Hey GC! I just bought a couple heaters from target and I covered up the LEDs with sole duck tape to cut down on light polution but the unit still has a soft glow coming from inside where the LEDs are...is this going go affect anything or should I cover the whole damn thing with tape? Thanks
Please! Do not cover your entire heater in tape... This will cause a fire, without a doubt! Do you mean to say that the led you taped up is still glowing through or that there is some light coming from inside of your heater unit? For the latter case, a simple fix might be to place the side that is leaking light facing away from your plants. Often the air from those things is too hot to blow directly onto plants anyway. If your still scared afterwards you might try building some sort of curtain to hang around the unit. (Not too close, or you might as well have covered it in tape!) Failing that, the obvious choice would be to install outside of your site and use ducting to move the hot air into the growroom. Hope this helps. Ibogaine306
^This. It's what I do. Are you sure the glow you are seeing is from the LEDs on the inside, or is it from the heating element itself?
The glow is from the LEDs. I covered them up with some tape and it should be fine. there is only a little bit of light that kinda illuminates the case. It's got a soft red glow, major concern?
When it comes to light leaks, everyone thinks theirs is "only a little bit". That's completely subjective, and it's probably more light than you realize. But at a different level it shouldn't matter. Put your options on a scale and weigh them against each other -- on one hand, you could let light leak in, and maybe it will be so little that it won't matter, but what is the "cost" if you are wrong? You could ruin your entire crop. On the other side of the scale is you remove the light, and what is your cost? You have to put the heater on the outside of your grow space, perhaps a small inconvenience but not really a big deal, is it? Even if the light leak would have been OK, is it really that big of a deal to take a small step to be sure, to give yourself peace of mind, and just possibly to save your entire harvest? So just take a small effort to put reasonable measures in place to ensure your grow is successful, that's all, and there really isn't a need to debate whether you are taking a true risk or not. There is a possible risk, that's all you need to know to take a small step to avoid it.
I thought that the glow was coming from the element. You should probably just try some black electrical tape or aluminium tape before you go out and buy any ducting. Personally I just heat the space that I pull air in from, instead of heating the grow room directly. I find this works better for me, but I obviously still use air-ducts. Do you not have any ventilation set up in the first place?
I'll try to get a picture of the light leak...hopefully it doesn't fuck anything up! I'll put some metal tape over it and see if that helps. maybe I'll just take the whole damn thin apart and remove the problem LED. it's not the heating element that's glowing it's coming from inside the casing kinda where the heating element is but it's from the led inside...I've got about 6 layers of duct tape covering the top part of the light
Good job! I'm happy that it worked out for you! Don't forget to make sure your not blowing too-hot air directly onto your plants. Maybe try and take a couple temperature readings from different heights and locations around your grow?
Wow. That's a big picture. Anyway... the most accurate way to tell would be to buy a hand-held microscope. You check the buds with the microscope, and when the resin glands turn from clear to cloudy you can harvest her. Your also looking for the calyx to swell a good deal more than that before you harvest. Often the hairs will turn from white, to yellow, to orange, to dark red. To me, it looks like that girl just got on her way forming fruits. Let her do her thing for at least another month. Maybe longer. But I'm just guessing from what I see from the picture. I could do to know what strain she is, what size she is, how much light she gets, and how much you fed her. But the path to the truth you seek lies within the trichomes. Cloudy is ready. If its a Sativa ( Tall with thin bladed leaves, usually.) the top buds are probably going to be ready first. You might want to cut them first, unless this is too risky or too much trouble. Then you should wait for the bottom to ripen as well. The top may turn a little amber, but that's okay. I prefer my buds with just a little amber in the trichomes. Hope this helps. Ibogaine306 PS - Don't be afraid to start your own thread! This one was probably not the right place to ask this question!
DAMN DOODE!! your growing outside! So jealous!! let that bitch get HUGE!!! those buds should end up being very very solid when it's done! Just let it sit for another month and see what happens
I have 4 or 5 led lights in my room - never thaught to cover them on my 3rd grow no problems as of yet!
Hey Dub, come check my thread. http://forum.grasscity.com/do-yourself/748733-lets-build-grow-cab.html