Mass/RI/Con Growers here!

[budelight]

hey bude - your temps are too cold brotha! you gotta jump those up atleast 10* for night & day temps. in my experience, those cold temps are really going to slow your growth. im no expert, but im assuming your slow transition to flower is related to your cold temps. what kind of light are you running tho?

That is exactly what i was expecting to hear, everywhere i read says ideal temps are around 65-75*

Im using a 70w converted security hps->lowes.
Its in a small cab I just built and airflow/temps were my largest concern. Turns out i have the opposite problem i expected. Since its in my basement, and its an old house which sucks air into the basement to run the forced hot air system, i see my temps fluctuate with the weather. just checked now (lights on @ 11pm) and its 52.6*F

I don't have any way to add heat to the setup as we have no money to upgrade to a larger light (150 is ideal). Any other suggestions?

 

[Highlighter]

Seed germination mat?

Christ Chaco, you just keep growin' 'em bigger & bigger!

 

[budelight]

Seed germination mat?

Christ Chaco, you just keep growin' 'em bigger & bigger!

That is a good idea. I added a micro aquarium heater to my 2 gal res on the custom ebb/flow table i built. keeps the water warm enough to not stunn the plants. Doesn't heat up the cab at all unfortunately.

THANKS AND KEEP THE HELP COMING!
BudeLight

 

[budelight]

Here are some pictures to show you what i am writing

This is day26 of flower...

 

[TacomaComa]

its friday....might as well start it off right with some dabs. blueberry budder

dab it all day

 

[TB Gardens]

god damnit TC, now u got me drooling for my jar! bah, now i gotta roll outa bed ;-) reach for my dang ol rig & work an early mornin shift! mhm mhm mhm, yup i might be a little glazey eyed on the jobsite this morning! too lazy to download, clean, and upload pics at the moment, but i did a second run of some space queen a couple days - ran 14g again and pulled almost another G! color doesn't look any different or anything, consistency seems to be a bit more caramely tho ;-) man i had some sour diesel glass a week or so ago... mmmmmmmmmmmmmm ;-)

 

[TB Gardens]

BudeLight - insulate your cabinet. use blankets if you dont wanna spend money, or go pick up a small roll of R13 faced insulation - wrap your box in that & the 70w will keep it warm. if you think you only need a lil bit of insulation to do the trick, pick up R1.5 fan folded insulation, wrap the cabinet in that. problem solved. i used to use a big coffin sized plywood box in my basement, throwing blankets over it, and a couple strips of faced insulation on the outside kept it warm- all i was running were a couple shop lights. hope this helps

 

[budelight]

BudeLight - insulate your cabinet. use blankets if you dont wanna spend money, or go pick up a small roll of R13 faced insulation - wrap your box in that & the 70w will keep it warm. if you think you only need a lil bit of insulation to do the trick, pick up R1.5 fan folded insulation, wrap the cabinet in that. problem solved. i used to use a big coffin sized plywood box in my basement, throwing blankets over it, and a couple strips of faced insulation on the outside kept it warm- all i was running were a couple shop lights. hope this helps

Very Helpful!

What i did last night was throw a towel over my exhaust fan inside the cab, sticking the towel between the exhaust whole and S&P fan.

Just checked the temps and they are siting around 83.5* Hows that?

 

[TB Gardens]

Ha, running a little hot now I'm afraid - all part of the dialing in process that is farming!

Shoot for lights on temp around 75-80
Lights off temp around 68-70

Too hot & u slow / stop resin & terpene production
Too cold & u slow / stunt vegetative & tissue production

 

[budelight]

Ha, running a little hot now I'm afraid - all part of the dialing in process that is farming!

Shoot for lights on temp around 75-80
Lights off temp around 68-70

Too hot & u slow / stop resin & terpene production
Too cold & u slow / stunt vegetative & tissue production

Yup. Im a beginner and not afraid to admit it and take advice to grow some bomb nuggets.

Slap me if im reading into this too much, but based on what your saying it sounds like plants will thrive in slightly higher temps during veg, then slightly lower temps during flower.

Is this an accurate interpretation?

