How to Control Temperature and CO₂ for High Quality Growing?
Should you use CO₂ fertilization to improve your crop quality? Do you need to turn up the heat in your grow space? These are common questions, especially among gardeners who are using LED grow lights for the first time. So many traditional growing techniques were designed for grow rooms equipped with HID lights. These bulbs emit an incredible amount of heat. Many of the old rules about environmental control like supplemental cooling and ventilation assume your space is sweltering under the glow of high-pressure sodium lamps.Now, LED grow lights are fast becoming the industry go-to.
How Does CO2 Work for Plants?
Plants extract CO2 from the atmosphere via the plant’s stomates, which are the pores that plants “breathe” through. Photosynthesis begins as the plant uses CO2 in combination with light bulbs or light from the sun to produce both sugar and oxygen. The sugar is used by the plant to grow while the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere.
Temperature
Although it can vary somewhat between varieties and strains, the best temperature for Cannabis to grow in is usually somewhere between 68-77 degrees (20-25 Celsius).
If the ambient temperature around the plant drops much below this, the growth of the plant will slow and its potential yield will be inhibited or possibly even stopped entirely, if the plant never matures. It’s good to note that this temperature is most important during a “day” cycle when you are letting the plant get light.
How are Temperature and Relative Humidity Connected?
Humidity refers to the amount of water vapor in the air. But the higher the air temperature, the more water vapor air can hold.
So what do these percentages mean for your plants? Well, if humidity levels are too low this can cause excessive water loss, desiccation (drying), poor growth and narrow, small leaves.
High relative humidity is usually caused by inadequate ventilation, often symptomatic of local climatic conditions and results in little or no transpiration, fungal diseases, and very wide or large leaves.
Low relative humidity occurs when there is no available moisture for the air to carry. In warm, plastic lined, heavily ventilated grow rooms there is often no available moisture other than what is being drawn into the grow room, and the moisture transpired by the plants. Many warm grow rooms suffer with low relative humidity problems. Pests like red spider mite love hot, dry grow rooms!
Never Grow Without A Thermometer / Hygrometer
A Thermo-Hygrometer 2-in-1 meter are essential to every indoor garden. Locking your plants into their preferred temperature and humidity ranges is crucial for nutrient uptake.
If your vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is off (air temp + leaf temp + relative humidity), then your plants will either drink and uptake too much or not enough nutrients. It’s common to see calcium deficiencies because transpiration is largely affected.
Heat Costs Money, So Cool It with LED Lights
HPS grow light, or high-pressure sodium lamps are great for growing weed, except for two things. They consume a lot of electricity and they make a lot of heat. You can hit over 100 F in a small tent with HPS lamps. If this is your setup, be very careful about monitoring the temperature and using the fan and ventilation system to keep things cool. Also, place your ballasts outside the grow tent if you can.
If you use LED lights, you’re wasting less power and you’ll have hardly any heat to expel. In fact, if your grow room is in a cold place, like a garage in the winter, you may need a space heater with a thermostat to help you warm it up. Always use a heater in conjunction with a shutoff temperature or you could roast your weed by accident while you’re out shopping.
Use a Cooling Humidifier
The usage of a humidifier for grow tent with a cooling effect, such as Vick's Cool Mist Ultrasonic inside your marijuana grow tent will help to reduce temperatures even further, while increasing the humidity to appropriate levels. However, you will want to be careful not to let the humidity get too high - which can inadvertently increase temperatures. For vegetative marijuana plants, a humidity level of around 40% is considered ideal - whereas seedlings will benefit from much higher humidity levels.
How Does CO2 Work for Plants?
Plants extract CO2 from the atmosphere via the plant’s stomates, which are the pores that plants “breathe” through. Photosynthesis begins as the plant uses CO2 in combination with light bulbs or light from the sun to produce both sugar and oxygen. The sugar is used by the plant to grow while the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere.
Temperature
Although it can vary somewhat between varieties and strains, the best temperature for Cannabis to grow in is usually somewhere between 68-77 degrees (20-25 Celsius).
If the ambient temperature around the plant drops much below this, the growth of the plant will slow and its potential yield will be inhibited or possibly even stopped entirely, if the plant never matures. It’s good to note that this temperature is most important during a “day” cycle when you are letting the plant get light.
How are Temperature and Relative Humidity Connected?
Humidity refers to the amount of water vapor in the air. But the higher the air temperature, the more water vapor air can hold.
So what do these percentages mean for your plants? Well, if humidity levels are too low this can cause excessive water loss, desiccation (drying), poor growth and narrow, small leaves.
High relative humidity is usually caused by inadequate ventilation, often symptomatic of local climatic conditions and results in little or no transpiration, fungal diseases, and very wide or large leaves.
Low relative humidity occurs when there is no available moisture for the air to carry. In warm, plastic lined, heavily ventilated grow rooms there is often no available moisture other than what is being drawn into the grow room, and the moisture transpired by the plants. Many warm grow rooms suffer with low relative humidity problems. Pests like red spider mite love hot, dry grow rooms!
Never Grow Without A Thermometer / Hygrometer
A Thermo-Hygrometer 2-in-1 meter are essential to every indoor garden. Locking your plants into their preferred temperature and humidity ranges is crucial for nutrient uptake.
If your vapor pressure deficit (VPD) is off (air temp + leaf temp + relative humidity), then your plants will either drink and uptake too much or not enough nutrients. It’s common to see calcium deficiencies because transpiration is largely affected.
Heat Costs Money, So Cool It with LED Lights
HPS grow light, or high-pressure sodium lamps are great for growing weed, except for two things. They consume a lot of electricity and they make a lot of heat. You can hit over 100 F in a small tent with HPS lamps. If this is your setup, be very careful about monitoring the temperature and using the fan and ventilation system to keep things cool. Also, place your ballasts outside the grow tent if you can.
If you use LED lights, you’re wasting less power and you’ll have hardly any heat to expel. In fact, if your grow room is in a cold place, like a garage in the winter, you may need a space heater with a thermostat to help you warm it up. Always use a heater in conjunction with a shutoff temperature or you could roast your weed by accident while you’re out shopping.
Use a Cooling Humidifier
The usage of a humidifier for grow tent with a cooling effect, such as Vick's Cool Mist Ultrasonic inside your marijuana grow tent will help to reduce temperatures even further, while increasing the humidity to appropriate levels. However, you will want to be careful not to let the humidity get too high - which can inadvertently increase temperatures. For vegetative marijuana plants, a humidity level of around 40% is considered ideal - whereas seedlings will benefit from much higher humidity levels.
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