Solar powered guerrila op

H

hazetastic808

Well-Known Member
In the final prep stages of this years guerrila op, to avoid rippers and the popo I'm going for ultimate isolation an hour+ hike into the middle of F'ing nowhere :) Now considering that and the fact that I'm trying for some monsters since I have the isolation to do so I've been worrying alot about watering.

Just carrying all the soil nutes and other supplys out to the site I've had to make 5 trips already and I have a few more to go. This has made me a little worried about watering, I'm going to have to transport all my water to the site and I'm fine with that, I fully believe that the reward is equal to the effort put in.

I've done a bit of research to help me try and find a way around this issue, I'm considering digging out a hole for a 50 gal. drum and filling it up with water/nutes, setting up a solar powered pump and timer and setting up misters all around the plot to water the plants daily. This would allow me to visit the site minimally which I think is good as much as possible for guerrila grows.

Wondering if anyone has tried this before and if you guys think its a good idea.
 
WhatWouldBobDo?

WhatWouldBobDo?

Active Member
Don't take my word for it, but I think this is a very bad idea.

First of all is the cost involved. Your talking spending 10k + on a solar system. When doing guerilla there is a chance it will get noticed, and everything taken. Are you willing to let $10,000 get confiscated? I don't know about you, but I can afford losing some plants, but 10 g's is alot to lose.

Second, if the eyes in the sky don't notice your plants, they sure as HELL will notice a few huge ass solar panels. I don't have any helicopter LEO training, but my guess is if they are going through the woods and see a big ass, shiney, reflecting object, they will look at it. And if all around it are some mj plants, you just about threw up a signal flare letting them know where you are at.

Third, when (much more likely than if) you got busted for it, all that equipment has serial numbers on the sides. All they need to do is call the company up, trace where it was sold to, and your ass goes to jail. You can deny that you threw some plants in the ground, hard for them to prove that you did, but to deny that you bought a solar generator and connected it to your plants? no way.

Instead, just buy a car battery or three and throw them in the ground. Less expensive than a solar panel, and you can't see it as easily either.
 
H

hazetastic808

Well-Known Member
...Where in the world are you getting this 10k figure from? If I wanted to they have solar powered water pumps that cost like $50 and there solar panels are 5x5 inches. But what I most likely will end up doing is getting a similar sized panel to charge a battery hooked up to a slighty more powerful pump then the $50 variety.

The 1 thing that would worry me is even though it is so small the reflectivity of the 5x5in solar panel could attract unwanted attention from above.
 
H

hazetastic808

Well-Known Member
Okay this may be a stupid question as well, but being that the panels would be small and would only be needing to slowly recharge the battery, would they work facing upside down? Say on the bottom side of a tree branch. I realise it wouldn't be as efficient but it would still be able to absorb some of the suns rays and it wouldn't be a reflective issue either.
 
GrowTech

GrowTech

stays relevant.
Haze this will work, I used to do it to manage water pumps and cheap pumps for nutrients, but if you're too far from a water source you may experience some issues...
 
GrowTech

GrowTech

stays relevant.
Things are no more reflective than a puddle of water on the ground. I wouldn't leave them upside down, you need them to absorb the energy...
 
Irie Hawaii

Irie Hawaii

Well-Known Member
WhatWouldBobDo? said:
Don't take my word for it, but I think this is a very bad idea.

First of all is the cost involved. Your talking spending 10k + on a solar system. When doing guerilla there is a chance it will get noticed, and everything taken. Are you willing to let $10,000 get confiscated? I don't know about you, but I can afford losing some plants, but 10 g's is alot to lose.

Second, if the eyes in the sky don't notice your plants, they sure as HELL will notice a few huge ass solar panels. I don't have any helicopter LEO training, but my guess is if they are going through the woods and see a big ass, shiney, reflecting object, they will look at it. And if all around it are some mj plants, you just about threw up a signal flare letting them know where you are at.

Third, when (much more likely than if) you got busted for it, all that equipment has serial numbers on the sides. All they need to do is call the company up, trace where it was sold to, and your ass goes to jail. You can deny that you threw some plants in the ground, hard for them to prove that you did, but to deny that you bought a solar generator and connected it to your plants? no way.

Instead, just buy a car battery or three and throw them in the ground. Less expensive than a solar panel, and you can't see it as easily either.
Click to expand...

This guys an idiot. 10Gs are you retarded?:lol: there only like $60. hahaha 10 grand:clap:. here let me show you what a solar powered irragation systeem looks like:
 

Attachments

WhatWouldBobDo?

WhatWouldBobDo?

Active Member
Irie Hawaii said:
This guys an idiot. 10Gs are you retarded?:lol: there only like $60. hahaha 10 grand:clap:. here let me show you what a solar powered irragation systeem looks like:
Click to expand...
Please avoid the insults. I'm not throwing them your way, please don't throw them my way.

My experience with solar arrays is somewhat limited, but from what I remembered you would need a solar panel, an inverter/charger, a battery, a charge controller, wires, and timers. If you think you can get that for $50 I would just ask that you show me a link.

I got my information from: http://www.sunelec.com/

This is more geared for houses though, and I realize that now. The number is very far off. But, if you go to systems, then grid-tied systems, the cheapest (and smallest) off grid system would run you at about $1,600 (all things included). That is with each panel at about $516 .... not $50. I don't know if this is more power than you need, but my guess is that

But the last time I went backpacking in southern New Mexico, they had wells with solar arrays attached to pump it out. They were not 5"x5". They were closer to 6'x6'.