Cheers,
Budelight

 

[guest121295]

Yes I believe it is.I like to run my veg room at about 80-85 degrees, more towards 80 but I don't mind a bit higher as long as the water is flowing.The plants will do better flowering with 75 deg daytime and 65 nightime.Flowering I like to have my root zone be about 68 and I have about 10 fans and blowers to do it! The best thing you can do is ask a ton of questions and always know you could learn more, there's no ultimate expert yet.The possibilities for growing are deeper than the pacific.

 

[budelight]

Yes I believe it is.I like to run my veg room at about 80-85 degrees, more towards 80 but I don't mind a bit higher as long as the water is flowing.The plants will do better flowering with 75 deg daytime and 65 nightime.Flowering I like to have my root zone be about 68 and I have about 10 fans and blowers to do it! The best thing you can do is ask a ton of questions and always know you could learn more, there's no ultimate expert yet.The possibilities for growing are deeper than the pacific.

THANK YOU THANK YOU CHACO

It makes me warm that you have shared with me the temps which you run at and your target temps. That is exactly the kind of motivation i need to achieve buds that resemble real nugges, and not the airy fluffy buds i am expecting up until this point.

In a perfect world, having large calax's like you, provides the "headie" look that i am going for! (not to mention snow covered flowers)

Do you grow on a flood table? I've struggled to dial in the settings there and would like to hear how often you pump water into the surface. That is, if you use ebb/flow.

Cheers,
Budelight

 

[Highlighter]

You know, we all started @ some point. I was sixteen, growing in our garage attic only accessed thru my bedroom.

That was 40 yrs ago, with many now and then tries, w/ little success.
Until the late 80's when growing really came indoors.

That is exactly the kind of motivation i need to achieve buds that resemble real nugges, and not the airy fluffy buds i am expecting up until this point.

In a perfect world, having large calax's like you, provides the "headie" look that i am going for! (not to mention snow covered flowers)

The key is genetics.
What coincided with my 1st sucess's was buying seeds from the Seed Bank & SSSC.
Believe me, things have just gotten better & better, and a big part of it is the internet.
Prior you had HT to find out anything, and any news was 4 mo. old by the time it hit the news stands. Yet you'd be dying for it in hopes of gleaning some new info.
'85-'89 HT golden yrs, amazing how things escalated then.

But I digress...

Anyway, anything you need to know can be found within these forums.

 

[Bi0hazard]

I would also like to point out that if you use CO2 (which I wouldn't recommend, really when you are starting) - it allows you to have 5°-7° Higher temps than normal. The reason it is a bad idea for beginner growers is that it speeds up the metabolism of the plant which makes mistakes or growth happen much quicker. You have less time to catch certain changes or things you are looking out for - especially for people still learning.

Without CO2 I think the sweet spot is really 75°, and if you can stay between 73°-80° during the day that would be optimal. Too cold during the day and night can stunt the plants absolutely, like you are seeing.

 

[Homer J Pimpin]

Hey folks been a while since Ive posted here.I think late Nov. was my last time on Ic....Anyway Ive been busy making some changes.Added another 6 and am now going barebulb verticle scrog in co/co.....Popped a ton of beans,made a ton of beans.....Some of the beans Im excited about are the secret recipe and grand daddy purple s1's Also popped some chocolate lemonade and blue cheese and some ultra sonja some blueberry and sweet tooth4 x lui..on deck are the nycd f3's....I aquired a pre 98 bubba cut and a chocolope cut so lots of new stuff coming through.......Everyones stuff looks great....good to see ya all again....

Ancient Afghani

Here's some larry

And some Ecsd

 

[Bi0hazard]

Yup. Im a beginner and not afraid to admit it and take advice to grow some bomb nuggets.

Slap me if im reading into this too much, but based on what your saying it sounds like plants will thrive in slightly higher temps during veg, then slightly lower temps during flower.

Is this an accurate interpretation?

Cheers,
Budelight

I believe it was more in reference to the difference in temps between the cycles when the lights are on and off. This would most likely only apply during flowering since the lights will be off 12 hours a day.

