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bobblehead overtakes

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
Just got back... I'm pretty busy so I'm going to disappear again after this post... I should be caught up on my work within a few days.

Last week I reinstalled the well pump, but water wasn't restored because everything was still frozen and we were due for warm weather. I had enough water to last another week, so I left the pump primed and running with a space heater in the well pit, and stayed inside to work on the grow. I had to spend a couple hours this morning getting water into the house, boiling water with a blow torch. I was so happy to have water running again... Not just for the plants, but now I can poop at the house again!

On with the pictures. I forgot to take a pic of the octagon again, deal with it. It looks like the same shitty crop that didn't stretch.

Veg- before I pulled 21ish Straw DD.
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Straw DD @ 0 weeks. The pictures make this room look sloppy... but I spent a good amount of time putting this room together. I drained all the buckets and pulled them. I dumped the lava rocks on the pond liner floor, laid out some landscape fabric, and filled it with coco/perlite. I saw large-scale strawberry grow done with the landscape fabric like this. I figure for vert beds, its a no brainer. The beds go all the way around the room, and the one in the center. 4-600w lamps spread around the room. I had the hardest time getting the wiring right. Nextgen ballasts suck ass, Lumatek, Galaxy and Xtrasun have been good to me, and will power a lamp from further away than a Nextgen. I also had a Nextgen die straight out of the box last week, no fault of my own. Lumatek ftw. I left the feed manifold the same, so that was one less change I had to make. I still have to clean these bushes up for clones. I just didn't have the time this week.
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Headband @ 2 weeks
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Headband @ 4 weeks
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I wanted to get more plants in flower... but like I said... I'm pressed for time.
 

high life 45

Seen your Member?
Veteran
Nextgen ballasts suck ass, Lumatek, Galaxy and Xtrasun have been good to me, and will power a lamp from further away than a Nextgen. I also had a Nextgen die straight out of the box last week, no fault of my own. Lumatek ftw.

Weird, I have had the exact opposite experience.
I like next gen over lumatek.

Lumateks have much more rf interference, I cant listen to the lower fm stations on the radio when the lumateks are on. I never noticed an rf interference with my nextgens.

Lumateks do not hot flip, when I first set up my flipper they seemed to work, a week later no such luck. I had to use my intermatic timer to turn off and on the ballasts while the relay flipped. This meant the lights were off for a while because of how intermatic timers work.

Its funny because nextgen claim to fame is that they can fire a ballast from like 65' away.

Product description for a 65' mogul socket.
"The C.A.P. 5kv Mogul Socket with lamp cord fits all C.A.P. and many other manufacturers lamp cord receptacles. Please note that the 65’ cord will only work with NextGen Electronic Ballasts."

I have some 400/600w switchable next gens that are close to 5 years old.

I think the manufacture started to cheap out on components for the next gen because I bought some a year ago and they crapped out on me also. My older ones are still ticking. I replaced them with quantums.

I just sold my 4 1k lumateks on craigslist and bought 4 quantums instead.
They hot flip seamlessly.

I feel ya on the water, my well is dry and the landlord has water trucked in, but the water truck just broke and I have been with out water for a few days. I just put rain water in the toilet, but you only get a flush a day, if that. Being without water sucks.


In that second pic of your bobblebed where does it drain? I like your application of one agricultural method to an entirely different crop. How many gallons of media in the landscape fabric would you say each plant has?

The headbandbeds are looking good.

this c02 oil got me goin.:dance013:

Big Love
hl45
 
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D

DaveTheNewbie

talkin ballasts i just bought some solis tek's
hope they last 5 years at least :)

and you can tell your friends friend that its cool, i dont do anal either :)
 

farmari

Member
bobblehead, about how big is that 0 week Straw DD room? And is there a hole in the pond liner for a drain? Pretty cool design there.

high life 45, what bulbs do you prefer with the Quantums? I've been running 4-6 Quantums for +1 year without problems, one spent 2-4 months on a flip flop seamlessly. One thing is I don't know what bulbs work well... every Hortilux I've used had problems, not much problem with Ushio yet except one premature burnout.
 

