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[jkiesler]

Hi W.G.,

 

I have a few seeds of Romberry, a Romulan and Blueberry cross, Original Blueberry, Green Crack and two others but I don't know what they are but only know that they will be good stuff. The two that I don't know were dropped off at my house in the states from another grower I know who always had some exotic shit but I wasn't there at the time to mark they're names on the bags and I forgot what the names were. It was when we were right in the middle of our move to here to this country so everything was a bit crazy at the time.

 

I just tried to sprout 12. Nine sprouted and after transplanting six of the nine died. So I am now sprouting more. I had a problem with getting power to my lights but that wasn't why they died. I'm pretty sure they died cause they weren't ready for strong light yet. I was just too eager after six months of going without. My problem with the lights was was that I have 110 volt lights and power here is 220. After ten hours my power converter started going up in smoke. I went to glodok to either find a new 220 volt ballast or a stronger power converter. I found a more heavy duty power converter but it has no sockets or plugs and will have to be hard wired. I'll do that tomorrow after the holiday when the tokos are open.

 

You were trying to find lights? I found this place on line but haven't been there. Looks like they have HPS and MH lights and stuff. If that fails why don't you just have a friend send one from whatever country you are from? Yes, shipping might cost you around $30-$50 US but at least you'll have what you need. You mentioned tubes. Unless you plan to run a lot of tubes I'm not sure they will have enough lumens to do the job. I will be running a 400watt MH and then switch to a 360watt HPS to flower. I also have a 1000watt HPS and MH but I think it will be too hot for my grow space. My 1000watt ballast is switchable to 220 volt.

 

Where do you get seeds from? How long have you been growing here? How long have you been growing here or anywhere else? I used to live here in the 90s and had great success growing outdoors on my roof. I had to adapt a lot growing here where the days are only 12/12 with seeds from Europe where the daylight hours are much longer. But that's a story for another time.

 

Are you here in jkt?

 

JK

Edited August 17, 2009 by jkiesler

[weepingod]

Hi finally found u. U r rite, never know if Uncle Joko is watching. Am lukin to buy UV tubes or UV lamps to use together with my HPS, to increase THC, so i probably just need 1 or 2 tubes, too much UV wud probably kill the plants. I usually buy seeds from seed boutique or make my own. Or simply clone them using Superzone that I mentioned earlier in the previous post its actully geting hard getting Superzone so am saving what I got for cloning and using Scott's Emulsion Original (minyak ikan kod) as fertelizer, now my whole growroom smells like a fishmarket (I use 1 tablespoon and dilute it in a 1.5 litre aqua bottle).

I found that putting your ballast on top of batako brick (u can get them in any hardware store) helps disipate the heat and keeps the ballast cool, batako acts like a heat sink. U shud probably install an AC in your growroom. Whats the name of the website that sells HPS and MH u mentioned? Is it local?

[jkiesler]

W.G.,

 

Sorry, I forgot to include the link: http://bjelectric.itrademarket.com/1456872...mps-fixture.htm I don't know if they have UV tubes though. I found them just by doing a google search. If they don't have what you are looking for then try doing a search.

 

I already have my ballast sitting on some cinderblock bricks. Heat is not a problem...so far. I have some other problems at the moment.

 

One, I'm not having much luck getting my seeds to germinate. My replacement seeds for the sprouts that died have been soaking for two days now and nothing yet. Maybe I'm just too impatient or there is actually something wrong.

 

Two, my MH bulbs wont stay on. When I plug them in they come on. Sometimes fast sometimes more slowly. I have two ballasts and I've tried them both. On ballast A they stayed on longer, about an hour. On ballast B they only stayed on 20 mins or less, or never really got bright. They are both MH ballasts but I have one HPS conversion bulb. When I screw in the HPS conv bulb it starts right up and there is no problem. My first thought was that the MH bulbs are "done". But, would they both be done at exactly the same time? My other thought is: can there be a problem with my transformer? I checked the voltage coming out of the transformer and it's around 108 volts. Voltage coming in is 220 give or take 1-2 volts. One thing I noticed about the MH lights is as they are warming up and becoming brighter there are occasional flashes from the bulb of HPS colored light. I don't remember if this is normal from them or not cause it's been a long time since I actually seen them turn on. Last time I used them they would normally turn on before I was awake.

 

I'd prefer to use the MH lights for veg growth and the HPS for flowering for the obvious reason but in addition, I only have one hps light (400w). If that one goes out I'm screwed unless I whip out the big gun, my 1,000 watt. But I haven't tested it yet since our move here. Don't know if anything happened to it or not yet during the move. I have one of each MH and HPS for the big gun.

