Finally a New Grow Area

[changeofpace2014]

We moved over a year ago and I had to demo the old tent.): - .The old tent was 4 x 5 x 6.5 ft and it was totally light and air tight with fresh air and exhaust...I never had any issue with the design, heat, smell etc..

New grow has some Serious Height issues 38" inches but I now have two 3 x 4 bays in a tent that is 8 ft long but only 38" high. This will really be a challenge and learning curve for me...In the past Nebulas manifold technique really cut the height down ( well I grew thai and it only reached about 4.5 ft).

A second light was added since there are now two bays, but this B... runs hot...The led diode fixtures run much hotter then led cobb fixtures or at least in my case. I had to add two 18" piece of angled aluminum with thermal pad all the way across both ends of the fixture (mars hydro ts2000) and it is tucked up to the floor joist.. The heat issue is with the exhaust. I only have a 200 cfm inline fan and carbon filter..I suspect the actual cfm are 130 or so because the fan is rated at 200 cfm by it self...The grow area cubic feet is around 94 so I assumed my intake box and fan, producing 44 cfm would suffice for required air exchange, in fact I added a second 44 cfm fan in a push and pull to bring more air in but the temps still run around 88 f. I cut a hole in the side as high as I could and mounted a 2x4 then mounted a Honeywell floor fan (small) now I know there is enough cool air being forced in but the temps remain... Had to crack the door to bring temp down to 85 f. Maybe this will change as the weather cools off by Dec we should be at or below freezing for the day time...

In hind sight I would tell any one planning a grow build to buy larger fan and run it at half speed...Maybe by the time the girls go into flowering I can cut this 4" inline out and put in a 6" with 400 cfm.. Seeds are still on paper towel and seed mat...The grow will be blueberry and gorilla glue lemon fire and hopefully we can pollinate or that is the plan...

[90Gizmo]

i want to solve a similar problem before next summer. I'm looking at some sort of "greenhouse film" to put between the lights and plants. Then evacuate the heat from the top area with one fan and filter the plants with a second fan on the lower side. Just an idea at this point. Also maybe just cardboard with cutouts for the lights at the light level to separate the two areas. The heat from the driver and presumably half the heat from the LEDs might be in the upper half, again, evacuate that with a separate fan. Anyway, try to separate the heat from the plants.

[changeofpace2014]

Some one mentioned the led drivers could be located out of the tent on there fixture..I will have to look at the cable length...Every degree you can take back is a plus...I was disappointing when the honey well was cut in, as I thought that would surely bring in enough cool air. It was after that attempt when I realized the issue is with exhaust being restricted in the joist.

[BU2B]

changeofpace2014 for my mars hydro panel the ballasts can be removed from the panel but the cable is only about 2 or 3 feet in length. To keep temps down in my tent I resort to insuring the heat from the light panel up is removed. I generally measure temp at the light panel height as I know it’s going to be less at the plants. A larger variable speed exhaust fan is VERY helpful. You can not move enough cool air in if you cannot move the heated air out. Fans are getting cheap like borscht. Keeping in mind that each bend in your exhaust also reduces cfs air flow.

[Bluey]

I have the current model SF-7000, two of them..the drivers add around as much heat perhaps more than the LED'S. Drivers have about 8'6" cords and I've put them outside the room. They are dimmable down to 20%, will almost run a 5 x 5 tent at about 26" and about 1000 ųmol/m²/sec in the centre. Mine are on their 1st grow and dimmed @ 75/100. I might get to 100% in about 10 weeks @ about 27 to 28 inches but will just have to see..I'm only guessing.

[changeofpace2014]

we have a green house outside, and had to replace a panel after bad storm. I could not find any of the old green house panels, that are actually greenish but rather clear ones.. there is some kind of treatment on them, however they are still clear...

there is not much of a temp difference between 36 " and 24" maybe a degree. initially I thought the issue was with the voulme of cool air being pushed in, but after cutting a hole and adding a floor fan to force cool air in, the high temps remain..Conclusion is there needs to be much higher exhaust..there is more then enough fresh air to replace 94 cubin feet in tow minutes at most, but to bring the temps down I think it needs to be replaced every minute..

Hind sight I should of purchased a 6" in line fan and not this small 4" 200 cfm. There was never a heat issue with the old tent, maybe it has to do with the fact, the filter is tucked between the joist and over the mars hydro. I have no other option to relocate the exhaust fan..Bigger is better!!