Small electric space heaters can work very well for this - you can set a temp for overnight or when ever you dark period is and it will preserve the temp you want. They can get a little costly and can be an issue if you are already using a lot of electricity. If it's just a small time op they are a great solution if you have an extra $40-60 a month to spend on localized heating electricity.

Home Depot $49 - Lasko Digital Space Heater (You can set a Temp that it holds and a schedule) - http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Definitely try to keep above 65° during the dark period.

Hope everyone is enjoying this incredible weather, I'm going out to enjoy the day.

Dank Regards

 

[Guest3498]

^great advice. In the past I used one of those cheapo heaters to keep a 1800w attic garden warm and it did it's job all winter long

 

[budelight]

I believe it was more in reference to the difference in temps between the cycles when the lights are on and off. This would most likely only apply during flowering since the lights will be off 12 hours a day.

Small electric space heaters can work very well for this - you can set a temp for overnight or when ever you dark period is and it will preserve the temp you want. They can get a little costly and can be an issue if you are already using a lot of electricity. If it's just a small time op they are a great solution if you have an extra $40-60 a month to spend on localized heating electricity.

Home Depot $49 - Lasko Digital Space Heater (You can set a Temp that it holds and a schedule) - http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Definitely try to keep above 65° during the dark period.

Hope everyone is enjoying this incredible weather, I'm going out to enjoy the day.

Dank Regards

Thanks Bi0hazard - Im excited you had time to help me out. Much appreciated.

This looks like a great unit, the only issue i have is that it is larger than my setup
-Assembled Height (in.) : 23 in
-Assembled Width (in.) : 7.25 in

With my ebb/flow setup in the cab, i would be lying to say i have more than 3 inches on either side of the trays. My Cab's Flower room is about 18Wx18Dx23H. It looks like a nice unit with the programs, but since i put a towel inbetween the s&p fan and the vent whole, my high temps have been floating around 83*F.

Now it is the off temps i am going to have to deal with. Since the fan turns off with the light, the box does stay nice and warm as it slowly cools down so its not a drastic change for the plants, something im sure wont kill then, my concern is now about large (massivly large) buds i am trying to enduce. using monster bloom every other week @ 1g / gal as an additive to my MaxiBloom regiment of 1tsp/gal

Day 27 Flower

Thank you
Budelight

 

[Bi0hazard]

Hey Budelight,

An idea that might work is to put the space heater outside of the box and have it start running an hour before the lights shut off. If you can keep the room it's in warm you should be fine, assuming the box isn't placed in a wide open basement or something - that would be too expensive to heat with a space heater. If it's in a big area, try to seal off a section of that area with polyurethane wrapping or a material that will keep the heat in. Make sure the box is in the sealed area and put the space heater inside the sealed area, but outside the box. This will save money on heating as well, since the heater won't have to run as much in a smaller sealed area to preserve the pre-set temp. =]

Probably also a good idea to start heating a 1/2 hour to an hour before the lights go off. You can tweak the timing for your setup.

 

[budelight]

Hey Budelight,

An idea that might work is to put the space heater outside of the box and have it start running an hour before the lights shut off. If you can keep the room it's in warm you should be fine, assuming the box isn't placed in a wide open basement or something - that would be too expensive to heat with a space heater. If it's in a big area, try to seal off a section of that area with polyurethane wrapping or a material that will keep the heat in. Make sure the box is in the sealed area and put the space heater inside the sealed area, but outside the box. This will save money on heating as well, since the heater won't have to run as much in a smaller sealed area to preserve the pre-set temp. =]

Probably also a good idea to start heating a 1/2 hour to an hour before the lights go off. You can tweak the timing for your setup.

Yes. the box is in our open basement. Sounds like it would be a great idea however it is a stealth cabinet converted into a growbox. The basement is wide open so i cant close of an area without it appearing strange. My relatives come over to help renovate the house and shouldn't know whats going on so it has to stay on the DL.

Thanks for the advice, i will keep seeking until i find a solution.

The current solution (towel in exhaust path) is doing a great job of keeping the right max temp in there with the weather we are having, i will make sure to adjust as the spring comes to accommodate the most appropriate temps for the plants.

Cheers,
Budelight