can't find light leak...but its there!!

[inreplyavalon]

Greetings folks.
I had my last cycle pollinate due to a light leak. Its a new room and i have since spent a few hours in it during the night cycle to try and find where the light source is.
When i am in the room i can vaguely make out the outline of my hand when its a foot in front of my face. I can see my hand move. I let my eyes adjust but still can't figure it out. Anyone have any tricks they can help me with?
This is very frustrating as my last grow was my most successful so far yet i ended up chopping everything two weeks early. Very sad

Thanks for reading

 

[Kalicokitty]

You really can't tell where it's coming from after standing in there for a few minutes with lights out and letting your eyes adjust?

Look at your door and windows first.
Unless all your walls are semi-translucent, it has it be coming from one or more particular areas.
Got anyone who knows you grow already that you can bring into the room for a second opinion?

Are you positive that its a light leak causing your problems in the first place?

 

[CaptainTrips]

Light leaks are not the only reason for hermies. If you can only barely make your hand out a foot away, it probably wasn't the cause. Hell my cab isn't really light proof at all (getting a tent for next cycle), and Ive never had a full on hermie... Just some nanners and not even a pack full of seeds (lol)

 

[dtfsux]

I think the problem is elsewhere. Are you SURE you dont have any males? I spent months battling pollination, only to find out that one of my strains was male.

remember people grow outdoors w/o issue

 

[tokinafaty420]

Like someone already said, light leaks are not the only cause for hermies. Unless you have a great deal of experience with this strain it may be a genetic flaw that pops up once in awhile.

 

[inreplyavalon]

thanks ya'll for chiming in.
I grew over 10 different strains and had bananas on most of them. There was a leak through the A/C that was discovered and repaired and that is all i can find, though in a truly dark room the eyes cannot see. I can actually make out the outlines of things. I am heading back in to hopefully not be able to see. I already doubled up on the windows and doors and don't see any light near either.
I'll report my findings!

 

[GuerrillaRed]

This thread worried me as I've grown in rooms that weren't that light proof in 12 off. I was worried I might've just been lucky in my last grows. I always thought with light pollution and moonlight that plants have to contend with outdoors that it doesn't need to be pitch black.

 

[inreplyavalon]

my understanding is that because the sun is so bright that the ration between day and night is much larger than that of your growroom. meaning that even with a full moon, the difference in amount of light between night/day is so great that the plants do not react to the moonlight. Makes sense to me.

 

[funkervogt]

my understanding is that because the sun is so bright that the ration between day and night is much larger than that of your growroom. meaning that even with a full moon, the difference in amount of light between night/day is so great that the plants do not react to the moonlight. Makes sense to me.

That's right. It's all about intensity; light reflecting off of the moon has very little intensity. Light streaming in from a crack can have a lot of intensity depending on source.

Some plants will never go hermie, and some plants will always go hermie. Other environmental stresses can cause hermies as well. I've seen hermies caused by temperature fluctuations in my room before, but never because of a minor light leak.

 

[GeorgeSmiley]

I can't see my hand in front of my face in the veg or flower room when everything is off. So if you can see an outline you either have great night vision...... do you have any LED's lights on equipment or a watch on with luminescent dial?

Sucks bro
Smiley

 

[medmaker420]

if you have someone who knows about the grow and you would allow them in, have them see if they can spot it. Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to spot that stuff.

 

[catman]

Did you just get seeds or did you actually see male flowers?

Are you using a mechanical or digital timer for 12/12? If the timing is off the plants will be stressed and will produce seeds with no actual hermies.

 

[inreplyavalon]

funker: thanks for sharing that knowledge. I knew the concept just could not find the words...

Smiley: Yes i did have some leds on equipment and i have since taped them all up. One big culprit was my sentinel CO2 controller. Throws off a lot of light as does the remote reader. Taped it all up and then just turned it off instead.

Medmaker thanks for the tip, its a good one.

Catman, seeds and male flowers. Plants riddled with them. No mistaking them.

