Hello, I am new, I have a set up shown below its a small closet set up. I put a 2ft L x2ft W × 5ft H grow tent inside a small closet. Inside the tent I have a few desk fans to circulate the air. Currently I am running 4x24w florecent light during the flowering stage(18/6). My plants are only a week old and from my research it seems this will work. The end game is to have 1 or two plants fully grown in this space. QUESTIONS: -Regularly when I come home from work the temp is around 95° what can I do to lower the tempature or help plants become adaptable to higher temps? * I have been watering twice a day (against research info) because soil is dry after the hot day and I was hoping water would help the plants during the heat. - I have been researching different lighting options and have been leaning towards a 400w HPS light , but i am conserned this will also add to the heat issue I am having. My lighting budget is around $70 or $80 and would like to get the beat option for that price. Any suggestions or links would be awesome. Thank-you - Bundles Sent from my LGUS997 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Hey, Bundles, welcome to GC! I'll try to answer your questions and address some things, and hopefully my comment on your thread will bring some additional people to add their input. 1) 18/6 lighting is vegetative lighting. During this time, the plants are growing fresh, green growth, getting bigger, and developing more bud sites. Flowering lighting is 12/12. When you flip the lighting, the plants will stretch for a few weeks, roughly doubling in size. They'll stop growing new branches and start growing flowers. 2) You mentioned that you're having some difficulties keeping temperatures in an ideal range (low/mid-70°s F with humidity between 40-60%). You mentioned that you have some desk fans to circulate air, but do you have an exhaust fan to pull hot air from the top of the tent? This is the standard with tent growing because it's so easy for temps to increase and because our plants need CO2. If the air inside the tent is not exchanged with the fresh, CO2 rich air outside the tent, the plants can suffer. Check out the Ventilation FAQ from the Grow Room Design forum for information on what type and what size of fan you should get, as well as information on carbon filters to prevent the smell from leaving your tent. 3) I think that you're watering too much. Your plants don't show signs of over-watering yet, but over-watering can kill plants. Seedlings do not need a lot of water, and even mature plants can be watered once every other day. It is also better to water once, thoroughly (until there is some runoff) than to water shallowly, multiple times a day. If you do not water thoroughly, your soil will have dry spots where the roots cannot grow and the bacteria in that part of the soil will die. An exhaust fan will help regulate temperatures, and you could put down a layer of mulch (pot leaves, wheat straw, compost, earthworm castings, etc.) or some cover crop (white clover seeds) to help protect the soil from the heat and light. This will keep more moisture in your soil for longer. 4) I'm a LED grower, not a HID grower, so I've never used HPS, but HPS lights create a lot of heat. This can be managed with an air-cooled hood. Alternatively, you could look into LEDs. High-end LEDs cost quite a lot of money, but you can get some cheap UFOs that work fine. You'd be able to keep using your fluorescent lights and supplement them with the UFOs. As a third option, you could look into using a LOT of CFLs with a warmer color to supplement the fluorescents and UFOs. CFLs are great for side lighting. Good luck!
Thank you for the help/advice. I looked into that ventilation forum going to start experimenting with some of the methods. -Bundles Sent from my LGUS997 using Grasscity Forum mobile app