Most gardeners know that temperature in the grow room plays a huge role in the quality and quantity of any indoor crop. In part 1 of “Temperature in the Indoor Garden” it was explained why temperature is so important, what areas temperature affects growth and what the ideal temperature is for each of these areas. You, the reader, learned that a 70-75F air temperature is ideal during daytime (lights on) and there should be no more than a 10F drop at nighttime. You also learned that when enriching your air with CO2 the ideal air temperature range changes to 80-85F. It was also explained how regulating temperature can keep bug infestation under control and make moulds and mildews more manageable. We discussed that roots on cuttings will grow much faster it they are heated from underneath. Controlling the temperature of your garden in these specific ways will supercharge any garden.
In part 2 of “Temperature and the Indoor Garden” you will learn of some products that can help the beginner to advanced gardener achieve these ideal temperatures. Products such as digital ballasts, exhaust fans and cutting heating mats all will help the a (remove) gardener save precious time and money. All of these products discussed in this article combined with a quality nutrient and some T.L.C. will supercharge any garden and lead to superior quality crops. Ventilation of any garden is very important. This is especially true when the garden is indoors. Good ventilation will provide fresh air and help maintain proper temperatures. The best way to keep the air in your garden with an ideal temperature of 70F -75F is with an exhaust fan. Exhaust fans are used to remove hot, stale air from your grow space and bring in cooler air from either an adjacent room or outdoors. The proper fan for your room can exhaust your room in less than five minutes. This is essential during hot summer months when the outside temperature can cause the temperature in the grow room to rise past 90F. Your exhaust fan should be timed to turn on at least once an hour for five minutes.
An easier way to have the temperature of your room stay in the range that you want is to have your fan hooked up to a thermostat. Simple thermostats will plug right into the wall and the fan will plug into it. The thermostat will have a coil on it that will tell temperature. Place the thermostat in the room and set it to the temperature that you wish the air not to exceed. When the room reaches that temperature the thermostat will trigger the fan to come on. The fan will then exhaust the room until the thermostat reads that the grow room is no longer at that temperature. For gardeners who are in a tight space or are really battling heat from the lamp, an air-cooled reflector can provide some relief. Air-cooled reflectors are airtight reflectors that are run inline with a fan to take all the heat from the bulb and exhaust either back into the room or preferable out of the garden altogether. This style of reflectors not only helps to keep heat away and temperatures down but also allows for plants to be closer to the bulb than normal. This will greatly increase the efficiency of your light and should lead to greater yields come harvest time.
An oscillating fan aimed at the space between your bulbs and the canopy can be quite beneficial. Oscillating fans won’t lower the overall temperature of the garden but it will help to keep heat from building up directly around the plants. Using exhaust and oscillating fans are simple, almost foolproof ways of making sure that your indoor garden never exceeds certain temperatures. The same thing can be done for rooms that temperatures drift too low (below 62F). A space heater can be plugged into a thermostat and set to come on when your growing environment gets too cold.
When growing indoors and using hydroponics, one should not only think about room temperature but also about the temperature of their nutrient solution, which should be between 60F- 75F. 65F is ideal because the water holds the most oxygen at this temperature. Allowing your reservoir temperature to drift below 50F or above 85F is dangerous because the risk of damaging the roots is high. To control the temperature of the nutrient solution a reservoir chiller or an aquarium (insert) heater may be used. Aquarium heaters are common for reservoirs that are sitting on cold floors, for example concrete or tiled flooring. Aquarium heaters are submersible heat elements controlled by a thermostat on it. * Safety Tip * Only plug an aquarium heater into a grounded outlet and make sure that the heater does not rest against the bottom or side of your reservoir. Also never leave an aquarium heater on outside of water because it will rapidly heat up and burn out.
High reservoir temperatures can cause the gardener many problems. This can cause water to evaporate, which concentrates the nutrient solution. High temperature also increases the possibility of water-born disease. If this is the case it may be time to invest in a reservoir chiller. Reservoir chillers cool the nutrient solution by circulating it through refrigerated coils set by a thermostat. When the temperature gets high, reservoir chillers are worth every penny. Here are a few products to think of that will help keep temperatures in the grow room at their ideal level. Next time you are purchasing a ballast, or if you just want to cut down on heat, consider electronic ballasts. The conventional magnetic coil ballast is a great product and one that is tried and tested. But they do give off a fair amount of heat as a by-product of operating a lamp. Electronic ballasts work similarly to the magnetic coil variety in principal but function quite differently. Electronic ballasts give off heat but the heat given off is quite minimal compared to the heat produced by magnetic coil ballasts. Switching to an electronic ballast can allow people to grow in continued (did he mean confined?) spaces. It can also let growers who had to shut down during hotter summer months to cultivate year round.
Another alternative that will reduce heat is using high-powered T5 Fluorescents in place of conventional ballasts. High-powered or high-output T5 Fluorescents give off very little heat and are far superior to T12 Fluorescents. T5 Fluorescents have built-in electronic ballasts, which give off little heat, use little electricity and produce twice the amount of light as T12 Fluorescent lamps. Because high-output T5 Fluorescents give off so little heat, it is common to be able to place the lamps inches from the leaves. This will also increase the overall intensity of light received by the plants. T5 Fluorescents are perfect for anyone who is growing in an enclosed space and will encourage healthy vegetative growth. Light movers are an excellent option for indoor growers who need to distribute the heat underneath the bulb. Light movers are also a great alternative from growers who need more evenly distributed lighting but do not want to add another lamp. By moving the lamp around the grow space, light movers help keep heat from accumulating directly under the lamp. Instead heat is spread out more evenly. This also means that lamps can be moved much closer to the tops of the plants without burning the tender leaves or delicate flowers. Remember that light strengths (lumens) increase exponentially as it moves towards the source. A plant two feet away from its light source will only receive a quarter of the lumens that a plant one foot away will.
There are two common kinds of light movers. The first systems will consist of two or more lamps in small reflectors attached to arms that turn constantly in a circle. The other is the lights rail system, which consists of one or more lamps in reflectors constantly moving back and forth down a rail. Light movers not only provide more intense light with the lamp closer to the plants but they can provide far more even lighting. This allows three lights with a light mover to do the work of four. Another overlooked benefit of light movers is what the motor for the mover will be using around 1 amp, which is around 75watts-100watts. With 1000watts HID at 120 volts just of 9 amps, with house circuits generally designed for 15 amps -20 amps, any way to save electricity is essential.
The sooner cuttings are established the better and this means growing roots fast. The best way to have almost any cutting root quickly is to have and maintain a bottom temperature of 80-85F. Keeping the roots 10F warmer than the air will speed up rooting on cuttings and drastically improve their survival rate. The best way to achieve this is by having a heating mat under the tray of cuttings. This can speed up rooting clones from two weeks to three days. Using heading mats under your clones and keeping it between 80-85F will ensure success every time.
Part 1 of this article was meant to explain why maintaining certain temperatures in the grow room is so very vital to one’s success. Part 2 was meant to provide the tools necessary to put the knowledge gained in part 1 of “Tempera
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