So, I have never attempted growing before but I have decided to help the misses out and give it a go. I will list what I have so far and my 2 major concerns below. Any help with things I may be missing or advice would be greatly appreciated!
Equipment:
3x3x6 grow tent
AeroZesh G4 Inline Duct Fan Combo w/ Carbon Filter (4" 195 CFM)
2x AeroWave E6 Clip-on Fan (thinking one on bottom one near top)
Spider Farmer SF2000Pro LED Light
Supplies:
2x Coco Coir Bricks 650g
8 Quart Bag Perlite (will mix with the 2 CoCoās should be enough for 3 pots below)
3x 3 Gallon Fabric Pots
3x 12" plastic saucers (collect runoff)
3x Pot Elevator (brings pots 2" off ground)
3x3ft Elastic Trellis
Supplements:
CANNA PK 13/14
CANNA Coco A&B
General Hydroponics CaliMagic
Seeds (all from NASC):
Green Crack Auto
Bruce Banner Auto
Planning on placing pots on little risers and placing those inside plastic saucers to collect runoff.
Concerns:
Ventilation. This tent will be in an enclosed 170sqft āsun roomā that basically has floor to ceiling sliding glass doors as the walls (no actual windows) covered completely with bamboo blinds. The tent will be exhausting into the same room it resides. Simply cracking a couple or doors to allow outside air in is not a problem, but that leads to my next issue.
Temperature. I live in the Midwest and winter is coming, we have some nights on the horizon that will be in the mid teens (fahrenheit). Being in an uninsulated room that is not temperature controlled leads to this room getting very cold at night, but warming up quickly once the sun comes out. I was contemplating some of those heating tubes inside the tent I saw on another post here as they are low wattage, but not sure if those would even be enough. The floor is concrete so I was thinking a piece of foam board insulation under the tent would help, plus the pots will be slightly elevated off the ground on the risers. If I crack the doors for venting, this will only increase the cold problem.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I expect my first attempt to be a crap yield, but if itās not even worth attempting until it warms up then I understand.
you can run lights at night for the heat, at least with hid lights you could. i doubt ledās would give enough heat though. foam board would help, but you definitely need to not let it get much below 60. iād say heat will be your problem, especially if you lose power for long. good luck with it. youāre in the right place to learn.
Ya I was definitely planning to run lights at night, and also considering a different light all together. If running a HID would give enough heat at night it would probably be cheaper than paying to run a heater every night in there.
Iād go with a good sized space/room heater and a inkbird controller from Amazon to keep the temp constant and maybe a cool mist ultra sonic humidifierā¦ā¦my grow room Iād kinda the same Iām assumingā¦ā¦an addition with no hvac duct workā¦ right now it to cold in the room it stays at 60 degrees. So Iām only going to use it for a drying room and use my 2x4 tent to finish off my sour strawberry. And the use the tent for veg during Jan and feb until it starts to warm up a bit then transfer them to the grow room to finish. May I suggest putting your tent in another room in the houseā¦ā¦.?
My suggestion would be putting a small oil radiator heater on a timer for the coldest 6-10hrs per day. If you are only running 3 plants you should have room in the tent to fit one of the small units set on low. Just need to keep an eye on it and adjust the level or time/off to keep it from getting too hot in the tent. As long as you can keep it above 60 and below 90f, should be fine on temps. As @olschool suggested, an inkbird controller is a good idea.
Temperature would be my main concern. Different situation for me geographically/weather wise but still gets pretty cold come january with a set up in my garage. I run lights at night in flower to try and maintain a somewhat even temp. Insulation for the floor is a good idea. I would want to try to keep those temps up above 70F or growth could be really slow going.
Ive done well with a passive intake using coiled up 4" Hose next to the radiator heater and ran into one of the lower tent ports. keep the exhaust fan running low then kicks up when it get too warm or humid. Just had to mess with the distance from the heater to tent to balance.
2" foam board with a heat mat on the floor will definitely help mitigate the cold. You can put a thermometer in a glass of water on the floor next to the pot to see what the root zone temperature is. I do this in my carbons when Iām brewing beer to maintain fermentation temp.
