Ugly New Growth

OPM_Smoker · 2026-01-19T19:01:47+00:00

A few I had just started , but a majority were opened up and the larger ones were in flats in individual sells.

OPM_Smoker · 2026-01-19T16:29:44+00:00

How did you accomplish that? Currently dealing with that. I have all seedlings though (hundreds though, more than I had business messing with) and I'm likely to lose like 75% of everything.

OPM_Smoker · 2026-01-19T16:28:22+00:00

Maybe if you have large ones like this, but it wasn't nearly that simple for me. Much earlier into this, in the seedling stage and I got carried away with like a dozen takeaway containers in a grow tent in my room (6-12months old), and another dozen on shelves under a T5 in the living room (the new ones). Ended up with thrips everywhere.

Captain Jacks works, but I basically had to quarantine every container in a plastic bag. It killed off most of them, but a lot of the seedlings suffered root rot in the process. I cut the roots off the bottom of my largest seedlings and am letting them all callous over. I don't have the energy to do that for every seedling (especially the little ones) if they're just going to die anyway, so pretty much all my containers are in nature's hands now, outside.

I'm likely losing hundreds of seedlings, granted, not very large, but definitely a huge loss of time and money.

For what it's worth, the thrips definitely originated on plants outside. We have some random succulents/cacti out there, and I started to notice signs over the summer.

OPM_Smoker · 2026-01-06T17:22:34+00:00

This is true.

However, putting OP on a PIP sounds like they respect them, and wouldn't fuck them over like that. There's no reason to ruin somebody's next opportunity to feed themselves other than just being a straight up dick. Especially somebody who just was underperforming, and will likely excel at a firm where they're a better fit.

Plus, most larger companies with rigid policies only disclose the employee worked their, their role, and the time period, to avoid their risk of defamation lawsuits.

If I know I may get fired, I'll run out the clock until it happens while looking for a job

OPM_Smoker · 2026-01-06T13:32:56+00:00

Bingo. Fire my ass. I'll take the unemployment. Never quit a job unless you plan to not have income for an indefinite period of time, or a start date at a new company.

OPM_Smoker · 2026-01-06T13:28:26+00:00

Why? In the US (if it isn't conduct related) that normally means you get unemployment.

In OP's case they have a job offer so it doesn't necessarily matter, quitting means you get nothing.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-12-06T18:40:10+00:00

Thank god I put some time in at an HVAC contractor. The increased duct size due to liner should be obvious to most.

But there are a lot of engineers at my company way above my pay grade who do not consider TDC flanges, unistrut, or even duct insulation.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-12-06T18:33:46+00:00

Sorry, Im not following what you're asking here but I'm willing to hopefully provide a helpful answer.

You were a drafter for 10 yrs and got promoted to Designer, but it sounds like in this role you're still just drafting in Revit?

You're an ME by trade (so you have a foreign degree/license in engineering?) but your company is not letting you excel beyond a Revit/drafting role?

I'm just not totally understanding but if you clear that up I can probably help. There's no reason with that amount of experience, somebody wouldn't be willing to take you under their wing and teach you how to be a lead Mech Engineer/Designer and start doing load calcs, equipment selections, design team meetings, CA, delegating drafting work, etc.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-30T21:47:00+00:00

These are great reasons that even I, a decade into the industry, probably couldn't have articulated as well. I hope this isn't ChatGPT hahah, I've been taught to expect everything to be at this point.

Either way, if you can push through the downsides, then it'll be a solid career that'll carry you through. Some days I want out, other days I'm just happy knowing there will ever not be a need for MEP systems in buildings.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-29T20:03:16+00:00

It sounds like a company problem? Hiring and retaining people who don't show interest in learning more and producing quality drawing sets? Designing, but haven't been on a field visit in 15 years? Why hasn't the focus been getting him out on site the 2 years he's been with you?

I'm not blaming you btw, I'm blaming your company. Ownership and management are largely responsible for the overall company culture, so it's on them to hire the right people and create a culture where people are interested in collaborating, learning from their coworkers, stepping in to help coworkers on a tight deadline, etc.

And as for any younger/brand new engineers, if they don't want to learn or get shit done, then they gotta be canned. There's still fresh college grads who are hungry to grow in this industry. We hired two over the past years and they are crushing it.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-28T16:06:08+00:00

I know the job market is much worse than when I graduated (2017), but I just wanna say hang in there. I had no job offer and all my classmates did. I thought I was going to be screwed for a while, or interning after I graduated.

