Hot tent, sad plants

[Calimed]

I am working with a growlab 120 and non cooled 400w hps. I have an air cooled hood on the way, but until then my plants are not overly enjoying upward temps of 87 to 97 (mini heat wave this week).

I have my fan almost on max, but this onlyhelps so much when ambient temps are already close to 90. The light is about 14-16 inches from the plants. Would raising the light more be effective or would this lower the lumens too much?

I am hoping adding an air cooled hood will lower these temps, but if not maybe running the lights at night vs the day.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I am foliar spraying And watering almost daily in 3 inch cocoa pots filled with ocean Forrest.

 

[Aerohead]

I'm in that same mini heat wave! I would raise the light and don't worry about lumens until you get the temps under control. 400w HID is going to have plenty of light raised up 12" more or so. Anything you can do to cool your ambient temps? window fan A/C ect... I had to run my A/C for the last couple days.

 

[Calimed]

I wish I had a/c! I may buy one this summer. I am definitly going to raise the light.

Am I paranoid for wanting to water every day with this heat?

 

[Aerohead]

I'm not sure on the watering, never tried cocoa, but I understand it's hard to over water in that medium. Add some more fans, especially a window fan in your place. I had to run out and buy one yesterday at home depot for $24 and it's allowing me to keep the A/C off for the most part.

 

[Calimed]

The cocoa is only the container, they are pourous so I can just throw them into a bigger pot when ready. The downside is that water can evaporate easily from all angles

a window fan is a great idea.

 

[FreezerBoy]

How is the fan set up? To exhaust (good) or just push air in the tent (bad). What about intakes? Are they double the area of the exhaust?

 

[Moldy Dreads]

Get an airconditioner, it's only going to get hotter..

But yeah, put them in bigger pots, make sure you have air flowing out the top of the tent and if possible flowing in from the bottom, cooltubes are slightly cooler than hoods, etc. Ventilation is almost as important as lowering heat, if it still persists consider getting a 250...it's all about tweaking the space, but 3" pots are way too small..

 

[Calimed]

My pots are too small even if they are only 3-4 inches tall?

The fan is at thetop of the tent mounted on the rails, pulling air out through the top port then thru a duct silencer. My speedster is set to almost max for my 449 cfm fan. There are two 8 inch passive ports at the bottom and two of the velcro vents are open (they face the wall though)

I may get an a/c if I have too but won't that really raise my electric bill? I assume an evaporative cooler wouldn't be a good option in nor-cal

 

[FreezerBoy]

The fan is at thetop of the tent mounted on the rails, pulling air out through the top port then thru a duct silencer. My speedster is set to almost max for my 449 cfm fan. There are two 8 inch passive ports at the bottom and two of the velcro vents are open (they face the wall though)

Well, I'm out of ideas. All I can say is since coming to IC, I can shut down through the summer and still be buried with more weed than I can handle. Maybe it's time for a growing vacation?

 

[Moldy Dreads]

My pots are too small even if they are only 3-4 inches tall?

Pots or plants are 3-4 inches tall?


air cooling will help alot. Try it first, then if it doesnt help, get a/c or like most in Cali, quit for a few months and resume in October, if you have a supply to last that long...

 

[EyeHit]

COOOLing

COOOLing

An evaporative cooler would be ideal for norcal as the humidity is naturally low. They don't work as well in high humidity situations.

 

[Calimed]

The pots are 3 inch cocotek baskets that let the roots grow thru for easier transplanting. Each clone is about 3-4 inches tall, a little over 2 weeks in my tent from the club.

I think the clones were barely rooted when I got them, plus me being a noob to soil, and the heat getting as high as 87-97 is a snowball effect to my problems.

The plant shown in this thread is doing better, I untied her too. One of my other clones drooped over and the leaves got crispy within a day. That leads me to believe I should give them a little water each morning unless they feel moist or heavy.

I raise the light up another foot and should have my air cooled setup soon.

I am wondering if the fact I just have some duct hose hanging off the pulling end of the fan, loosely attached to the ceiling brace bars is the best method of gatherin air to go out. I'll be putting my filter up sometime, but that hasn't been urgent since these are babies