Root zone temp is highly critical, second is atmosphere imoā¦
Running led is going to be exponentially cheaper than HID on the electric meter side of things. The efficiency of LED may not be something you want to sacrifice. Depending on your set up, the drivers put off a good bit of heat.
It does sound like the lung room may need a little fitting, based on what you have here. Anyway you could insulate it would go a long way in helping you get a more stable environment.
Opening your grow to the outdoors for air exchange can be tricky, too. Youāll have to work out some IPM routines for mitigating what comes in with that air, even if less so in winter. Sealing your lung room is the typical route, with dedicated air intake and exhaust, to maximize control.
Sounds like youāve got the shopping list almost covered for a solid run. Making that space work for you is key after that. Itās about balancing it all out, and shoring your set up against what you canāt control. Lung rooms and their interaction between the inside of your tent and the outside world took some getting used to for us, too. And weāre in a Midwestern River valley, too.
Hope this helped. Iām looking forward to seeing you crush this first run. Best of luck.
Stay up
Coffin_Dodger
I was thinking venting to the same room would help with the humidity, but will that have negative impacts as well with the whole ādirtyā air routine?
Dirty airā¦ Iām assuming you mean air with lack of co2ā¦ I think it will be fineā¦ as long as someone is around at all ever and breathingā¦ I also wanted to stateā¦ with led youāll need to have Temps in the 83 to 85 Ā°f rangeā¦ because led has a lack of surface heat on the leaves ā¦ I had to actually put a heater in my tent to get it rightā¦ so venting wasnāt as much of an issue as I initially thoughtā¦ humidity is easyā¦ a dehueyā¦ Iād try to stay below 60 percent humidity and above 83 degrees f @skyeden
Placing the oil heater inside the tent wonāt pose a fire risk? I assumed I would need to place it outside the tent and heat the room itself (again, I am noob and have no idea. This was just an assumption.)
Do the plants need the higher temps under LEDs during flower? Iāve always tried to keep between 72 and 79 under HPS, under LED in veg I have that and they seem to do just fine.
There has been some evidence that plants under LED benefit from a higher average temp than otherwise, presumably due to the loss of IR heat under HID. No source at hand, but Iāve seen a lot of success anecdotally too, with higher temps having happier looking and acting plants.
That said, midwinter under LED has done fine for us with tent temps in the upper 70s, too. Only breeching 80s F when we hit the light intensity in mid to late flower.
Sometimes you gotta do your best, and theyāre plenty happy for it.
Stay up
Coffin_Dodger
Doesnāt have to be in tentā¦ noā¦ and the co2 should still be fineā¦ normal air is 400ā¦ thatās around all you really needā¦ Iād suggest a co2 tester to get an ideaā¦ even a cheaper 1 will work outā¦ but I know most leds maybe not allā¦ need higher Temps and actual vpds are incorrect for leds unless itās some newer led vpd chartā¦ with that being said, hps is different with uptake and tempsā¦ With leds Temps need to be higher typically to raise uptake needs of the plantā¦ in other words it need higher Temps to make it drink the right amountā¦ without this, the plant will suffer many deficiency type ordeals and eventually die. Each setup is different, I was using a gavita pro 1700e in a 4x4 with 6 inch ac infinity inline exhaust (so they were being pushed harder) I found after a year of failing with help from friends like @ifish and @Papalag and @DougDawson@ShiskaberrySavior watching and trying to help me from afarā¦ that I needed to up tempsā¦ once that was lined outā¦ things went much betterā¦ so I would assume it may be similar for you being is you are also using led. I went to 85 kept it that way all the way through flowerā¦ doesnāt mean you have toā¦ I only just found my issue recently thatās why I tagged others I know may be able to helpā¦ good luck my friendā¦ Iām curious to see how it turns out. Also thanks @Coffin_Dodger for explaining the ir heatā¦ I couldnāt remember the term ā¦ my stoner ass
At the start I put mine inside, but now thereās no room and with an LED itās only at 50% not giving off much heat at all.
Now I have it outside and just set this up tonightā¦ Still only getting 73 with lights on atmā¦still muddling with it.
I use inkbirds for humidity and temps.
Good luck.
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