Grow room accidents (serious)

[TychoMonolyth]

Its not indoor but its important. I was in a big hurry to harvest my wilderness outdoor grow. Grabbing stems in my open hand and cutting as fast as I could. I cut the hell out of myself, on the inside of the palm of my hand. Bleeding like crazy didn't know to do, trying to get my weed in the trash bags without blood getting on me or my buds. Had a hell of a time. I had to take my shirt off, and wrap my hand until I could get the job done.

My grow room is outside.
Been there. Now I use mechanics gloves and just grab the branch firmly, pull quickly sliding the branch through my hands. All the buds come off in one shot. Way easier, much faster, and no more cuts. I can do a whole plant in under a minute. 2 minutes for monsters.

Speed is important to me. I had a coyote pack surround me at night last year and all I had was a tiny pair of scissors on me. I high tailed it the fuck out of there and went back the next morning to finish up. Then I was worried about getting shot because hunters were shooting up a storm. I was waiting for the zing of a bullet to whiz by me. They're big and bold up here. Here's one that was shot close to my grow by a farmer about a month later. Must be a wolf hybrid.

 

[JustSumTomatoes]

Pretty crazy Tycho. My buddy and I were night fishing strip mine ponds down in a ravine near cattle fields when we were surrounded by a decent sized pack. We started to head back up the ravine when they very quickly had us flanked on both sides....Typical pack hunter tactics. To make matters worse the whole area was surrounded in electric fence to keep the cattle out, so there was only one small gate to exit through and it sounded like they were going to cut us off. Man was it a relief to hop that gate and walk down the road back to camp.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

^^
Stories to tell your grand kids.

 

[xxPeacePipexx]

Through the thirty years of growing, I've been through it all. From fires to even my own negligence of safety I survived electric shocks, head splits (hoods), cuts, bruises and have thrown my back out more than once lifting improperly.

Outside of a made in Mexico shop light ballast fire my worse accident entailed a swing set setup with multi inline hoods coming down on top of my shoulders and into the grow. Same thing happened with a cheap tent after the corner brackets gave way to weight. There's nothing like standing in the middle of the crash zone while crying out for help knowing that the plants won't survive without intervention.

I also have learned that you can actually poke your eyes pretty good if you are not careful when working closely or inspecting. And I can't count the times I have rubbed my eyes with resin coated hands to only stumble through the garden blindly.

You name it, and I probably did it. Including even thinking that I could clean out a hood with a 1000 watt bulb fired up. Got a burn from this stupidity and not so accidental incident that took the better of a summer to heal.

Out of it all, I think the most memorable accident was the time back in the fall of 1993. H.E.M.P. (Help Eliminate Marijuana Planting) was making annual rounds and I decided that I was going to pull my plants that were in 5 gallon buckets growing in the swamp behind my house. I knew that I had to pull the girls and bring inside or else the choppers and boys would be flying off with them. Later in the day of decision, I laid out a plan. And that night I executed it bringing the females a quarter mile utilizing an atv to get them home. I was able to relocate all four plants that were female and I left the flowering males for good. Everything seemed good after stuffing the plants into my closet and I went to sleep shortly thereafter. It was when I was rudely awakened by hundreds of ants crawling around me and my bed (each 5 gallon bucket had a colony of it's own), that I realized I had made a big mistake.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Daaaaaaaaaaaamn!!!

 

[Iamnumber]

Thank you all for sharing your stories .. hopefully these first hand experiences will be read as cautionary tails and more attention to details and safety will be adhered.

I am surprised buy the lack of water related accidents ( Like reservoir leaking or breaking causing a flood with all the issues that follow )

 

[King Rat]

I do set up rooms very careful but dumbest thing i ever did was cutting an electric cord that was running a tent.
it made a loud bang and the whole room turned off because of the breaker switches.
luckily i used an isolated wire cutter - it scared the shit out of me

another close call was a flooded basement were i was growing due to a broken water pipe.
the water stood that high it nearly reached the power outlets on the wall.
didnt realized the water until i fully stepped into the water when i came down the stairway

poked my eyes a dozen times when checking plants because of bamboo or plastic sticks that supported plants.
i avoid that now by putting some duct tape at the end of the sticks.

 

[ashelyrosa]

Also I want to know about grow tent accident. Anyone can say about it?/

 

[7starfarms]

I've had loads of madness' in grows , where to start

A few weeks ago I was standing in my tent and my partners were switching a light on never less the light weren't coming on so they traced the wire from the ballast to the light an along it for some reason there must a been a knot in the wire my partner undone it , then as I was standing in the tent they've turned it on all of a sudden I just heard a mad noise saw flashing an smelt burning as they stood there looking thinking what the fuck is that noise I knew somehow they split the wire an its burning the top of the tent they turned it off an narrowly avoided the tent burning down with me in it..