b00m

~No Guts~ ~No Glory~
Mentor
Veteran
:good: Wow bobbles bruz those beds are going to kick arse :whee:
My nextgen ballast is about 4yrs old and still works a treat, sorry to hear that you've had troubles with the ones you had mate, maybe they are using cheaper shitter components nowadays :chin:
:plant grow:
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
Quantum and Ushio's = bulletproof lighting

I've heard very little bad about quantums. Personally i've had good success with lumatek (not as reliable as i'd like, but never had a problem returning one for a brand new unit same day), galaxy (have bout 15 of these and not one has missed a tick yet in over 3 years of constant operation), hydrofarm phantom. Have just one of these as I don't like how the cords come out of the long side of the ballast (personal preference). It hasn't had a hiccup in over 3 years of use either though so :good: for reliability. I don't flip my ballasts, so no comments there. Ushio is the ONLY bulb you will find in my garden period. Unquestionable reliability and results very similar to hortilux (the difference in yeild wasn't enough to be noticable to me), the price difference, preformance, and reliability put ushio leagues ahead of hortilux IMO. To be fair I havn't tried the newer verison hortilux put out to solve the digital compatiblity problem. In my mind if your shit isn't overbuilt in the first place, you've got no business charging more than for a product that is built like a russian tank, ushio FTMFW. Agrosun are also really reliable bulbs with excellent preformance, but ushio is still better :biggrin:.

Bobble - Very interesting adaptation of strawberry tech for herb growing. Curious to see what comes of that for you. Lots of things to keep track of with all these different systems running, but looks to be a good haul if you can keep it together, and the water flowing :rtfo:. Handle your business, but don't forget about us vert fiends, we need our weekly dose of bobble porn :biggrin:
 

Jnugg

Active member
Veteran
I don't mind the porn,so long as it's Bobble's Harem of ladies in the shots with Bobbles nowhere to be found.
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
Taking a study break...

Weird, I have had the exact opposite experience.
I like next gen over lumatek.

Lumateks have much more rf interference, I cant listen to the lower fm stations on the radio when the lumateks are on. I never noticed an rf interference with my nextgens.

Lumateks do not hot flip, when I first set up my flipper they seemed to work, a week later no such luck. I had to use my intermatic timer to turn off and on the ballasts while the relay flipped. This meant the lights were off for a while because of how intermatic timers work.

Its funny because nextgen claim to fame is that they can fire a ballast from like 65' away.

Product description for a 65' mogul socket.
"The C.A.P. 5kv Mogul Socket with lamp cord fits all C.A.P. and many other manufacturers lamp cord receptacles. Please note that the 65’ cord will only work with NextGen Electronic Ballasts."

I have some 400/600w switchable next gens that are close to 5 years old.

I think the manufacture started to cheap out on components for the next gen because I bought some a year ago and they crapped out on me also. My older ones are still ticking. I replaced them with quantums.

I just sold my 4 1k lumateks on craigslist and bought 4 quantums instead.
They hot flip seamlessly.

I feel ya on the water, my well is dry and the landlord has water trucked in, but the water truck just broke and I have been with out water for a few days. I just put rain water in the toilet, but you only get a flush a day, if that. Being without water sucks.


In that second pic of your bobblebed where does it drain? I like your application of one agricultural method to an entirely different crop. How many gallons of media in the landscape fabric would you say each plant has?

The headbandbeds are looking good.

this c02 oil got me goin.
Big Love
hl45

lol you and I have exact opposite experiences regarding our ballasts. I have had no RF issues with my lumateks. I had a nextgen ballast plugged into a relay, and it wouldn't power a lamp on the opposite end of the house. I switched it out for a lumatek, also a magnetic for a lumatek, and the lamps fired. I've had lumateks running non-stop for years without issue. I think that the old lumateks had issues, but the new ones are solid. I think that the old nextgens were good, but now they have issues. I took a nextgen into my local shop, and they told me that they were surprised to see it, b/c nextgen has shut down production due to reliability issues. Luckily I was able to return the ballast for a refund. They were only $126 shipped, and I thought the price was a steal! I should have known better, but nextgen iss a reputable company... w/e, I know what I'll be purchasing in the future if I need more ballasts.

