So I was out taking a smoke break from COD:MW and had an idea pop into me head. I was following on a thread somewhere can’t remember but the topic was about temps at night getting to low and needing to keep roots warm. So here it is and please respond back, love to hear what you think. So if you added a small res with a small submerged pump and a fish tank heater, ran hose around the bucket a bunch of times. Use maybe some epoxy to hold the hose against bucket. With the water flowing around the bucket it should keep the soil and roots warm. Damn weed got me thinking. Lol
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How cold is too cold? I occasionally get as low as 16C without any issues.
Short of a heater I can’t think of an easy way to boost temps.
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That’s a pretty good idea. I used to home brew beer and your idea is sort of the opposite of a wort chiller. It’s coiled copper and you run chilled water through it while it’s in a hot pot of wort that you have to cool fast.
That would be better than letting them stay cold. It was a big issue for me last winter. Things were ok for a while but over time in took a toll on the plants. I was growing in a basement with dirt floors.
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I wish I could remember who was having the issues. Just hope they see it. I was thinking about a stories an old roofer from Alaska was tell me about building a water heater for the home built coach (bus) motor home. Wrapped h2o line around the exhaust to heat the water.
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I’ve done a seedling mat, and then wrapped 5 gallon pails in a thin insulation. This combo kept my soil at 65-68f in a 50f space.
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There have been a fair amount of studies done on root temperature in regards to commercial tomatoes. Some really cool set ups that pump warm air through the beds . The findings all seem to point to a warm root zone allowing the air temps to reach hard frost levels with little or no harm .
I don’t get quite so elaborate with my indoor weed plants and generally just try to keep the pots off of really cold surfaces. 4’ x 4’ shipping pallets are handy for this. I have also used hard plastic pots turned upside down.
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