I just read this whole thread start to finish, and got a case of butt-burn doing it. Couldn't keep my eyes off that san-O buildout, the top quality gear and the juicy early flower bud-porn!
Thanks for the fresh info from your Prof. regarding the extent of the usefulness of foliar feeds, it's really nice to have some quantified results.
On a side note, I think I know why your bulb popped; you're running a digi ballast with a bulb that was designed to be run on magnetic. Said so on the page you posted the link to. I followed that carefully because I've used the dual-arc bulbs with no issues at all, but I ran mag. ballasts with them exclusively (not a snob thing, more a poor thing, lol). Since you've got a shop stadning behind them, I see no reason to change things but this does make me wonder if there is a way to set up a 'darkenss alarm' to notify the grower if something like this happens.
I really, REALLY like the double layer SCRoG you've got going, too- that's really sweet work. Perhaps you could get some closeups of how it's constructed and mounted?
Lookin' like you've got things as well or better dialed in than lots of folks on their fifth run! Best of luck, I'm subbed and can't wait to see the sparklies!
Peace from the north 40 of the Emerald Rectangle!
Thanks for reading through the whole thread! Glad you enjoyed it. I was very happy to find out what I did from my professor, I am glad that a number of people are getting something out of it like I did. And yes, first hand experience is great, but real research and quantified results are way better.
That is a very interesting point about my bulb you make. I never noticed that it says what it does on the website before checking it out again just this morning. I did some research and learned a few things that ill share here now. First I'll start by copying in a part of both Eye-
Hortilux and SunMaster's FAQ sections:
Sunmaster/Eye-Hortilux (Both companies have the exact same FAQ answer with just their company name changed)
lamps work equally well as any competitive brand on electronic ballasts. Performance really depends on the quality of the electronic ballast and the ability of the ballast manufacture to produce consistently good products.
Magnetic core & coil ballasts are made to conform to ANSI Standards. ANSI is the American National Standards Institute which establishes specific designations on how HID lamps are to perform electrically. This designation ensures that all lamp brands work interchangeably on ANSI compatible ballasts. For example, all major brand LU1000 lamps comply with ANSI S52, and when matched with a ballast designated ANSI S52, the consumer is assured the lamp and ballast are matched correctly. All major lamp brands currently comply with these ANSI standards, and have for decades.
Most electronic ballasts do not comply with ANSI ratings. This means that each electronic ballast brand can be different. Compound this with actual va9riations in the production runs from the same manufacturer/brand and you can see why system dependability is easily compromised. These are clearly NOT lamp issues but ballast challenges to be improved upon. If you chose to operate our lamp on a ballast that does not meet ANSI specifications, lamp life and performance MAY be dramatically reduced. Since the quality of artificial light is paramount to successful plant photosynthesis and optimum growth, it would be ill-advised to compromise lamp performance in favor of unproven ballast technology.
So even though SunMaster puts a little bullet point next to all their bulbs saying they are "Electronic Ballast Friendly", the company still admits that their bulbs are not designed for digital ballasts and does not claim any better results that Eye-
Hortilux. Both companies say the bulbs are rated ANSI S52, but only one says electronic ballast friendly. . . leads me to believe SunMaster is just better at marketing and knowing what will sell more bulbs. I would hope that my Quantum ballasts are of high enough quality that they will work well with these or any other 1000w bulb, but after already experiencing 1 burn out, maybe they aren't. I will keep all this in mind and if I experience problems again in the future I will bring it to my hydro stores attention and possibly swap bulbs or ballasts to a different type. Thanks for the heads up!
The double layer screen was my design after a year of having all 6 of my plants stuck in position once they grew through a single screen. I decided that individual screens were the only way to go for access to all sides of the plant, and for transport of the plant for any reason. The double layer was also added after some experience with a single layer screen. I would train my branches for an even canopy in a single screen, but by the end of stretch they would often have taken their own path, and a few nugs would always grow together and crowd out the light for lower buds. The idea behind the double layer screen, with the lower screen being less area that the top screen, was to spread the canopy once, let the plants stretch to the second layer, and then re-spread the canopy to allow maximum light penetration and also provide nug support up top. So far they are working great!
I constructed them with materials from Home Depot if you would like to recreate it similar to mine. In their gardening section they sell a variety of plant supports near the trellis section in my home depot. One of those supports is a 3 legged tomato cage support that has 2 layers of rings held up by the 3 legs. They call it "GrowTall 18 in. x 36 in. Double Plant Support". To construct my double layer ScrOG, I purchased 4 of these supports for every 3 I wanted to build. The idea being, each support only comes with 3 legs, but to create a square, I needed 4 legs per set, so I would steal the legs from the extra 4th support to complete the first 3. Following so far? Ok, so after adding a 4th legs to all the supports I removed the top ring on each. I used thin bamboo, but you could used anything that will hold straight under a little tension, to create a square in-place of the top ring. Bend the support legs as needed to allow for the expansion from the 18" ring to the 24" square. If you have a stretchier, or less stretchy strain, you can shrink or expand the square dimensions, which will raise or lower the gap between first and second layer. Still following? Now that you have a ring first layer, and a square second layer, you are ready for the final two steps. First, use your method of choice to attach a screen to the ring layer, followed by the square layer after (you will block your access to the ring layer if you screen the square off first). Second, put the whole support setup into a pot filled with media but no plant and check the height of the ring layer above the media. You want to cut length off the bottom of the legs in order to drop the ring layer down as low to the media as your trained plants can handle. Mine was maybe 3" above the media (after cutting the legs), and my plants have pushed it up to about 4" at this point. Pliers work great for bending the legs back and forth till they snap. There you have it! If you got lost, go out and buy what I'm talking about and you will be able to re-read this while holding it in your hands and it will make more sense. If your still lost, let me know and I'll post up pics next time I make them for the White Urkles.
I hope that helps get you started, and thanks again for stopping in and taking such a close look at everything!
-Meeks