These days we have the option to run lights and fans at half power...

Your idea is a good example of "out of the box thinking....."

[changeofpace2014]

beans have been on plate and towel for 3 days now and so far nothing....Mind you the seeds have been around for over a year...Dam the fresh beans sprout right away...Already considering ordering again..I wonder if rocket will issue a credit if they do not germinate...Doubt it as the purchase was over a year ago...

[changeofpace2014]

Day 4 hell it might be day 5 and nothing...These beans were ordered in july 2021 but they have been stored in cool, dry environment, along with a lot of other seed stock. Sent Cropking an e-mail...O have them in chat now "we will see" honestly if I have to buy them again so be it...Dam we need some kind of seed club to trade beans...lol

[changeofpace2014]

Over the 2 year mark...but they issued a 10% off code..along with 20$ shipping..i think that is bit excessive for a dam envelope and no T-Shirt....MSNL shipped cool t-shirt...

[changeofpace2014]

A few pics...

[SoOrbudgal]

I have been using some pretty old beans seem good if stored in a cool area. I got them in a tupperwear box on the floor of a closet.

[changeofpace2014]

The duct over the right light is the carbon filter; the inline fan is also mounted up there..The light will not tuck in the joist area "to small". I should of purchased a 6" inline fan with 400 cfm..I will probably have to cut the old one out and replace it, before flowering..

4 days and still no germination. The seeds are over a year old but were sealed from cropking and kept in cool dry area with lots of rice and decan pack. The seeds from previous pollination are more viable.

[ChubbNugg]

I love me some Tupperware

[changeofpace2014]

Always buy bigger ( bigger fan, bigger light) etc. Today fans and lights have dimmer on them, so they can run at 1/2 power. Live and learn, but is sucks when you put a lot of work in and find out there is a issue with the design. Big difference trying to control heat in such a small area. The math to calculate air flow for optimal plant growth is out the window, because controlling heat requires way more cfms. The exhaust really needs to be expelled through the carbon filter to scrub future smells..

[changeofpace2014]

It is my hope the colder winter temps in the crawl space will allow a 80 - 85 range. Plan B is to buy a 6 "in in line fan with 400+ cfm and carbon filter. I think it would tuck right in the corner with out to much obstruction. There would be to much work to cut the old one out with plants in there. In the mean time the Mars can be used in lower power to veg... Today would of been the 5th or 6th day in germination ...Flushed them this morning and watched that bill go down the toilet....Order blueberry seeds again but held off on the Gorilla Glue Lemon Fire because there are 3 beans left. Really this grow needs to bee from seed to set them up for training with Nebula 4 way method. Screen is out because we need pollen...

[changeofpace2014]

With only the mars fixture running at 75% the temps are down to 73 degrees.. I suspect the temps will be manageable during flowering with winter weather on the way..

[changeofpace2014]

temps hold at 82 with door open and 74 with rh in mid 50s using the pid to control a small space heater during lights out.

[changeofpace2014]

to many thoughts.....it shows in the rambling..

[90Gizmo]

I'm still thinking about it. There's math for the CFM needed but it needs a lot of info that's not likely to be had. So maybe brute force is the answer. Wall off a much bigger area and use a big fan to spread out the heat into the bigger space... Sort of like leaving a grow tent door open to lower the temp inside. Then run the smell filter from inside the larger space... This separates the problems of heat exchange from the need for air exhaust.

I wonder how far you can take Neb's method. There's seems a point where they're allowed to grow upwards but maybe you don't have to?

[3Berries]

Most of the heat is radiant and that is hardest to control with just air movement. Make sure the humidity is where it should be as a higher humidity helps considerably with controlling higher temps.

[changeofpace2014]

Ac is totally out the window...dam thats enought hydro for another grow area....When everything is on full power, the draw is only 7.2 amps.

[3Berries]

changeofpace2014 as far as the light up in the floor joist.

I would line the wood with some thin reflective insulating material. You can find it for garage doors or even thin foam board with the foil covering. Then baffle the joist off and pull air through it with the exhaust fan.

[changeofpace2014]

The tent is sealed around the floor joist as well (PITA). I decided not to cover the floor joist because, to many issues..potential fire hazard (lights will be tucked against the joist at some point, and the light yo yo are mounted up in the joist as well as the carbon filter / in line fan.