Another spot I run coco run to waste and the person staying there was how can I put it slack at doing anything guy must a not drained the waste all week an the room must a flooded in a couple areas I've gone in there an seen walked round saw some wires dangling down noticed a ballast lead connecting to light dangling down in the water tried to move it an almost got blown across the room tell ya that shock left me shaking went next door an went mental told hes going in there an turning the power off an fixing that lucky I never got shocked to death soon as I trod in the water in there..

 

[Storm Shadow]

Who here has left the water on and forgot to turn it off b4 it was 2 late....or my favorite ..faulty undersized Float Valve failure

Im on 2 over the last 6 years.... Both costly

 

[zoo]

Who here has left the water on and forgot to turn it off b4 it was 2 late....or my favorite ..faulty undersized Float Valve failure

Im on 2 over the last 6 years.... Both costly

Can I ask how your float valve failed? was it human error not fully engaging the thumb screw properly or the actual float failed?


Toilets have floats in them and rarely fail, so i'm interested to know how this happened.

 

[moose eater]

Had an R/O reservoir over-flow (more than once.. slow learner...), and flood under walls in the basement, into my shop.

Tip-toeing around in sufficient water to cover the floor, with base of the ballasts were damp, and waiting for the final glow in life, thinking that rubber-soled water shoes are a really good idea in such cases....

Now all of my ballasts at floor-level are contained in rubbermade totes with the tops removed to vent heat, as the totes can float, and keep the water (should any over re-occur) away from the ballasts, unless there's a leak in a pipe that runs in the ceiling joists there... which I'd attribute to Murphy.

Haven't gone back yet to using R/O D/I H2O, but need to soon, as a necessity resulting from a more recent lab test on my well water. Will be using a shut-off valve on the 33-gallon trash barrel I use for R/O when doing this. I don't like the design, as it simply re-directs the flow of R/O to the drain, once the level of the trash barrel's H2O rises enough to close the valve via the float, and R/O units are often already notoriously inefficient where waste-water effluent going to the septic tank is concerned. But it beats the snot out of using brooms & a squeegie on the basement floor for the umpteenth time..

Of saving benefit in this case, when we rocked our basement walls, I used 1/2" marine-grade sheet-rock (the green board) on the walls for the 1st 2 ft. up from the floor. Less terminal damage to the walls this way, but still a mess. And green board isn't 'bullet-proof.' If it gets wet enough times, you'll still need to do sheetrock repair.

Also, I once gifted an older HPS 400 watt magnetic ballast to a friend in the bush. Fortunately he was home when the cord at the ballast burned almost in 2, nearly sparking a blaze that would've likely left him homeless in the middle of (almost) no where..

Ballasts and other electrical components can age just like we can.

Lastly, when mixing organic amendments that are known to sometimes carry pathogens, wear a mask/respirator, especially when the amendments are dry and easily become air-borne, even though it's uncomfortable to do so in a more humid or hot environment. I used to often get a 8-12-hour episode of mild flu symptoms when mixing organics in a cement mixer indoors.

 

[Douglas.Curtis]

Now all of my ballasts at floor-level are contained in rubbermade totes with the tops removed to vent heat, as the totes can float, and keep the water (should any over re-occur) away from the ballasts, unless there's a leak in a pipe that runs in the ceiling joists there... which I'd attribute to Murphy.

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing this.

I don't like the design, as it simply re-directs the flow of R/O to the drain, once the level of the trash barrel's H2O rises enough to close the valve via the float.

What type of r/o unit are you using? I've used a stealth-100 RO for years now and it shuts off completely when you close the output valve. A float valve does the exact same thing.

If you're using a booster pump, there are ones which have a backflow sensor. They shut off when the output of the r/o machine shuts off.

 

[moose eater]

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing this.


What type of r/o unit are you using? I've used a stealth-100 RO for years now and it shuts off completely when you close the output valve. A float valve does the exact same thing.

If you're using a booster pump, there are ones which have a backflow sensor. They shut off when the output of the r/o machine shuts off.

Not currently in use, and the R/O unit itself has sat dormant long enough, still in its original place on the basement wall, that I'm hesitant to use it, as I fear what array of fungal critters might've grown in the chambers over the last 12-16 years since it was last used.