I want to try quantum one day... but I don't have an issue with the flip because I put my ballasts on a digital timer. They turn on at 8:02am, shut off at 7:58pm, the relays flip at 8:00pm, the ballasts turn back on at 8:02pm, and shut off at 7:58am, and the relays flip back. A hot transfer is supposed to be bad for all the hardware, so that's why I do it this way. If I do a hot transfer and the ballasts are tripped, they will normally reset themselves in 15 or 20mins. Sometimes this happens when the timers get out of sync. Gotta keep an eye on those timers. I use 20A in-wall digital light timers, and wire my own light panels with the relays/sockets//timers/ballasts all together. I have 3 of them running right now.

Runoff is collected on the floor. That's it. The floor is the tray. The roots will be able to grow down onto the floor and soak up the runoff. When I was running blumats at this location, the pond liner was full more often than not... ha ha... and after tossing some ideas back and forth with SRGB... I got to thinking, why not just use the pond liner, making it an active part of the system, rather than "just" a backup measure?

No clue how many gallons are in each. I suppose I could calculate it, but fuck that shit. I have better things to spend my time on. I hydrated 5 botanicare bricks, used 4.5, used 1.25 bags of coarse perlite... So whatever that comes out to.

talkin ballasts i just bought some solis tek's
hope they last 5 years at least

and you can tell your friends friend that its cool, i dont do anal either

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/0...cs&ir=Politics

Mike Frey, a "concerned" father and husband, spoke in front of the committee on Tuesday and cited Minnesota's sodomy law, struck down in 2001, which defined sodomy as both anal and oral sex. He attempted to argue that gay sex poses a danger to citizens of the state because it results in the spread of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).He claimed that heterosexual sex could be safer because the vagina has a "barrier of cellular tissue that doesn't allow the sperm ... to penetrate the blood flow," but anal sex doesn't have such protections.
"When ejaculation occurs inside of a colon, it's highly absorbent material, the cells do not have a barrier for the sperm and those enzymes to enter into the blood flow," Frey said. "When the enzymes enter into the blood flow, and a continued, prolonged environment of that happens, these enzymes in the blood flow, it causes what we know as AIDS.


bobblehead, about how big is that 0 week Straw DD room? And is there a hole in the pond liner for a drain? Pretty cool design there.

high life 45, what bulbs do you prefer with the Quantums? I've been running 4-6 Quantums for +1 year without problems, one spent 2-4 months on a flip flop seamlessly. One thing is I don't know what bulbs work well... every Hortilux I've used had problems, not much problem with Ushio yet except one premature burnout.

The room is 8' x 8'. No drain = Drain To no Waste.

I have ushio and hortilux.
They both work fine for me.

I know that hortilux recently redesigned there bulbs.

I haven't used horti-eyes since I switched to USHIO. Since then, I've also tried Lucalox, Apollo, and Digilux. Lucalox is the only lamp that comes close to USHIO.

Wow bobbles bruz those beds are going to kick arse
My nextgen ballast is about 4yrs old and still works a treat, sorry to hear that you've had troubles with the ones you had mate, maybe they are using cheaper shitter components nowadays

Thanks b00m! Yeah, I think the new nextgens are garbage. They were probably a really nice ballast when they first came out.

Quantum and Ushio's = bulletproof lighting

Gotta try those quantums... I've heard nothing but good reviews.

I've heard very little bad about quantums. Personally i've had good success with lumatek (not as reliable as i'd like, but never had a problem returning one for a brand new unit same day), galaxy (have bout 15 of these and not one has missed a tick yet in over 3 years of constant operation), hydrofarm phantom. Have just one of these as I don't like how the cords come out of the long side of the ballast (personal preference). It hasn't had a hiccup in over 3 years of use either though so :good: for reliability. I don't flip my ballasts, so no comments there. Ushio is the ONLY bulb you will find in my garden period. Unquestionable reliability and results very similar to hortilux (the difference in yeild wasn't enough to be noticable to me), the price difference, preformance, and reliability put ushio leagues ahead of hortilux IMO. To be fair I havn't tried the newer verison hortilux put out to solve the digital compatiblity problem. In my mind if your shit isn't overbuilt in the first place, you've got no business charging more than for a product that is built like a russian tank, ushio FTMFW. Agrosun are also really reliable bulbs with excellent preformance, but ushio is still better :biggrin:.

