Just reverse the polarity
That usually sorts everything out.
Runaway hydroponic fungus attacks real-world Starship Voyager
The Leicestershire Trekkie who turned his flat into a replica of the Starship Voyager spent two years battling an alien mould attack, unaware that it was caused by a dope farm in the property below. Tony Alleyne, 57, spunked £30k to convert his Hinckley gaff* into a homage to Star Trek, but was forced to do some serious …
-
-
-
-
Friday 7th January 2011 13:52 GMT david wilson
@Sarah
>>"(That didn't sound like I chuckled at all but I did chuckle)"
I don't think that the stern vulture's eye helps.
Does give things a bit of a hint of schoolmistressness (not that that's always a bad thing around here).
Maybe there should be a slightly less angry vulture icon for your softer side?
-
-
-
-
Friday 7th January 2011 12:35 GMT M Gale
Living one floor above a dope farm...
...and not knowing about it?
That guy either had a serious lack of nasal sensitivity, or the guys downstairs had some impossibly heavy-duty ventilation. That or they were growing shite.
Either that or the trekkie thought the smell was "the mould". Or perhaps he was getting sly shipments of Cardassian Swamp Plant from the guys downstairs as a "shut the hell up" agreement. Who knows?
-
Friday 7th January 2011 13:53 GMT Suburban Inmate
Quite possibly
It's actually pretty easy to make a grow op discreet.
A charcoal filter on the extractor or an ozone generator will take care of your odours no problem. Acoustically dampened fans and ducting will eliminate most, but not all, wind noise, and water/air pumps are easy to muffle with cushioning under the tanks. On the door to the room you put sound dampening material and locate your air intake ideally above the door, constructing a box with walls in it lined with blackened sound absorbing material. This takes care of light leaks and residual noise from inside the room. Very important should you get some unexpected or uninvited guests! (Or if you bump into some tart on chatroulette and want to give her a bang without revealing your bhang.)
As for the mould, the muppet grower clearly didn't have enough ventilation anyway. Cannabis benefits from normal or lower humidity, to help it take on water and nutrients, as well as keep bud rot at bay.
In my experience, I had done all that and was one night bloody glad I had! A row with the missus (both drunk, she with weapons-grade PMT) sparked a visit from the plod. 2 of them went to the bedroom next to the grow to talk to the missus, with the grow in full swing right next door, and never noticed a thing. ;-) Lucky they didn't notice the supply and drain hose pipes running along the skirting board from the bathroom.
-
-
-
Friday 7th January 2011 13:02 GMT Lee Dowling
Eh?
Declared bankrupt for over £100k of debt trying to turn it into a business already, so spends another £30k doing it up and fighting mould. Please tell me this guy has a *job* since he "had to" give up DJ'ing, or is at least throwing away his own savings (hard to believe if he's been made bankrupt before).
Or is he really doing what I think he's doing? Spending money he doesn't have on Trekkifying a flat that he could have sold to clear his debts if it wasn't for the fact that his Trekkifying made it worthless. What about all those suppliers who haven't been paid or got only a token payment from the administrators?
Seriously, if this guy hasn't got a job, someone should be kicking down his door to put him away. As my bursar said to me the other day: bring back debtor's prison.
-
-
Friday 7th January 2011 14:23 GMT Lee Dowling
Eh?
£166,000 of which was written off as bad debt as he tried to use it for "marketing" his Trekkie flat and failed. It *wasn't* his money that he did it with and has gone through bankruptcy because he *couldn't* pay it back. Then spends £30k (presumably of his own money but there's no indication of that money's origins so could well be a bank loan - if they *do* still lend to him, a friend's loan, his ex-wive's loan, or just money that should have gone on food and clothing) more on doing that same thing?
Any idiot can obtain and throw away a quarter of a million pounds over several years. It's called a mortgage (though apparently they're harder to come buy now) or just applying for lots of unnecessary loans/credit and then never paying it back / destroying what it was secured on. The moral grounds I base it on are a) it wasn't his money - creditors must have appeared at his bankruptcy, b) he undoubtedly threw it away on a nonsense venture that should have realised it wasn't going to happen long before he got that deep and c) he's still doing it. And there isn't any mention of what funds that in any of the linked articles - we can only hope he has a job and (yes, I'll say it) isn't living off the state in the meantime. But considering he left his last job as a DJ because he was unable to continue - makes you wonder how he makes that kind of spare cash when apparently pressing a couple of buttons and putting on a set of headphones is too taxing in comparison.
-
Saturday 8th January 2011 01:12 GMT Anonymous Coward
That's not the story at all
Over the years since 1997 he spent the money on converting the flat to an unusual living space, then after a bit of publicity people started hearing about it, and started asking if they could get a similar thing done.
He thought he could make a business out of it and unfortunately the business failed, as many businesses do, owing money to creditors, as many businesses do.
Whacky and stupid or not at least he tried to give it a go. How many businesses have you started lately?
-
-
Friday 7th January 2011 13:52 GMT Graham Bartlett
@Lee
He's enough of a Trekkie to do up his house like the Starship Voyager. You were expecting clear thinking and logical reasoning...?
Mind you, if you've been made redundant, your ex-wife hates you and you're being declared bankrupt, maxing out the credit cards to make your flat worthless for anyone else might be a fun thing to do.
-
Friday 7th January 2011 13:53 GMT Haku
Space, the final front room...
These are the voyages of enterprising stoners, their continuing mission to explore strange new strains, to seek out new lights and new cultivations, to boldy grow where so many have grown before.
*cue strange wailing music; Dead Can Dance, FSOL, Deep Forest, William Orbit or some such*
-
-
Friday 7th January 2011 16:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
He reckons that "It takes a lot of heat and humidity to grow cannabis"
He is not correct on that one...
It grows quite happily in normal temperate climates; around room tempereature with average humidity is optimum.
Excesses of heat and humidity are simply an undesirable by-product of big lights and lots of plants in a small space. But only if these issues are not properly mitigated.
-
Monday 10th January 2011 09:49 GMT John Savard
Problem Solved?
Surely now that the people running the grow op have been arrested, his problems are over?
Since the mold resulted from their criminal activity, once they are convicted, surely it should be absolutely trivial for him to sue them and recover all the expenses this activity caused him?
Of course, there is the potential problem that they might not have the money. Especially since there's a loophole in the law allowing the government to spend money on feeding prisoners even when their debts haven't been fully paid off first.
-
Monday 10th January 2011 10:03 GMT TeeCee
French documentaries.
"....They even filmed me going to Focus in Hinckley to buy paint to try to sort it."
Gosh. If that's typical of the genre, the French version of the Discovery Channel must be an absolutely riveting watch and make those long evenings fly by.
Are they going to show the paint drying in part deux?
This topic is closed for new posts.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