But what do I know.
 
MAc DRe

MAc DRe

Well-Known Member
I would suggest throwing a car battery or two in the ground with a pump and avoid the solar idea, the more things visible are the more things that will get you caught up. also get the biggest resevoir you can find and burry it so you can make the least amount of trips possible and good luck,hope you get some monsters
 
Carl Spackler

Carl Spackler

Well-Known Member
I think what Haze was referring to was a tiny pump with a 2-4 watt demand. The volume needed to water a few plants is fairly limited which is good since these pumps have an extremely limited output. I was at Lowes's today looking at little solar powered pumps designed for outdoor fountains. According to the manufacturer, they store enough electricity for the pump to be ran at night. At a little over $50, I've decided to give them a shot on my veggy garden to see what the limitations are. The $10k variety are likely designed for commercial use/high volume such as you would use for row-crops. A $13.00, battery powered timer with a valve, such as is used on the end of a garden hose with a few reducers could be rigged up for less than $20. Add the cost of the hose from the resevoir/pump to your plant(s) plus emitters and it comes up to around $90 -$125 for the total rig. This is well within my budget to find out if I can avoid needless trips during drought. To me, the biggest obstacle is finding a pristine source of water to avoid clogs in a irrigation line of that size. Filtration would prevent larger particles but with a hose of only 1/8" ID clogs would always be a potential problem.
 
H

hazetastic808

Well-Known Member
Irie thanks for that pic of the irrigation system thats exactly what I was thinking of, do you have a link to where you got it that possibly has some more info. And yes I was referring to those low wattage pumps you can buy at lowes or home depot, Whatwouldbobdo, I wasnt tryin to call you out not sure if you were referring to me or not, just gotta remember your not using a whole lot of power here about 1/10 the amount of a single cfl, and it will not be constantly on. Just think of those old crappy calculators you used in school, just a little bit bigger in scale.

As for the resevoir I'm thinking about digging a hole and putting one of those inflatable pools in it, how does that sound? Also, if I painted a tarp the color of the surrounding vegetation and hung it to collect rain water do you think it would still be pretty obvious from flyovers? What about if I put it under treecover?

As for the clogging problem, I would have something covering the reservoir at all times to keep vegetation out but I think I would pull the water through 1 of those cheap drinking water filters to ensure that even small particles dont build up in the hose.
 
H

hazetastic808

Well-Known Member
Actually....now that I'm thinking about it, since I am growing on a hillslope, couldn't I just place the reservoir above my plants on the slope, and just have a battery powered timer valve and just let gravity do its thing?
 
N

nedyrb

Active Member
Don't plant in rows! :)

The car batteries sound like a good idea, how guerrilla are you talking though? If we're talking quite large to the point that you're investing a LOT of money maybe a gas powered pump would be better and you could camouflage it? Before anyone starts flaming, I have no clue how much they cost or anything, it's just a brainstorm idea..
 
H

hazetastic808

Well-Known Member
Wasn't planning on rows, at this point I've got 3 plots all surrounded by vegetaion. Going to have 2 plants per plot with some autos scattered around so something kinda smallscale, and then just do it 3x.
 
Carl Spackler

Carl Spackler

Well-Known Member
While I am sure the car batteries idea would work, it has three potential drawbacks.

1. They are heavy. I have a marine-style battery for use with trolling motors that while it would keep a charge for many days or even weeks it weighs in excess of 40 lbs.
2. They contain lead and acid. If you are truly being a "good steward" of the environment in your grow, leaving it behind is not a option. After lugging something like this out to the site, some rocket scientist reading this thread will simply say "fuck it man, I got my bud what do I care?"
3. Keeping the battery charged during a extended grow might prove to be a huge pain. Lugging it all the way back to a vehicle for a charge from your cars/truck cigarette lighter or, back to the house for a trickle charge. Myself, I want to work smarter not harder for my grow and pulling my shoulder out of the socket doesn't enter into the equation.

The rig I mentioned earlier might weigh 2-3 lbs total and can condensed down to a pretty small package and stowed into a backpack or tackle box.
 
H

hazetastic808

Well-Known Member
Ya, I've decided to go a diff approach. Like I said I'm on a hillslope so I can still bury my reservoir into the ground and let gravity do its thing and not need a pump at all. I'm going to be using one of these http://melnor.com/aquatimers/3060.html at each plot, has anyone used these before and have an opinion on them? They cost about $30-40 at Home Depot and run on a 9v battery, they have an optional accessorie here also http://melnor.com/conservation/aqua-sentry.html that does a check on the moisture of the soil before each scheduled watering, and if the soil was still moistened to your setting (due to a nice amount of rain for example) it will cancel that scheduled watering. This could help conserve water and prevent overwatering. What you guys think?
 
Carl Spackler

Carl Spackler

Well-Known Member
Looks like it could work. Since the inlet side of the timer is likely to be garden-hose threads, I would simply use a old garden hose from the resevoir (uphill) down to the grow site and use a few reducers/adapters to get it to fit your drip-irrigation line. Again, the emitters on drip-irrigation are tiny and will need a filter if you are going to be away for long periods but the HomeDepot plumbing department guy should be able to hook you up to water your "tomatoes". With pressure coming from gravity only, even algae build-up might cause a clog.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top