Light Leaks

Discussion in 'First Time Marijuana Growers' started by cranberries, Nov 3, 2011.

  1. Hi all, quick question about light leaks...how many lumens create a problem. It it is dark and a light is on in another room with a door open, will there be issues?
     
  2. you want absolutely no light leaking into your grow room in the dark stages of the day. NONE!
     
  3. Yea any light is going to cause stress...a green bulb when it's their dark time won't interrupt it if you need some kind of light
     
  4. There can't be any light leaks. I've had problems in the past with the little red light on the switch for power strips. The darker you can get it the better. :smoke:
     
  5. #5 cranberries, Nov 3, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 3, 2011
    wow, thanks alot guys, i didn't realize that small an amount would make a difference. the reason i ask is that the room everything is in and my living room are connected via a hole in the top of the wall so if I have the lights on in the living room, a little comes in. I'll have to figure something out though, just switched to 12/12 a week ago. they are in a closet, so i can close the door, but its pretty barebones, no fan for now and just two fems. I have a timer, flouro tubs 3600 lumens, and thats it. ha, sorry for so much info.
     
  6. I did that with my first indoor crop, lost the lot to mold. They need some air moving around :smoke:
     
  7. Build a simple light trap.

    This isn't true. It is an open question as to whether green light will affect the plants during dark, but a green bulb does not equal green light. Those green party bulbs are regular bulbs that give off all kinds of colors that have been coated in green, not the same thing. It looks green to our eyes but there are way more colors being put out that can affect the plant.
     
  8. You could always use a spectrophotometer to measure the wavelength of the light ;). They're kinda expensive (the small ones I've seen are $2000+ new), especially if you just want to find out what the wavelength of light from a bulb is :p
     

  9. thanks man. yeah, they are actually really really healthy from what I can tell. grew up on a farm so I know plants I guess. but I am aware that I need a fan at some point, i'm just so damn poor lol.

    in other news, the light trap sounds like a good plan, thanks for the advice madame/sir. I suppose I should start one o' those logs everyone seems to be talking about...;)
     
  10. Or, you could just leave your plants alone during dark cycle -- you still have 12 hours of light every day during which to tend to your plants. You can put them on a schedule that fits yours. Best idea is to just leave dark dark.
     

  11. Hey toasty. I don't know why I didn't catch this earlier, but what is a light trap exactly, I've done a lot of reading thus far, but haven't come across it.
     
  12. A light trap is a blacked out divider, that light has a hard time getting through. Heres a basic doodle :smoke:
    [​IMG]
     
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  13. ^This. You create an air path with bends in it that light cannot navigate through. Should have at least two bends of at least 90 degrees. A simple light trap would be two pvc elbows connected to form a "c" or "s" shape. Spray paint the inside flat black so that no light reflects through it.
     
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  14. thick black/white panda plastic, some staples, some little piece's of card board to staple on plastic so staples don't go through, cheap and easy wall!! And if need run some cheap wheater stripping from walmart around edges.
     
  15. Also- 2" or 4" or maybe even larger PVC pipes, flat black spray paint, and two 90 degree bends and you're in business.
     
  16. Nice, thanks guys. Will do and let you know how it goes, sorry I haven't replied, really busy with work lately. Other than this minor issue everything has been going great with it so far. I'll keep you posted.
     

  17. Highly suggested you have zero light...it can take less then 2 mins of light on a plant in darkness to wake it up. You can get irregularities with your plant etc..hermies. If you think about it when all the plants of the world are in darkness all of a sudden the sun doesn't pop out. Your disrupting there natural cycle.

    Use duct tape etc to block light.
     
  18. Ok, sorry for the lack of updates...until this time, I've been using the closet door to block the light, just closing it, and using as little light as possible in the other rooms. I draped a bed sheet over it, which seems to be working fine, you can't see the light escaping out, so I figure not too much could be getting in...especially when the lights are in the other room. I'm gonna borrow a camera today and post pics at some point.

    Another, more worrying situation, is that for some reason, Betty, my larger woman's(?) sex is proving difficult to determine. There are no male flowers, but there are hardly any pistils and its hard to see calyxes as well. It seems that mostly smaller leaves are growing at the top, where the main cola should be. My other girl, Harriette, is a dwarf...I think they may prefer 'little people'...as I sent her into flowering after she was only a few inches tall. However, there's buds on her for sure.

    Sorry for so much info. Like I said, pics later...after 3 EST...and maybe you all can give me a hand determining if Betsy truly is a woman or if she's got a little secret :D lol.
     
  19. p.s.
    duct tape is even better than the sheet, and its cheap. thanks man perfect suggestion...i actually have some laying around somewhere.
     

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