My question is how can I bring more CO2 into my grow space without having to buy gas burners or CO2 bags. What are the other options? Especially for a no-till organic grow.
A few things to consider: 1. Organic soil already produces CO2 (respiration from bacteria, fungi and insects) 2. Unless you have very strong lighting adding CO2 has no benefit.
I used to get dry ice from the local grocery for a while. Giant blocks of it, then throw it in a cooler that has a drain on it and close the lid, and hang it above my plants. You could watch it slowly falling out the drain hole before dissipating. Kind of a pain, but worked until I eventually bought a CO2 burner. No way to really regulate it or even have any clue how well the air is injected without a monitor, but I had good results that crop. As well, baking soda an vinegar produce CO2, but you'd have to do some Googling to see if it's a feasible route. Some ideas to consider though I don't know how comfortable you'd be asking a grocer, but ya never know. You could lie and say it's for you, or your kid's science experiments or something. Most people wouldn't know any better. All that said, if you don't have good air movement, and / or you tick your plant off in other ways and stress them, or don't have your nutes dialed in, or your setup just sucks the CO2 out immediately with a fan, or as stated above, not great lighting it's all a bit of a waste.
Sure, but my soil is just starting to come to life. And I don't have that much decomposition going on since I don't have any mulch or carbon layer on my soil so I tought it wouldn't hurt to try out some DIY option and see if it boosts their growth any. If it doesn't I can remove it from the tent without any losses, if it does then they were lacking it so it stays in the tent. I already made some set-up earlier today, and its going in the tent right now. We will see if anything changes. Its -10°C outside. Not really sure why would you assume someone doesn't know that but yeah. Already having hard time keeping the tempretures over 20°C in the tent. Thanks for the info buddy, I didn't ask the question because I read "Get Huge Yields With CO2 !" on leafy. Its really cold out here so if I run the exhaust fan tempretures drop to 17°C-18°C, and I dont like it. Pretty sure plants do not either. So I tought since my intake and exhaust is both passive, my room probably lacks CO2 most of the time. I already made a little setup with 2 bottles. One bottle filled with yeast, sugar, flour, warm water with no chlorine in it. Other one is filled with only water. Little hose (one used with serums) goes from fermenting bottles cap, into bottle filled with water. CO2 produced from fermentation process goes through the hose, into water. Water pushes CO2 bubble up, then it exits through second hole which I sticked in a shorter hose with little plastic tube on end of it. I made little holes on the plastic tube, then put it front of the fan that blows air to my plants. Will see how it works.
I live above the 45th parallel. I understand the challenges of bringing in fresh air when it's cold outside. It can be done. Best of luck! P-
No need for decomposition, your soil is already alive since you mixed and hydrated it. Get a CO2 meter and check your levels, you might be surprised.
Sure it can be done, but not with the budget and equipment I got right now. Trying to work with what I got. Thanks. Still got tons of things to learn about the living soil. Thanks for the info.
I hear ya. Yeah growing with extreme air temperatures and trying to maintain a stable environment for plants is tricky, can be quite the pain. Sounds interesting, will follow
There is a cheap, edible and fun way to provide more CO2 into your grow if you'd like, but it really is unnecessary, especially if you put as much soil into your space as possible. With a small grow it really isn't feasible to pull outside air in during the winter. I had 1200w of HPS lights going and it was impossible to bring outside air in during the winter. Grow some oyster mushrooms. Delicious. Great for mulch too! CO2 bags called "Exhale" are available here in the states and they are nothing but wheat straw that have been innoculated with oyster mushrooms. RD
With lighting like that adding co2 will be wasteful. You need very strong lights for the plants to benefit. You also cant run an exhaust to maintain co2 levels mushroom bags and home made yeast/co2 generators are pretty much worthless . Did some tests awhile back. Adding co2 properly to a grow isn't cheap. You'll do just fine without it.
Dont forget there is fungi and bacteria growing all over inside the soil producing co2, I doubt anything short of a proper co2 setup with tanks will add enough to make a difference.
I got almost 20000 lumens in 2x2 area so its not that little. Actually im trying to create a co2 source BECAUSE I cant run an exhaust fan. So its not worthless its the "fix". I'm not saying my tent was lacking co2, I can't know that without testing the air. I just tought it might be lacking so I made a little setup for free, nothing wastefull going on here. I really appreciate you guys helping me but I'm already aware that even if my tent lacks co2 it doesn't lack "that much" to buy a gas burner or co2 bag, thats why I asked for a organic/DIY setup idea. To be honest it might be me being delusional but I think it already helped the plants, they seem to be growing faster since I introduced the yeast thing. Again, I totaly respect and appreciate you guys helping and giving these important informations.