Two weeks prior to your wedding date ---let's say mid July the bulb house (or whatever they call themselves) is not doing you or your guests a favor by sending them out as you suggest. If you examine the requirements of bulbs of this type, they need a soil temperature of less than 60ºF to properly be expected to have before planting. Normally when bulbs are planted in the fall, soil temperatures are a lot lower than 60º. Mid July...Connecticut and its environs...I'm sure has soil temperatures that are far above 60 and as such it points to a dangerous time interval before they could be expected to be planted with any degree of certainty of safety. Another question I must ask: Howcum such bulb house...and I use that term loosely...would have tulip bulbs for export at such an early time. Mid September is probably as early as one should expect bulbs to be ready for sale. These bulbs may be ones held over from last year and will, no doubt, have problems with their growing and --probably too will not gurantee them. Even 'stored' bulbs have a time limit when they can be expected to perform. I believ ethe time interval is 3 months...give or take. Notwithstanding my error in this judgement...can you find another 'bulb house' that will send stock out at such an early date...find any reputable nursery or bulb dealer in your area and ask them if such early date of purchase can be, should be, made and what storage should be considered. Normally, bulbs bought when they are unable to be planted right away...that day or the next...they must be given a cool area of storage. In mid July, how can one possibly expect to find such a place...outside of their refrigerator--where such bulbs can be kept safe. That would be your dilemma. When yo give them as gifts, then the holder is expected to find a similar place...in the first week of August, I expect the same hardship to exist. I'm afraid your wedding day and your guests gift receiving date is not conducive to successful conclusion. In the meantime, congratulations on your upcoming nuptials..let's hope your day is as nice as you wish it.

While what Cole Robbie says is true under some circumstances, I would say that you need to look at how your GH is temp cycling to find out if that is really a concern for you. If you've ever skied into a remote log cabin in the winter, and built that first fire, you've had first hand experience on how thermal mass can keep you cold. (It takes forever for the wood fire to get all the mass of the cabin up to a decent temp for people. But once its up to temp that same thermal mass, now warm, will help keep the place warm if you're not around to feed the fire for a while.) Same in the GH. If you are letting the GH temps (and the thermal mass temps) fall way below the normal operating temp, then it is going to take longer, and use more BTUs to get them both up to operating temp again. BUT (and it's a big but) if you have heat which takes over once the thermal mass no longer can keep keep the GH at operating temp (that is when the thermal mass is at that operating temp or just below it), and the heater holds the thermal mass and GH at that temp, then you are NOT heat up the thermal mass. This is of course the ideal situation, where you use what is available in your thermal mass storage, and once it gives out another heat source takes over. And while it probably can't really work perfectly this way all the time, I think it can work this way quite a bit of the time. (extreme cold snaps and when the power/fuel goes out for the heater are the exceptions that come to mind) Another "complicating" factor is if your thermal mass is totally or partially not connected to the GH (say where you use fans to pull/push the heat to/from the GH). In this case you can let the thermal mass get colder than the normal operating temps (to try and save plant in there until your heater can come on again), but not have to heat the thermal mass back up again right away. A SHCS is one such system. You can "overdraw" heat from the subsoil, but not reheat it right away, and wait for the next sunny day to turn the SHCS fans back on. There are other active heat storage systems that also would allow this. Of course water in containers in the GH would not work this way. I think what it comes down to is the overall input of heat during the winter for your area and your GH. Are you in a typically sunny area, where you can likely count on regular sunny days to recharge the thermal mass? If so, an appropriate sized active thermal mass system can significantly reduce your fuel bills and/or let you run your GH longer in the spring/fall. If you are in an area that has long spells with no sun in the winter, then even an active thermal mass system may not buy you as much heat, and passive thermal mass may not do much good. Just my thoughts/experiences.

I am going to put rice in quart mason jars and store it. Alternatively, you could buy a couple of 5 gallon plastic buckets with gasketed lids, and fit it all into them (probably with room to spare). Won't break if knocked into. If you're worried about the plastic being food-safe (e.g., if the buckets are used and you're not sure what the buckets contained), you could add an inner liner bag. If you're worried about not getting a vacuum in the jars, toss a chunk of dry-ice into the top of each bucket before pressing down on the lids to seal them. It'll sublimate into CO2, which is inert. If you want some easier-to-access storage too, you could mix it up. One bucket for long-term storage, and a bunch of jars for short-term. --Steve

Hi, to make an MH ballast into an HPS ballast, you buy the ballast kit from HTG supply for $55. This is a universal conversion kit. It includes a transformer, capacitor, ignitor, brackets and screws, probably some wire, connectors, a mogul socket, and full set of instructions. You will remove several parts of your existing ballast: you will need to open the case, remove the innards, and substitute them with the new ones. You will keep the case, the plug and cord that you use to plug the ballast into the wall, and the cord that runs from the ballast to your octagon box with mogul socket. All the rest is replaced, so you are left over with an MH transformer and a few other goodies, that you will no longer use, because they have become obsolete. HTG claims they include PROPER INSTRUCTIONS, so I believe them. Now enjoy the beauty of CMH, you and your plants will love it. For 55$ for the kit, and $50 for the lamp, you have a winner that will beat the pants off the AgroMax, AND you will be able to run a reflectorized 400w HPS lamp to boot, should you so choose. You will also be using a 1000W agromax MH lamp, which is a real monster of a workhorse and a beauty of a lamp, for only $70, that's a bargain. I wouldn't change that part at all. It will be generating heat of course, but hopefully your greenhouse is attached to your house, so the heat from the lamp will both keep your greenhouse a pleasant temperature, and also moderate you house heating cost somewhat. Total lumens = 95,000 + 95,000 + 32,000 = 222,000 lumens This is a serious amount of light. What is the square footage of the garden anyway - this amount of light would be good for 90 square feet of vegetative phase growth, and 30+ square feet of cannabis in the flowering phase. Nice. :) Sativa.