocked the exhaust vent with a piece of cardboard. Not right up against the vent, but between it and the window so you wouldn't be able to see this glowing tube sticking out of an otherwise black window at night. Even though air could still escape, it obstructed the flow too much for the a/c, causing it to shut off before it damaged itself. So I moved the cardboard, and what do you know, it worked like a freaking champ. But now there is a glowing tube...so I took some black t-shirts and wrapped them around the exhaust tube (if you can get a non-translucent tube, like maybe some normal aluminum ducting, that would work too, but this is what the thing came with). This prevents the tube from glowing, so now it just looks like a tube sticking out of a window. I'm going to get a black curtain or something (maybe speaker cover cloth, but I haven't tried to find any yet) that allows air to pass but through which you cannot see. Moral of the story--the condensers in these things put off a tremendous amount of heat, and need appropriate ventilation.
Not sure if I mentioned this, but I called Eye to ask about the difference between the hortilux and sunlux conversion bulbs. She said the sunlux tended to be used more for commercial lighting and not growing, while the hortilux is marketed for indoor garding. I explained that I could find no difference in the technical spec sheets, but she didn't know anything about the bulbs themselves. I went line by line through those damn sheets and could not find a difference, so I'm pretty sure they are exactly the same. Maybe I'll call the Sunlux people and see what they have to say about it. It should be on its way though...
Plants. They look good. Nothing really new developing. Starting to see lots of orange hairs. But don't take my word for it...see for yourselves.
Let's start with Tall girl. She's coming right along. Top bud starting to bulk out a little. Getting a little heavy for my reinforced skewer-stakes, so I may have to reinforce them yet again. Or just get a metal stake or something.
Top cola and first couple nodes. Smelling good these days too.
Here's a slightly closer shot.
A couple of tall girls side buds...i've had 3 cfls ~1inch from these for about a week, and they are really benefitting from it. Keep in mind they are 2' from the HPS at the bottom, so without these cfls they would probably look more like wide girls bottom buds (as you can see in the next few pics).
Next, wide girl. She's gonna turn into one gigantic bud I think...nice...
View of the top
The lower budsites are smaller on this girl than tall girl, probably because those massive fan leaves were obstructing them until their recent demise. Hope they get a little bigger before its all said and done.
I haven't take a good "in situ" shot with all the lights I'm currently running, so here it is. You can't see the HPS but its just barely out of the pic. Shorty gets some extra cfl love because she is so far away from the HPS. I do prop her up on a box to make her at least a little closer.
Can't leave out the...teenagers? Man have these things started to get HUGE since I switched them 12/12. They vegged about 1 week before I switched them, and that was 4 or so days ago. Already I'm starting to see genitalia on one of them, but its too soon to tell male or female. Seing as its only been 4 days, and males tend to show first...
And here's R2D2's long lost cousin R420...only blows in one direction, but man does it blow. Its enough to stabilize the entire bathroom, including the veg closet which is no where near the path of the cool air. It's only 7,000 btu, so I think that means it uses less energy than a 9,000 or 12,000 model, right? Either way it is plenty for my needs and then some.
So there you have it. Things change a little every day, sometimes for the good, sometimes just to keep me on my toes. Things are looking up right now though! Each day is one day closer to VINDICATION FOR ALL MY HARD WORK! And it really has been hard work. It's funny, I started with a $10 reflector and blue coated halogen "grow" bulb...now its become a 24/7 full time operation.
If you're gonna do something, might as well do it up right!