Bobble - Very interesting adaptation of strawberry tech for herb growing. Curious to see what comes of that for you. Lots of things to keep track of with all these different systems running, but looks to be a good haul if you can keep it together, and the water flowing :rtfo:. Handle your business, but don't forget about us vert fiends, we need our weekly dose of bobble porn :biggrin:

It won't just be interesting... It will be GLORIOUS!

I know of another guy that was always changing up his grow style... He's friends with Winnie The Poo.

I got you dog... More vert glory coming as time and water permits.

Gross

Speak for yourself

lol silver gets the good stuff to his phone... He doesn't have to come to my thread.

I don't mind the porn,so long as it's Bobble's Harem of ladies in the shots with Bobbles nowhere to be found.

Sometimes my hairy arms get in the picture... imagine what you guys would think if you saw my legs... yikes... lol
 
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megayields

Grower of Connoisseur herb's.
ICMag Donor
Veteran
RE> Sometimes my hairy arms get in the picture... imagine what you guys would think if you saw my legs... yikes... lol

I just threw up a little in my mouth.
 

TheArchitect

Member
Veteran
I have to have a ballast that runs boost. Lumatek wins there. 1ks run better pushed to 1150w. It shortens the bulb life a tad, but you get better micromole/watt iirc.
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
RE> Sometimes my hairy arms get in the picture... imagine what you guys would think if you saw my legs... yikes... lol

I just threw up a little in my mouth.

Took the words right out of my mouth :puke:. On the other hand I like pictures of bobbles ladies legs. Especially when they're all fat, hairy, and swollen. Wait, that just sounds wrong....... :biggrin:
 

bobblehead

Active member
Veteran
I was a little surprised to find out some of my plants had run out of water when I got in this week. The wrong reservoir was filling. The horizontal room was hit the hardest, with my headband @ 5 weeks yellowing out prematurely. I was pretty pissed... That, and a circuit breaker went bad so the headband @ 3 weeks hasn't grown as much as it should b/c the lights haven't been on. This was all easy to fix, but as a result I wasn't thinking about pictures for this room during lights on. I was hydrating my plants and replacing the bad circuit breaker.

Octagon @ 7 weeks. I can't wait to get a different plant in here now that I have a working feed system! :) It'll either be Headband or Straw DD. I have a lot more clippings from the Headband though, and they're bigger.
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I guess this is the stadium room? Anyway I had to pull a lamp out of here for the next room. This room now only has 2 430w lamps. My last grow I only pulled 9.5oz Straw DD and 8.5oz GG, so I think 2 lamps will be more appropriate anyway. It'll give me room to do training around the lamps, instead of training away from them. Straw DD @ 0 weeks
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2400w room. This room also took a hit from running out of nute solution... but not so bad b/c they're only @ 1 week. Straw DD.
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Veg- I lollipopped the rest of my Headband clones... And I'm talking up to the first 2-3 nodes. Next week I'll plant them in a table in the horizontal room... Which will bring me to full capacity.
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I need more space. I'm gonna be in the market for another house in a few months... For a legal op.
 

Mister_D

Active member
Veteran
Looks good bob :good: Wait til you see what I found in the garbage yesterday, bout blew my mind completely :biggrin:
 
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I

idoreallytry

stick to ur lumateks brother,,,I bought two brand new quantum adjustable 1000 watters one blew up after two weeks and when they are on and I have my laptop battery cord plugged in there is a delay in my mouse go turn the quantum off problem goes awayhouse,,,,and I can leave the lumateks on no problem,,,,i gave my to a buddy who has no computer or internet at his ,,,,,i called lumatek they said they had some kind of rf blocker or whatnot built in the newer models,, but do some investigating I am just relaying my experience and if it aint broke don't fix it peace bro,,,
stop by when u get a chance,,, hope your mom gets to feeling better,,,
 

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