That said, I got it from an older gentleman in Indiana, off the internet, from a search of one sort or another, and he was selling 'portable R/O units for salt water reef aquariums' (as in, set up to connect to a threaded hose-bib or faucet, which was what I wanted).

The shut-off valve is still in the box he sent to me back then, a year or 2 after the initial purchase of the portable R/O unit, complete with hand-written tags on each inlet or outlet, along with 1 pre-filter and 1 post-filter cartridge he sent back then.

I have a Kinnetico R/O unit in the kitchen, but it's hooked up to the main water angle-cock beneath the kitchen sink, and has the fancy chrome tap/faucet with it, and small-ish pressure tank, with no option for taking it to the basement, and I've not had any desire to have a pressure tank attached to anything geared for indoor gardening, and lack knowledge about how to make such a configuration work for me.

Another established forum member referenced the iSpring R/O D/I units, and stated he has run one of their 5-stage or 6-stage units with the re-mineralization option.

But further research revealed that their re-mineralization models come with a prop 64/Prop 65 (??) warning from California's environmental compliance folks, and when that particular buyer inquired with iSpring's folks about "Why the warning? What's in your unit that triggers this warning?" they allegedly wouldn't tell him. That, and the iSpring units I found all seem to come with a tank, and that's not the set-up I need for my basement utility sink's tap.

So iSpring hasn't caused me to order one of their units right away.

Still shopping for a reasonable unit that does a good job, doesn't need to re-mineralize (though I'm somewhat open to that, depending), and would love to use a valve that doesn't add to the already outrageous waste water flowing down the drain.

Though I figure the valve I have now, new in the box still, even if it sends excess water down the drain, is really only to function for those times I fall asleep before the water can reach its proper level, and until I get up and to the basement at what ever time of day, to shut off the supply to the unit.

But my TDS is up around 380 +/-, straight out of the well, with lots of calcium carbonate in the otherwise clear & excellent, no-odor, no-taste well water.

 

[moose eater]

Brilliant! Thank you for sharing this.

To be more specific about the Rubbermaid tote set-ups, I take a piece of fire-resistant 5/8" x-guard (residential ceiling specced) sheetrock, slightly bigger in dimension than the perimeter of the ballasts in question, and place that under the ballast inside the totes, so it gives a more-or-less non-flammable surface for the ballast to sit on in the tote, and, should a minor amount of water get into the totes, the ballast is slightly off the bottom of the tote.

Murphy tends to follow me around like he's my younger brother or something, so I try to brace for his presence..

 

[JustSumTomatoes]

Lastly, when mixing organic amendments that are known to sometimes carry pathogens, wear a mask/respirator, especially when the amendments are dry and easily become air-borne, even though it's uncomfortable to do so in a more humid or hot environment. I used to often get a 8-12-hour episode of mild flu symptoms when mixing organics in a cement mixer indoors.

Good advice moose eater. Same thing goes for using perlite, always wear something that gives protection to your lungs... A NIOSH approved respirator would be best. Perlite dust produces tiny shards that can damage your lungs and cause Silicosis (scarring of the airways from particles.)

I always wear a mask and work outdoors with a light breeze when mixing soil. Wetting it down a little helps kept harmful dusts/debris from becoming air-borne.

 

[Storm Shadow]

Can I ask how your float valve failed? was it human error not fully engaging the thumb screw properly or the actual float failed?


Toilets have floats in them and rarely fail, so i'm interested to know how this happened.

Float valve str8 up failed on a 500 gallon res... I used the real simple and cheap one from the old sunlight supply stock...

Switched to Jobe Valves made in New Zealand.. heavy duty float valve... never had a problem again...

There's a reason why they make these as big and sturdy as the Jobe

 

[unnamedmike]

In my indoor beginnings a plastic fan failed and started to burn. Luckily the fire was left in the fan, black walls, black marijuana, etc. I never use non-metal fans again and regularly check / grease the ones I have.

 

[unnamedmike]

An old friend asked me years ago for a 250w ballast to keep the mothers in a hydroponic setup for 3 guys. The tank broke down draining the water to departments of the plant below. The neighbors called the firemen, the firemen to the police and the police to my friend, after a year of trials they left without charges, my ballast still I believe in police dependencies

 

[methias]

I got once electrocuted big time,,,,,,,,,
,,,,230v through my fingers.
...
.

I think not
You got shocked.
Electrocuted means being killed by electricity.


And yeah, 230 can throw one across the room.
So be careful people

Vape on kids