Hasn't this blog been quiet? A number of things really - work has been sufficiently time-sapping that I've been leaving in the dark and getting home in the dark, even as the evenings are getting lighter. I put Jurassic Park to bed in October half-term, with reports that we were heading for some cold weather - it never materialised, but I couldn't be bothered to unfleece everything. So for nearly four months the garden has been wrapped up and cosy.
But it appears not everyone at Jurassic Towers was holding off the gardening. Do you remember the horrible builders over summer 2011 who smashed my Euphorbia and who may even have smashed Bastard I? Turns out they were putting in a rather elaborate raised bed upstairs. They were also putting in insulation, reflective panels, extractor fans and a hydroponics system. Oh yes, dear readers, they made a cannabis farm.
Eventually the police had enough evidence to obtain a warrant, and boy was it quite a haul! We were shown photos of the "crops", and it looked like one of those sweeping shots over the rainforest that you see on nature documentaries. This was all several weeks ago, and since then we've had significantly nicer builders in renovating the flats. They had a skip, and we were able to see some of the "kit" being used.
Firstly, there are an awful lot of pots aren't there? We were surprised by this - the pots all had compost in them, and good quality stuff too. I was under the impression that hydroponics involved very little compost - perhaps they just had a capillary mat or something. Nevertheless there would have been an awful lot of irrigation needed. You'll also notice the large drums - we think these were part of the extractor system. Apparently increasingly cannabis farmers are using fans to pump that distinctive aroma out through chimneys and so on. There was also a lot of foil-covered board, to reflect the heat back in to the plants, and the obligatory high-wattage lights.
When I teach my BTEC Plant Science unit, I find a lot of the most well-researched articles online on plant nutrition and especially micronutrient balances are from the cannabis growers. They've really studied very hard, and I have to hand it to them for maximising growth in usually distinctly non-ideal conditions for growing plants. I'm just puzzled about one thing - we think they've run their lights 24 hours a day. Now, as far as I recall, plants require a period of dark to be able to process all the products from the light-dependent stage of photosynthesis. If they don't remove the products, then basically photosynthesis slows. Surely it would be in the interest of cannabis farmers to maximise photosynthesis.
So I'm wondering, do cannabis growers have periods of light and dark, or do they grow their crop at less than maximum efficiency? Or has the need for light and dark been shown to be rubbish?
But it appears not everyone at Jurassic Towers was holding off the gardening. Do you remember the horrible builders over summer 2011 who smashed my Euphorbia and who may even have smashed Bastard I? Turns out they were putting in a rather elaborate raised bed upstairs. They were also putting in insulation, reflective panels, extractor fans and a hydroponics system. Oh yes, dear readers, they made a cannabis farm.
Eventually the police had enough evidence to obtain a warrant, and boy was it quite a haul! We were shown photos of the "crops", and it looked like one of those sweeping shots over the rainforest that you see on nature documentaries. This was all several weeks ago, and since then we've had significantly nicer builders in renovating the flats. They had a skip, and we were able to see some of the "kit" being used.
Firstly, there are an awful lot of pots aren't there? We were surprised by this - the pots all had compost in them, and good quality stuff too. I was under the impression that hydroponics involved very little compost - perhaps they just had a capillary mat or something. Nevertheless there would have been an awful lot of irrigation needed. You'll also notice the large drums - we think these were part of the extractor system. Apparently increasingly cannabis farmers are using fans to pump that distinctive aroma out through chimneys and so on. There was also a lot of foil-covered board, to reflect the heat back in to the plants, and the obligatory high-wattage lights.
When I teach my BTEC Plant Science unit, I find a lot of the most well-researched articles online on plant nutrition and especially micronutrient balances are from the cannabis growers. They've really studied very hard, and I have to hand it to them for maximising growth in usually distinctly non-ideal conditions for growing plants. I'm just puzzled about one thing - we think they've run their lights 24 hours a day. Now, as far as I recall, plants require a period of dark to be able to process all the products from the light-dependent stage of photosynthesis. If they don't remove the products, then basically photosynthesis slows. Surely it would be in the interest of cannabis farmers to maximise photosynthesis.
So I'm wondering, do cannabis growers have periods of light and dark, or do they grow their crop at less than maximum efficiency? Or has the need for light and dark been shown to be rubbish?
