CO2 for micro grows? (green pads)

two sealable cannisters, two feet of aquarium tubing and i was rolling. the combo of yeast and sugars in one jug with h20 with tubing feeding in and out of the secong jug as a catch basin for bubbles of yeasty h20. i add equal amts of yeast and course whole sugar to a cup of water and give it a shake whenever im around to activate the contents. the small amt reqd in a pc will be adequatly provided with this simple kit. i used bird food plastic containers, drilled two holes in one cap and one in the other and ran a tube from the first to the second and then from the second out. a large loose knot in the lead line and make sure the second line is short as to not reach far down into the second container and get moisture. you shak the shit out of the mix and the co2 forms lotsa bubbles forcing gas from #1 to #2 and then out. the loose knot or loop will allow you to see bubbles being pushed through the kit. the gas is heavy so you may want to intro it from the top and only during the day cycle when its assimilated in the plant but not to worry during the dark as this is when the plant is busy growing not storing. each morning as the lights come on give #1 a good series of shakes and the amt produced will last for a time but if you notice no bubbles its time to add more yeast and sugar and water or pour out the old wort and start fresh once a week. and make sure the lids and tubungs seal tight!

 

Won't the smaller ones only last a few days? If the big one lasts for 1 week that is

 

The only problem I see is that usually when the light is on there will be active ventilation which will defeat the purpose of introducing co2 since it will be vented away. I have also looked into co2 enrichment but found other posts on this thread for similar products that state the amount of co2 these things produce won't show any improvements.

Basically if your not running a closed system the amount of co2 this will release is negligible when compared to the co2 present in the fresh air intake. IMHO you would be better off doubling your fresh air intake. (example. 2 50cfm fans for intake with 1 50cfm fan for exhuast)
Like I said this is my 2 cents on the subject but don't let me dissuade you from experimenting that's half the fun of growing!
Good Luck
~spacejerk234

 

also noticed this from their site:
What level CO2 ppm can I expect using the Green Pad?
Our tests in a room 10' x10' x10' (1000 cubic feet) with 3 Green Pads at 60% humidity and minimal air exchange produced 1000+ ppm
The amount of fresh air exchange plays a major role in the containment of the CO2 and the levels maintained in the room.
To maximize performance misting the pads before closing the room will increase concentrations.
From a little searching on here I think most blades that use co2 like their ppm to be around 1500-1800

 

you should look in to dry ice. Its a very cheap, efficient ways to raise the level of co2

 

Keep us posted I would love to know how they work out. I am just worried about using it in my grow and them creating toomuch humidity because you have to spray them. I'm growing in a 2 x 1.5 x 2
grow box, I'm going to try about .5-.75 lbs of dry ice a day at lights off with exhaust off. Just as a lite experiment for my self. Good luck, and again let us know!

 

I was just wondering about this. Thanks for posting this thread. I just built my first pc grow box...Im about to upload some pictures of my build and maybe my first grow.

 

All u gotta do is take a water bottle fill it with Luke warm water and mix in equal parts sugar and yeast, put the lid on shake it up, take the lid off and place it in the middle of your case, co2 sinks cuz it's heavier than air so try to have the bottle sit a couple inches above the plants, shake the bottle periodically when u r around and just replace the yeast and sugar when bubbles stop forming on top of the water, about once a week

 

so i can just have a cup of dry ice in my grow box at all times? fill me in! this sounds worth while.

 

If u do dry ice don't let it touch the plant or roots it drops temps drastically and might frost bite and stunt them

 

it gets to 120 easily outside where I live in the next few months, I was planning for my lights out time to be during the hottest part of the day. adding some dry ice in a cup above my plants might be killing 2 birds with one stone for me.

 

I was on the same hunt for my pc grow and stumbled across these as well. i sent the co. an email w/ the dimensions of my case (26'' x 8'' x 17'' BTW) and this was their response

>> Good morning
>> You can use the Green Pad jr for your small grow area, however you will
>> need to replace them at least every other day and that might be cost
>> prohibitive. You can use the larger Green Pads, you need to vent
> regularly to
>> avoid too much CO 2 in your garden.
>> Good luck, let us know if you have any more questions.
>> Cheers!
>> The Green Pad Store

so i dunno. i keep reading that if its not a closed environment that its a waste of time and $, but if it puts out more than it's supposed to for the space provided then the venting would be needed. so i guess i'm still on the fence about it...

 

I have read two things relevant to this discussion, 1. CO2 is only utilized by the plant when it is under light, not when lights are off, and 2. the concentration of CO2 should be roughly double the PPM of the nutrients but never over 2500ppm.

I am also debating this issue....So if you are supplementing CO2 you really need to regulate it, which I am starting to think is too expensive for micro grows. Dry Ice messes with the temps too much (IMHO) and realeases it's entire weight very quickly, so I guess I am going to side with the simple sugar/yeast CO2 generator. The downside is really the air exchange. This type of CO2 generation creates CO2 24/7, not ideal, plus to regulate temps in a micro grow there could be allot of air exchange in which case I doubt there would really be any benefit.

General air flow will maintain 400 ppm of CO2. A simple CO2 generator will produce half the weight of the fermentable material into CO2 (the other half is alcohol, yippee!) so I guess the generator could produce a fair amount of CO2 over time, initially it would have rapid CO2 production then taper off as the sugar is consumed, of course as a previous poster said you could just keep adding sugar.

I have read that CO2 supplementation can produce 20-25% larger yields, but that has been in tightly regulated grows with expensive CO2 controls. I am thinking of abandoning this idea for my micro grow. Especially if the extra CO2 actually DOES work and my plants get too big for the cabinet. I need to keep the plants at a reasonable size throughout the flowering, not sure if extra CO2 would complicate that or not? realistically in my grow scenario I just need buds getting larger (good) not the whole plant (bad).

Anecdotally I found a CO2 injection calculator online from FutureGarden, I had to unprotect the spreadsheet, but the calculator is meant for CO2 canisters with regulators/timers. the calculation goes like this ....

room volume(cubic feet) * 0.0012 = required CO2 (cubic feet)
Required CO2 per hour = required CO2 (above) / 3
Unfortunately it doesn't calculate resulting atmospheric concentrations. So if you are exchanging the total air volume of the grow area each hour then this gives you a rough estimate of how much CO2 should be injected every hour (after the air has been exchanged)

 

I also concluded that co2 is basically go big with regulators/cannisters or go home.

 

In my opinion this is jus inviting bugs into it grow..ants,etc

 

The double intake and 1 exhaust, from what I've read, would be a bad idea. This creates positive pressure inside and that would be detrimental...

New and open to any suggestions from the masters.