My apologies if this was previously addressed. I live in the Northeast and plan to start a hydroponic grow in my unheated garage. I do realize that the middle of winter is not an ideal environment for plant growth. What is the minimum air temperature I should look for to begin a successful grow?
welcome to the community. what do you plan on growing? Have you downloaded the grow Bible?
White Widow auto flower. I have not downloaded the Bible but have read a great deal of it online.
1 Like
Hello @Tomb4378 I would suggest purchasing a tent to help trap heat in your grow. Maybe even setup some ductwork to pull air from inside your house to keep temperature under control.
If you are use some HID lights rather than cooler LED lights you would have another way to help heat your grow area.
When the lights are off, it’s best to have a temperature that is around 10° lower than the daytime temperature. So if you keep your grow room 75° when the lights are on, aim for 65° when they are off. You could do 70° Lights on and 60° Lights off. With those temps you’d need to keep your humidity levels at 70% until flower time. Then it would need to move down to 55%.
Another option would be to grow some Auto flower and keep lights on 24/7 so temps are helped with lighting.
Also you will need to keep humidity levels in check with your air temps. Here’s a Vapor Pressure Deficit VPD calculator that’s is quite handy and easy to use.
2 Likes
Thank you for the welcoming. I’ll be growing inside a cabinet with LED lighting. Supplementing heat into my garage is not an option - too far separated from the main house’s heating runs. Have you any experience with heating pads? I could place one underneath the hydro reservoir which would keep the plants feet warm and promote some humidity.
Autos really need to have optimum conditions. You only get one shot so to speak. The ruderalis part of autos is a colder clime strain.
1 Like
I live in the northeast as well … I can’t even grow in my basement with a tent (to cold) . I don’t think you’ll seceded with an auto in that environment.
Have you been monitoring temps in your garage? When growing with leds if your canopy temps get much lower than 80f will slow plant growth down. Plants can stay healthy plenty lower than that, but there are other factors to play in. Your res temps will pretty critical too. I would get an aquarium heater instead of trying to maintain with a heat mat.
2 Likes
Before I commit any seeds or fertilizer, I’ll set up the hydro unit, heating pad and lights to see what temperatures (reservoir and air) I can maintain.
1 Like
Couple oil filled heaters. No moving parts and can run continuosly. They will roast a room once they warm up.
A room in home no doubt. They wouldn’t do anything in my garage this time of year though. Then you have to consider you’d be adding another 3000 watts/hour that doesn’t really produce additional harvest.