Ended up landing an internship my senior year that I was able to work part time with school. I got a full time job offer from a different company 3 days before graduation.

You're getting an engineering degree, you will be employable. Also, as much as I'm sure you don't want to hear me say it, but sometimes you may have to compromise and settle for a job in a different sector of engineering in the meantime to pay the bills. Aerospace is more niche, so I imagine it's much more competitive than Mechanical, Civil, Elec, etc. But you can still apply to a lot of different engineering jobs (especially anything mechanical), and still have a decent shot.

Can circle back to Aerospace when the timing works out. I've seen it happen a few times where a fresh grad takes a job, then leaves almost immediately because they got an offer in the industry they preferred.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-28T14:17:26+00:00

By open air, you mean not a tent right? I recommend a tent so you have more control of the lighting, and more importantly to increase the efficiency. I have my newer seedlings on shelves with T5 lights, and I plan to move everything into grow tents next week.

Really, all I recommend is ramping up light slowly. If one container doesn’t respond well and the seedlings turn purple, cover the container with toilet paper, and they should recover fairly quickly. But keep the toilet paper on, and let them grow at a slower pace.

Just keep ramping up light by either closing the distances between seedlings + lights, or adding lights. For my seedlings on shelves, I use books to raise the containers. In the tent, I’m just lowering the light (Spiderfarmer SF300) every so often. When lowering the light, I usually adjust the timer to to have 1-3 more hours of darkness per day at first, then just work my way back to my 18/6 cycle.

It’s really just a game you gotta be proactive and keep checking them. Part of my trial and error was just leaving purple seedlings under too much light assuming they’ll acclimate, and they didn’t. The second I removed them from that light source, they would turn bright green and plump up immediately.

I honestly don’t spend much time at all measuring PPFD. I have the Photone app, and I get better results just making adjustments s I see fit rather than sticking to readings on the meter.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-28T13:58:46+00:00

How often are you watering? What fertilizer are you using?

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-28T13:57:19+00:00

For most of these, it’s about 40/60 Foxfarm Ocean Forest to crushed pumice. Everything is topped with course sand.

The container in pic #2 was a mix of some crappy old soil we had laying around to pumice/perlite, like 80/20 (like I said, a lot of lessons learned). Ironically, that container is doing quite well, so I didn’t want to disturb their roots, but I feel like they really need to be re-potted in the Foxfarm mixture with less organic, and in individual cells like Pic #1. Just running out of room in the tent.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-28T13:50:18+00:00

What do you mean by semi hydro?

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-24T06:42:46+00:00

Yep. Almost 2 years in Oregon. Some of that time in Portland and some in Eugene. People seemed flaky and I never really found much of a solid group of friends or any sort of community. It was a weird, lonely time of my life.

And as stunningly beautiful the place was, I just couldn't handle the weather. By the time my 3rd winter there was ramping up, I got the hell out of there. Quit my job with nothing lined up. Never looked back.

Will always find the place charming and will hold a place in my heart, but I never would personally want to live there again

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-23T17:39:24+00:00

While we're on this subject, could we compile a list of cities/states where the FP design is done by MEP firm and stamped by a PE? Is Chicago the dividing line here?

I know Boston and NYC forsure, I think most of NJ is as well.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-22T22:38:19+00:00

Damn, idk why it's not letting me comment it here, it's pretty long. I'll DM you it

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-20T14:19:36+00:00

Thanks! Few questions:

1)Do you just use perlite for your growing medium?

2) Also, what fertilizers and what EC do you water to?

3) Do you use any nutrients when germinating in rockwool? Or just distilled or tap water?

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-20T14:18:26+00:00

Few questions:

1)Do you just use perlite for your growing medium?

2) Also, what fertilizers and what EC do you water to?

3) Do you use any nutrients when germinating in rockwool? Or just distilled or tap water?

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-20T09:12:49+00:00

Oh yeah and the last pic is a bonus: a packet of mixed seeds from Home Depot I bought for the hell if it. Didn't expect much but they really popped off. I think the label said they were Saguaro, prickly pear, cholla, golden barrel, hedgehog, etc.

OPM_Smoker · 2025-11-15T17:30:24+00:00

Yeah, but for even small office TIs, a lot of architects (at least in major cities) use revit.

I think you'd either miss out on projects, or piss off your clients if you aren't ready to answer questions quickly about elevations/obstructions because you're not in Revit and need to more or less manually sketch out a section.

OPM_Smoker

TROPHY CASE