 

How many years growing experience do you have?

 

jk

[jkiesler]

Hey, as it turns out the place with the lights are near my house. I might just swing by and chech them out. I'll let you know.

[weepingod]

Your MH won’t stay on maybe becos of low voltage in your area same shit happend in my stockpile. You can route it thru a stabilizer, buy a gud one. Or you are not using the correct ballast for that particular bulb, which cud cause a fire. MH bulbs flashes when first turned on that’s normal.

I use cfl for veg they work fine, buy Shinyoku brand, it comes with 1 year warranty, no ballast no hassle. And gives consistent light over time unlike MH which dims after a few thousand hours and actually takes in more electricity. I use 4 cfl 65watt bulbs for veg in a 1m by 1m grow space.

 

To germinate I use the wet towel (wet towel shud be soaked in warm water so that any detergent residue will b washed away) method and transfer it to pot once it germinates. Wash your hands with warm water b4 handling seeds but without soap, seeds hate soap and sweat. Put in dark, warm moist place. Also cud be the age of the seeds. Or the quality, try putting them in water c if they sink or float, floaters won’t germinate. Or seeds cud hav been cross pollinated accidentally, these mostly won’t germinate or will be heavily mutated. I hav had some interesting results with mutations. Or your water cud be chlorinated in your area. Or the container you are using isn’t sterile. Try washing the container/pot in warm water without soap or detergent. Or you were in a pissy mood while handling the seeds, bad vibes. (I know the last 1 sounded nuts)

 

Been growing for the last 4 years. Thx for da website link.

[jkiesler]

So you're thinking that the low voltage would affect the the MH but not the HPS then? Ok, then I'll have to go back to Glodok and find a bigger stabilizer and try again. I was using a Shinyoku brand 1,000 watt stabilizer/stepdown transformer in the very beginning, had the same problem with the MHs, but after four-five hours the unit started smoking. Disconnected it, opened it up and saw that the plastic resin around the coil had started to melt and turn black. That's when I went to glodok and got a heavy duty step down unit (my ballasts are 110-115v from the States) for Rp.350K. Now just using the step down, no stabilizer. I think the lights, though under the wattage rating for the stabilizer, draw too much power or amps for the basic 1,000 watt stabilizer to handle.

 

CFL? I assume that means those curly little florescent lights? I've never seen them in 65watt sizes. How far from your plants do you mount them? I had tried using florescent tubes back in the 90s here when I lived in Indo before but they weren't strong enough. So then I went up on my roof to try outdoors using the sun and stayed with outdoor ever since. Back in the states I started indoor about the past three years. I grew outdoor before then. Been growing since mid 1990s.

My seeds just this a.m. starting to pop and show some white root tips. I'll add some fungicide to the water for safety. I have them in special soft peat type starter sponges I brought from the states. I've used them for years with no problems. They are made of a natural fiber type material, are soft like sponges and last for months in a ziplock bag, moist with no fungus starting. Once the seeds pop and show some secondary leaves just pop them in the soil. The roots easily grow right through the spongy material.

[jkiesler]

Oh yah, another thing. On the ballast, it can't be the wrong one. It's the same one I've been using for the past two years with the same bulbs. The bulbs don't have two years worth of hours on them though cause half the year I would grow outdoors and in winter go indoors and only use those MHs for vegetative growth before switching to HPS.

[weepingod]

Yea the swirly tube bulbs.

I wud go with the cfl. The 65w (abt the size of 2 coke cans stacked together) goes for around Rp.125k/pc. I have seen a 200w cfl it was goin for 200k/pc but that’s just way to big to put anywhere.

Wats the allocated wattage in your home? Mine is 6600w. I mean when u eventually need to fire up that 1000w HPS, you havta make sure you have enuf spare to run everything else in your house.

[jkiesler]

Hmm, didn't know they made'm that big. That's good to know.

 

My house is rated to 11,000w. I just upped it from 7,700 so that I wouldn't have to worry about running all my ACs or lights.

 

What country are you from? I'm guessing either Aussie, NZ if not North American since this seems to be an Aussie forum. I tried logging into my usual forum in the States, Planet Skunk but they suddenly blacklisted me with a popup page saying my IP address has "Spamming" issues. The let me unlist it through that same site but when I tried to log back in same thing happened. ??? WTF? I hate spammers and now my favorite growers forum is blacklisting me due it spam. WTF?

[weepingod]

. U spammer U.

 

Am from Alice Springs, Australia.