Earlier I was fiddling about in my grow closet and one of the CFL fixtures I have hanging in there fell and shattered on the edge of my 5 gallon bucket. Some glass got in the soil which I scooped out, but I'm more worried about the contents of the bulb being dispersed into the air and the 'dust' landing on the buds I will be smoking in 5-6 weeks. I was pretty meticulous in getting the broken pieces out of the bucket, but of course I may have missed some, but what else can I do? Douse the plant with water? BTW, the bulb was small, just a 100 watt twisty fluoro used to help fill in for the 400 watt hps I'm using. Suggestions?
Broken CFL near plant, what to do?
- Thread starter Obiwampa
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White Widow
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Well, first off, if you have a scope, now would be a good time to use it. Check leaves that were closets to the impact site to see if there's un usualy white powdery residue left behind.
If you don't have any mold issues or the crystals aren;t formed yet then if you fond some white that's pretty much not a good sign.
I would suggest and I know people will probably get a bit mad for this but this is an extreme circumstance if there is residue found. Go to a computer store and get and air duster. 5$ adn your set now, here I must advise you to be extremely carefull. The air in the can is compressed. so if you to close to the leaves or the plant itself you'll wind burn it. Also if you shake the can, major no no for this project there might be some liquid that comes out, and we don;t want that liquid touching the plant. So our next step would be to spray some air calmly fromt left to right, top to bottom. Make sure your a foot or 2 away, make surey ou test the air and make sure nothing but air comes out before using the spray. Be gentle and be carefull adn you might get away with disthing the stuff off with air.
Another way would to create artificial air sources such as a fan. Also make sure your outside if possible while "air dusting your plants" cause the residue if held in a confined area might just float around and land on a particle basis here and there @ random.
I would also use a hepa filtered vacuum and vacuum the area around the imapct zone for safety and last but not least go around with your scopr @ dirt level if possible. If you see any glass take it out with tweezers to avoid cuts.
This really sux and I have allot / have used allot of cfl's. Some up to a feet long and I dropped it once, nearly brought to tears. My first though was there goes 80$ and I was broke @ the time.
Things happen though, a good lesson in being more carefull for me lol.
I hope this helps
If you don't have any mold issues or the crystals aren;t formed yet then if you fond some white that's pretty much not a good sign.
I would suggest and I know people will probably get a bit mad for this but this is an extreme circumstance if there is residue found. Go to a computer store and get and air duster. 5$ adn your set now, here I must advise you to be extremely carefull. The air in the can is compressed. so if you to close to the leaves or the plant itself you'll wind burn it. Also if you shake the can, major no no for this project there might be some liquid that comes out, and we don;t want that liquid touching the plant. So our next step would be to spray some air calmly fromt left to right, top to bottom. Make sure your a foot or 2 away, make surey ou test the air and make sure nothing but air comes out before using the spray. Be gentle and be carefull adn you might get away with disthing the stuff off with air.
Another way would to create artificial air sources such as a fan. Also make sure your outside if possible while "air dusting your plants" cause the residue if held in a confined area might just float around and land on a particle basis here and there @ random.
I would also use a hepa filtered vacuum and vacuum the area around the imapct zone for safety and last but not least go around with your scopr @ dirt level if possible. If you see any glass take it out with tweezers to avoid cuts.
This really sux and I have allot / have used allot of cfl's. Some up to a feet long and I dropped it once, nearly brought to tears. My first though was there goes 80$ and I was broke @ the time.
Things happen though, a good lesson in being more carefull for me lol.
I hope this helps
A
Afghan#1
Guest
From what I understand CFLs contain mercury in them, which is a poisonous substance. Im not sure if you want to toss 3mnths of work into the garbage but then again i dunno if you want to smoke anything thats been near mercury.
CHeck out the disposal of broken/CFLs and tak eit from there, be careful.
CHeck out the disposal of broken/CFLs and tak eit from there, be careful.
A
Afghan#1
Guest
OK so I just checked out this website about how to fclean up broken CFLs. Basically you should turn off your central AC and open your windows. Ventilate the room. Vaccuum and clean.
heres the website for more info:
http://energystar.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/energystar.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2655
heres the website for more info:
http://energystar.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/energystar.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2655
That is way excessive to me but you should be fine. The amount of mercury in those bulbs is incredibly small. The public's concern with the bulbs is crazy unwarranted. You're likely to get more mercury contact from messing with your computer hardware or watch batteries than you are from these broken bulbs.
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