its getting cold out! is your environment ready to withstand the uk chill?

[ControlLED]

its getting to that time of year now where the cold and rain starts to hit! a time of year where you can really maximize if you do it right!

but with the pros of cold weather also come the cons! that's where having extra environmental control comes into play and really gives you the upper hand! 

having control of your environment gives you an extra "insurance policy" helping you avoid grow room horrors like mold and mildew and also helps you maintain an optimal environment for transpiration and optimal growth/results!

we see a lot of growers ignoring important factors like dew point and vpd and later wonder why they end up with underwhelming results or have losses due to mold etc 

thats where these 4 grow room accessories and tools used to control them really give you the advantage!

so first off we have heaters!
heaters are a measure put in place to prevent unwanted temperature drops (obviously)
but how does that give us an advantage? 
having a heater in place with a thermostat or on a heating controller ( or better yet a day/night heating controller or enviro) allows you to fine tune and control the temperature of your environment!

so you can actively avoid dangerous issues like dew point by making sure your grow room doesnt reach what is called saturation point
my favourite way of describing this is when you wake up early on a winters day and you can see that the grass outside is covered in moisture even though it hasnt rained outside
this is because the outside temperature and humidity has reached dew point.

now having dew point in a grow room  is a recipe for disaster as it will result in unwanted moisture forming around your precious flowers increasing your risk of bud rot/mold  

 
now we have our 2nd grow room tool which is equally as important (especially later in flower) the Dehumidifier!
this will also help you keep away from the dreaded dew point tackling excess humidity in your grow room maintaining a optimal humidity to keep dew away
this tool paired with a heater will keep temps up and humidity down when needed 
some humidifiers have a built in humidistat and some will need a controller (gas day/night or enviro for example) which will allow you set day/night parameters 

 

as important it is to be able to reduce humidity when needed it is also important to be able to increase it when needed. thats where a humidifier comes into play!

when your plants are young and dont have much foliage they cant transpire much and will rely on higher humidity to give them a better start in life!

if your environment is too dry your plant will grow long/leggy and thin and your root system may struggle to keep the plant fully hydrated so whilst your plant is developing in the vegetative stage higher humidity is recommended

higher humidity in veg/ early flower (stretch period) will give you shorter internodal spacing with closer and more populated/stacked flowering sites!

where as a dry environment will encourage your plant to stretch out and flowering sites will be spread further apart which is less productive and will make your plants grow taller which isn't always desirable especially in an indoor environment with limited height

 

and last but not least is fans/extraction, an essential grow room requirement is air movement and air exchange!
having good extraction in your Grow  will help keep your temperatures/humidity in check by exchanging/ replenishing the air/oxygen/co2 in your space
extracting excess heat and humidity whilst creating negative pressure which also tackles grow room odors with the use of carbon filtration and brings in fresh air from outside

and air movement helps strengthen your plants whilst at the same time disturbing "dead spots" and humidity gathering in your canopy and helping your other tools by distributing air /humidity/and heat evenly around your grow space that is produced by your lights/heater etc this will also help the sensors for controllers you have in place read/record the environment more accurately! BONUS! 

a brilliant benefit of led lights is that your demand for extraction for the wattage you are using will go down considerably making for a quieter environment which is also important for many growers 
and a pro of winter time is your extraction doesnt have to work as hard to keep temperatures down and growers using an intake fan will likely not need the intake as their room will happily run passively 
many led growers benefit from an air intake which isnt taken directly from outside meaning it is easier to keep your room warm in winter periods

another brilliant benefit of this for all you hobby growers out there is the power it gives you to boost your co2 for FREE!

lets say your growing in your spare bedroom, if you pull from directly outside your co2 ppm will be ambient/ regular levels and in winter the air will be very cold
you could have a passive intake in your bedroom so every night when you sleep you are feeding your plants without even knowing it!

if you dont believe me try getting a co2 ppm monitor and just stand in the room with it and you will see the ppm skyrocket!

who knew you could feed your plants at the same time as catching some zzzs! 

if you've got this far down the post thank you for giving this a read! i would love to discuss grow room tools and answer and questions/queries anyone has  

 

[BilgePump]

Just had a brand new boiler fitted, we're good to go at casa del Pump

 

[Herbal Kint]

Ill add on winter times if your using gas for heating not a bad idea to get gas alarm and CO alarm if your using passive intake due negative pressure outake can create,if your having head pain or felling dizzy might be good to check above.