I just got out of the room and spent a good forty minutes. Amazing what starts to appear. The amount the eyes adjust after a while is pretty amazing.
I am so damn frustrated. I put in a big window unit AC that is in the wall between my veg and flower room. This has been taped up time and time again, bit it is still leaking light from veg into flower. There is a hole in the bottom of the AC where the AC drips out the water it pulls from the air. This hole needs to stay open, even after taping everything else. I think i will need to use a taped funnel and hose or something to cut out the light.
Secondly i discovered that a 4 footsection in the corner where two walls come together is glowing light. Shitty taping job and spackling. It was my first go at it.
I can fix the taping, but the AC has me troubled. I may just pull it out and start exhausting the air in the room. After wasting 600 on controller and another 700 on AC. Oh well

 

[dtfsux]

the tape job can be fixed with caulk in corners, and some heavy paint.

Not sure exactly what you got going on with the A/C , but can you use a p trap, like the setup under a sink? Obviously not that big but same setup with tubing to create a light trap. It would always hold water, but it shouldnt get moldy if water is constantly draining in it.

I had an LG that had a fitting on it, you could connect a hose to.

 

[robbiedublu]

thanks ya'll for chiming in.
I grew over 10 different strains and had bananas on most of them. There was a leak through the A/C that was discovered and repaired and that is all i can find, though in a truly dark room the eyes cannot see. I can actually make out the outlines of things. I am heading back in to hopefully not be able to see. I already doubled up on the windows and doors and don't see any light near either.
I'll report my findings!

Doesn't matter how many strains you have, if 9 of the 10 are 100% hermi free and the remaining one has a few male flowers, and they're all in the same room, they can all end up with seeds. Light leaks are hard to miss in a dark room.

 

[inreplyavalon]

dtf thanks for the tips. I am trying to figure out a hose to attach to the bottom of the AC, the problem is it seems the water just catches in the bottom of the AC and finds its way to the hole. I am afraid if i attach a hose, the drain will no longer be flush with the bottom of the AC. Not sure it makes any sense, but no biggie. The sink method is just what i was thinking, just need to figure how to attach to hole while keeping it flush to bottom of AC.

Robbie i certainly have not said anything contradictory to your factual statement. I understand all it takes is pollen to pollinate a flowering plant. Pollen from 1 or 100 different plants don't matter. What i was saying was in response to someone asking me if i am sure their was a hermie. Yes i am sure, saw male parts on many different strains. Thanks for reading though! I appreciate all the help i can get!

 

[dtfsux]

If I understand you right, you are worried that you wont drain all the water from the A/C. thats not an issue. On my 24kBTU LG ( I ran 3 of them in different ops) the drain plug from LG snapped in from the side, so there was always some water in the bottom.

I may be wrong, but I thought window A/C's were designed to have a little water in the bottom

Check to see if the unit has a drain spot, or check the manual, or google for the manual.


Marine 5200 is strong as hell. I bet if you used that to glue a funnel or fitting to the bottom, it wouldnt come off unless you tried really really hard. we used to use that to mount bilge pumps in jet skis.

 

[Kalicokitty]

I just got out of the room and spent a good forty minutes. Amazing what starts to appear. The amount the eyes adjust after a while is pretty amazing.

There you go, just have to hang out in there a while.
I've had new rooms where the lights go out and I can't see shit, and I'm thinking, sweet, pitch black, then 5 minutes later I can see like 6 or more slight leaks that I couldn't see at all in the first 2 mins after lights out.

I took my AC apart and heavy duty foil taped the entire divider between the front and back parts of the unit, and then every other spot that I thought might possibly leak light, put it back together, big difference, totally blacked the thing out.

Good to hear your on the right track to getting it solved.

 

[Maj.Cottonmouth]

There you go, just have to hang out in there a while.
I've had new rooms where the lights go out and I can't see shit, and I'm thinking, sweet, pitch black, then 5 minutes later I can see like 6 or more slight leaks that I couldn't see at all in the first 2 mins after lights out.

I took my AC apart and heavy duty foil taped the entire divider between the front and back parts of the unit, and then every other spot that I thought might possibly leak light, put it back together, big difference, totally blacked the thing out.

Good to hear your on the right track to getting it solved.

I think kk nailed it, from what I have read to light proof an ac unit you usually have to pull the front off and use metal tape on the piece of styrofoam that divides the cold and hot sides.

 

[foaf]

the easiest way to find light leaks is to fire up the grow light and look for it leaking out not the ambient light leaking in. If you cant easily find the leak, then I bet its not a problem anyway.