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Tips from A Pro: Indoor Growing In Warm Weather
For those of us growing indoors with our finely tuned grow room environments, the arrival of summer’s high temperatures can be a little worrying. Below are some simple pointers to make sure you protect your plants health and still produce an outstanding crop.
Headroom: The More, The Better
While this is a purely circumstantial recommendation, it can be a lifesaver where possible. Put simply, a room with more space is a lot easier to keep cool. Headroom goes a long way to enable air movement and provide better temperature control. 6ft or more headroom is what we’d suggest, though we fully respect this may not be possible.
Air Movement: Keep It Up
If you’re not already a keeper of one, get hold of an oscillating fan. It’s a simple and cost-effective way to ensure the air movement in the grow room is maintained. Assuring a good position of the fan is vital. You want to position it below the plant, as opposed to above the leaf canopy. This will avoid any potential wind burn that can take some time for a plant to recover.
Nutrient Solution: Keep It Cool
Particularly when using a hydro system, the nutrient solution must be kept at a lower temperature. Depending on the resources available to you, there is more than one way to skin this cat.
1) Get hold of a chiller. They are not necessarily the cheapest items, but their ability to connect to the system itself and suitability for the warmer months is undeniable. A chiller will keep the solution at a consistent, cool temperature assuring that the oxygen available is at optimum levels.
2) The budget option is far from a step down in terms of effectiveness. Particularly in NFT systems, simply placing an ice pack or two in the reservoir can lower the overall temperature of the solution. Moreover, this will only cost you a couple of quid to work in your system.
It’s important to remember, when it comes to hydro systems that the temperature of the nutrient solution is consequential. If it manages to heat up beyond 21 degrees C, the oxygen levels are going to dissipate and the growth rate of the plants will be negatively affected.
Lighting: Positioning Is Everything
If the overall temperatures are higher than the rest of the year, your lighting and specifically, its positioning needs careful attention. In the summer, keeping your lights about 10-20cm higher than you would normally is advisable. This won’t lose much light but it will provide a cooler temperature for your plants. Rust marks are a sure sign that the grow lights are too close to the plants, feel free to take the lights up a little before this appears.
Fans: Invest For The Best
We don’t specifically advise buying the highest end most expensive fans on the market, there are more worthwhile alternatives. A perfect addition to the fans you have for the warmer summer months is a temperature-controlled fan speed regulator. This is ideal for making the fans work as hard as possible when required. This small addition to your fans can ensure that as much cool air as possible is available in the warmest periods. A fan with its speed temperature controlled is going to regulate the temperature for you till it reaches the desired level.
Intake Fan: Outside To Inside
It’s probably struck you that the surrounding rooms to your grow room may well be significantly cooler. Don’t be afraid to get hold of an intake fan and draw the air from the cooler room to the grow room. This can have the effect of bringing cooler air which can dilute the grow room temperature, bringing it down overall.
Finally, Growing In The Warmth
Once your temperature levels are creeping upwards of 25 degrees C, there’s no doubt you're nervous about your grow room. There are numerous suggestions and additions you can make to improve the temperature stability as it naturally rises in the middle of the year. OptiClimate units, circulation fans and LED grow lights are some just to name a few, all depending on your space and budget options. You can be sure that the steps above are some tried and tested ways to lessen temperatures as they rise in summer. Follow our tips, keep your grow cool and enjoy your best summer yields yet.
