Electrecity/Fire safety question

[mauricio]

I have an electrecity safety question:

I have to leave my Apt for 2 weeks vacation and have no baby sitter for my plants, my Apt is equiped with Fire sprinkler and smoke detector. The plants are in Veg cycle, 24h of light, no timer.

Is there a risk leaving my HPS 400 and my Flo ON while gone?
What kind of safety prevention should I take?

Thank you for your input

 

[BigToke]

Heya Mauricio, I don’t suppose there would be any risk in leaving a 400w on while gone, but here’s what I would do if it were me, if you know about how much your plants grow in a week just calculate that by two, and then put your lights up so that your plants don’t grow into them and the next thing I would do is make sure that I had plenty of venting going on as to not to over heat the room, btw do you grow in soil or hydro? As this would make a differents also.

 

[mauricio]

Hi BigToke,

I grow in soil and your idea about the growing rate is great

 

[badmf]

Do you have a way to water them? If not Nelsons Easy Set water timer will work, Target and perhaps Wal-Mart carry them. Adjust the length, freq and adjust the pressure with the supply valve.

 

[BigToke]

Well looks to me like your in luck, soil doesn’t grow as fast as hydro does so it’s just a matter of calculating there growth rate and then you’ve got it, oh and btw have you figured out how your going to water them yet? And also I would check all connections and make sure that every thing is nice and snug, don’t wont any sparks flying also good venting is a good idea.

 

[mauricio]

Hi Badmf,

Actually, after some research, I get a unit from Automatic Plant-Watering System for 20 plants not to run out of water: http://www.hammacher.com/publish/70899.asp?promo=QSearch

I plan to leave room for the plants to grow without touching the lamp.

I will come back for wonderfull looking plants or an arrest warrant :-(

 

[mauricio]

This is my first grow and I have made all the possible mistakes, over watering, over fertilizing and the tallest plant is 7 In after 5 weeks of veg.

I must add that they had been prunned and they are real bushy.

 

[Guest]

BigToke is on the money, raising the lights is a definate, ive heard of guys comming home to plants a little burnt on the light...

 

[Guest]

I am very supprised to see that no other grower has said this.

No reason for 24 hour lighting. The plant is just like your body, it need's a rest and time to regroup before starting the day again.

How long can you go 24 hour's a day, and yet you are asking your plant's to do it.

Giving the ballast time to cool down is a plus in keeping the fire risk down.

There are many reason's why one should not run 24 hour's of light, and by the sound's of it you have very large plant's, I think I might go buy a timmer and put them on a 12/12 schedule and come home to flowering plant's, just a thought.

I have tried it with different lamps and what not, 24 hour's of constant light does more harm to the plant and it's growth rate than good.

A gardener will alway's do their plant's justice if they remember how closely their own body is related to the plant's.

grow safe

realhigh.

 

[badmf]

I will disagree with you here, realhigh; Plants are not "just" like us, they have been grown 24 hours to sucess, many disagree on the amount of light cycle a plant can use. Without quoting Rosenthal and others, plants will grow under 24 hours without adverse effects. Most growers do like to have some "down" time, more to lower electricity bills than to aid plant growth. Since plants can be grown both ways as they are very adaptive it isn't wrong either way.
Allowing a dark period does give the plant a period to use the energy build up during photosynthesis, but they will get into that once you change timing. In Nature there are but few areas of the Earth that have 18 or 20 hours of light, so even going to these aren't as found in Nature.