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Flower Room Too Hot!

The Mayor

By The Mayor
in The Grow Room

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The Mayor Advanced Member

The Mayor

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Ok...my flower room has popped up into the 90's...somewhere around 92-94 degrees when I checked in there tonight. The leaves on my plants are yellowing and some are curling and look to be dying. I am in my 4th week of flowering.

 

I don't currently have the option of getting AC into the space.

 

The space is below ground, and I am taking some steps to cool it down. I am turning off the dehumidifier that has been running pretty much non-stop and has admittedly been putting out a good deal of heat. Even though it's in a separate room and there is a closed door between it and the grow spaces, it is heating things up pretty good. This may actually solve my issue entirely on these hotter days.

Still, in the event it does not, I want to do a few more things and see if anyone thinks I should not.

 

I was told to put ice, or an ice pack into my res before feedings (ebb & flow, 3 times during the light cycle, one hour after they come on, one hour before they go off, and one feeding right in the middle of that). It's only a 7 gallon res, so it shouldn't be too hard to cool the water.

 

Won't this shock the plants? If it doesn't, then this might help a lot since beneath my initial rock wool cubes I put rock wool slabs in my tray. So the cooler water would certainly be soaked up by those and I would think would stay somewhat cool for a while.

 

I also figured I would put another fan blowing at the base of the plants to try and keep air moving through/underneath them in addition to the oscillating fan blowing across the upper stalks of the plants. I can't imagine this being a problem.

 

Other than that I have some windows that I can cover which will of course lower any radiant heat from the light.

 

 

So, I guess I am looking for feedback mostly on the ice in the res suggestion, and then asking if anyone has anything else that I could try. With two more days of the hot stuff this week, I will be implementing as much of this as I can first thing tomorrow.

 

Thank you in advance for any input!

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The Mayor Advanced Member

The Mayor

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After about 16 hours of having the dehumidifier off, the humidity in my room still seems to be topping out at 60%. I just took about 10 minutes to research online and found several different opinions on what the humidity should be. One did state that 60% is the ceiling of acceptable humidity levels for flowering, but I also another forum said to never get it above 35% (which I don't think I can achieve or maintain it that low).

 

The room temp is at 88 degrees F.

 

I turned the dehumidifier back on today, but I set the humidity setting on it to 60%, and an energy saver setting that keeps it from running more than 3 hours at a time. It has already turned on and off again in reasonably short bursts so I may be able to set it for a lower humidity level without having to worry about it running for too long.

 

I also put another fan that blows through the lower center of my plants to really move the air underneath them.

 

I am keeping a rotation (changing it every couple hours or so) of single 20 oz bottles 75% full with ice in the res so that the water is cooled when feeding. The first feeding already occurred earlier today and the yellowing that seemed to be spreading fast seems to have made no advances as of yet.

 

So I topped off my water and adjusted my pH. Otherwise I'll be keeping a close eye on things. I'm also about to cover up a nearby window to reduce ambient solar heat.

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SublimeWind Advanced Member

SublimeWind

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You could possibly try ducting the heat from the dehumidifier outside somehow.. some 6"-8" flex, some cardboard or plastic of some sort, and a grip of Nashua(sp?) aluminum duct tape and you could build a shroud out to, say a 8" to 6" reducer and 6" flex out a window??

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The Mayor Advanced Member

The Mayor

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You could possibly try ducting the heat from the dehumidifier outside somehow.. some 6"-8" flex, some cardboard or plastic of some sort, and a grip of Nashua(sp?) aluminum duct tape and you could build a shroud out to, say a 8" to 6" reducer and 6" flex out a window??

 

Now, I thought about this as well. However, my thinking was that the air coming out of the back of the dehumidifier was indeed the dehumidified air. If I send that outside, all I am ever doing is sending the dry air out, and pulling more of the regular air into the room. So, while this might increase the amount of air exchange in the total space, in theory it may not lower my humidity as a result.

Does that make sense?

 

It has been staying pretty steady with it only coming on once and awhile. Some of other measures I've been taking seem to also be helping. I'm just trying to make it to tomorrow when this mini heat wave is supposed to "ebb" a bit.

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1337Gr33n Advanced Member

1337Gr33n

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Do you have a way of taking your frozen soda bottles (probably a few of them at a time would be needed), and place them in front of fans that you have in the room? This could act as an temporary impromptu air conditioner cooling the air you circulate in the room. maybe its bunny muffin, but it may work...

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IronCountry Newbie

IronCountry

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Your plant issues may be related to nutrient issues not necessarily heat issues (or lack of watering), it all depends on what strain you are growing of course, but a general spot to shoot for is 50-60% humidity and around 80 degrees, with a lower humidity level the last couple of weeks of flowering.

 

For me lower humidity and lower temps than that will hurt final yield, in my setup I shoot for around 85f and 60-65%H, I use co2 though so my plants can handle higher temps and do better with the higher temps anyways.

 

The reservoir temp is essential to keep cool oxygenated and under control for root health and hence plant health, keep reservoir covered to help keep down the humidity levels too if that a problem...but cool is good for the roots, no worries about shock...just Don't cool it down to 40F or so LOL.

 

Can't go wrong with gentile fans circulating either as you stated, just not blasting on them, as it can also affect yield negatively, a gentle movement breaks up the micro atmosphere around the leaves (no circulation will make a micro-stagnate area around leaf once co2 is depleted there) a gentile air flow allows fresh co2 to be available for uptake.

 

Getting blasted will possibly make the stems harden up (make more pith) which some believe cause a lower yield and less THC production, I've not seen any real data on that though myself, but I like gentile oscillation.

 

Good luck

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