[ControlLED]

3 minutes ago, Herbal Kint said:

Ill add on winter times if your using gas for heating not a bad idea to get gas alarm and CO alarm if your using passive intake due negative pressure outake can create,if your having head pain or felling dizzy might be good to check above.

your outtake should always go outside in my opinion otherwise you will get a steamy house and loads of excess humidity being pumped through your house 

[ukscroger]

I'm going to flower my next lot overnight as I think it might be better to combat the cold temperatures. I'm also going to upgrade the ventilation and am not really sure what's best. I came here looking for heating options and have a few questions about other things. 

 

-fan heaters. seem cheapest- are there any benefits to more expensive heaters in a lung room?

-oil rads. I can see they may be better in tents over fan heaters to avoid hot draughts??

-bar heaters, ceramic heaters- don't how they're different to oil rads in a tent really 

-heat mats- dont know if thats individually under each pot or basically a mini underfloor heating system? Is it totally safe if I cause a flood?

-inline duct heater- seem most expensive

 

Regards lung rooms and grow tents- how many fans do people run into and out of the tent and room? How are the controllers typically triggered? Does the ACI controller69 have recipes for multiple fan configurations, lung room control, tents?  A final question- if the outdoor RH is 99% then what use is exhausting warm conditioned and dry air* from the tent to outdoors? If the humidifier is pulling humidity down and the heater is keeping it warm then it's getting to the realms of a sealed, semi-sealed grow. I guess it's all about balancing the chance of moulds and the power costs to combat the air outside but at the moment a HEPA filtered intake and a semi-sealed lung room feels like the best option over constantly exhausting and heating+dehu. 

Edited Wednesday at 13:55 by ukscroger
*mistake

[Herbal Kint]

41 minutes ago, ControlLED said:

your outtake should always go outside in my opinion otherwise you will get a steamy house and loads of excess humidity being pumped through your house 

I was on about gas and monoxide poisoning as outtake we use creates negative pressure,sorry for off topic mate

[Saddam]

18 minutes ago, ukscroger said:

I'm going to flower my next lot overnight as I think it might be better to combat the cold temperatures.

 

It's fucking cold at night, even in the summer. I always run lights at night, saves you a bundle in energy in the long run. Personally, I'd give them 24 hours sleep and switch them asap to light's on from 8pm to 8am, for example.

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 14:10 by Saddam
Edit hours to 24

[ukscroger]

I was going to start dialling it back an hour a day- I think I only have a couple of weeks left at most

[Saddam]

24hrs dark, reset the timer for your desired hours then carry on as usual. Don't fuck about with 1 hour a day, you'll only stress your plants unnecessarily.

[Military Grade]

@Saddam I'm a 9pm - 9am grower

Also makes it more convenient for me to work on my grows late in the evenings.

 

 

 

I'm luckly enough to grow in my bedroom, and with my grow spaces being small the grow lights heat my grow spaces enough all year round when it's lights on, the tube heaters for lights off in the colder times of the year.

[ukscroger]

They come on at 08:30 at the mo. Are you really  saying it's less stressful to do a full 24hr dark period rather than 2x 18hrs starting today? I was about to go and change the timer in 10 minutes.

[ukscroger]

I will follow the advice and give em 24hr- it's not hard to understand- thanks 

[Saddam]

If you're nearing the end then it's probably not going to make any difference but maybe try night lighting on your next grow, makes life a lot easier for the plants and saves you a lot on unnecessary heating. This time of year in the UK you're still going to want some type of heating to keep them warm during the day but it's nowhere near as expensive as heating a room when it's freezing cold at night.

Edited Wednesday at 14:39 by Saddam
Syntax

[ukscroger]

8 minutes ago, Saddam said:

If you're nearing the end then it's probably not going to make any difference but maybe try night lighting on your next grow, makes life a lot easier for the plants and saves you a lot on unnecessary heating. This time of year in the UK you're still going to want some type of heating to keep them warm during the day but it's nowhere near as expensive as heating a freezing room at night.

50/50. 2 are a week away or might be ready now and 2 look to have 2 to 4+ weeks. They haven't had any night time heating or dehu at all until I turned on the new dehu this morning (and flooded the tent). It's a miracle I haven't started a mushroom factory. 

[MySoulIsMine]

2 hours ago, Herbal Kint said:

Ill add on winter times if your using gas for heating not a bad idea to get gas alarm and CO alarm if your using passive intake due negative pressure outake can create,if your having head pain or felling dizzy might be good to check above.

 

What do you mean? Do you mean using gas central heating ? or a gas powered heater in the tent?