Only the mars is on now, for veg (around 75%) not much heat...72 - 73 degrees day and 68 evening, but lights are on 24 to help keep them short. It has been 21 days yesterday since the tap root went in the coir. They will be topped back down to the 3rd node when they reach 5 or 6 node.

[changeofpace2014]

I'm still thinking about it. There's math for the CFM needed but it needs a lot of info that's not likely to be had. So maybe brute force is the answer. Wall off a much bigger area and use a big fan to spread out the heat into the bigger space... Sort of like leaving a grow tent door open to lower the temp inside. Then run the smell filter from inside the larger space... This separates the problems of heat exchange from the need for air exhaust.

I wonder how far you can take Neb's method. There's seems a point where they're allowed to grow upwards but maybe you don't have to?

A larger area to absorb the heat is a good idea and it would help...but that is an after thought at this point....That is a good idea for some one with available sq ft and no means to exhaust.

I hope the winter temps bring the tent temperature down...I can regulate the temps around 80 - 85 f with door open, but I really want the tent sealed up...crawl space does have spiders, and if there are spiders there must be some measure of bugs..

Nebulas flat top technique with a 4 way is the plan...plants have to be from seed to do that...One of her post Nebula suggested you keep training and tying them down for 2 weeks into the stretch.

[changeofpace2014]

Regarding the blueberry and gorilla glue lemon fire beans that did not germinate...I pulled the trigger and re ordered, but in the mean time, a few of the many left over thai beans were put on the plate to see if it was operator error...they germinated in 3 days and they are 4 years old, 2018 is when the seed run happened...

[changeofpace2014]

A little progress... Well had to order blue berry again because not one of the 5 seeds germinated, and 4 of the g.l.f were a bust as well.. I had 3 g.l.f left, because C.K sent 7# seeds. What we have is a couple of b.b (second order) and two g.l.g, yeah only one has sprouted but the other did germinate on paper towel, actually I pulled the plug out and had a peak, just to confirm it did not slip down. The other is Thai x c.c.k and it is from this summer grow..Curious to see how it grows because it is second generation and was pollinated from a strong kush pheno type..I thought he was a she all the way to the end (dam that sounds bad) and he had really hash smell..

The G.L.F looks messed up (to me) and the other has not made its way up..Those seeds were ordered in the middle of covid and I know they were leaving shipments sit for days, I do not know if they were doing anything to sterilize the shipments...Never herd anything to the effect but the fact remains that order of beans has been problematic!

[changeofpace2014]

transplanted them to there 3 gal mod / fabric pots...And pulled the trigger and bought a ro system for aquarium no holding tank, not needed..Just under $60. The Thax x Cotton Candy Kush seeds (this summer) are a head of the blue berry but they will catch up.. The GGLF has been a real pita..it is the only one out the entire order that germ..I think they zap them packages during covid with some ??? re ordered blueberry from crop king and these ones did come up..ya ya I post a pic of the 4 above...

[changeofpace2014]

update on what is growing Thai x Cotton Candy Kush, (new seeds from summer pollination) Blueberry, Gorilla lemon fire..

[changeofpace2014]

They will be topped when at 3rd node when they grow out to the 5 or 6 node. Kind of waiting on the roots to develop after the transplant before topping. 1 more week. The nodes are pretty tight (:. The 5th node is just growing out. the pic above is a few days old and they have grown quite a bit.

[changeofpace2014]

Spent all day disconnecting a sink and washing machine ,so a little aquarium RO system could be plumbed in...I can plumb but only for Family because it always gets complicated and multiple trips to hardware store... It works and is leak free...However it took 1 hr to fill one 5 gallon bucket....No Shit....1/4 tube.... ...

I went with the RO because of the hard water at the new house..not to mention every feed chart gives ratio based on RO water with 0.00 or close to 0.00 ppm / ec and when you start off with 2000 ppm of crap it takes about a 1:1 ration to bring the ec down, for example if I mixed floral trio, calmag, armor si for three gallons, it was taking 2 or 3 gallons to bring the ec down...That is a lot of dilution... It still requires dilution but not to the extent of plain tap water..

[changeofpace2014]

i have been happy with the little table top RO system, tankless..it does take about 30 min ti fill 5 gallons and it is very very easy to forget about if you walk away..

[changeofpace2014]

And when I said it is a aquarium RO system, it is tank less ,but with that flow rate, it is truly for a Little Gold Fish Bowl...