DWC Lack of growth

[Mbrozack]

I have five plants of different strains growing under a 400 Watt MH light. At first growth was amazing. I was cutting clones, plucking umbrella leaves etc. Now, growth has slowed or even halted. I thought it might be the temperature, or maybe I need more air stones. The temp sometimes reaches 98 degrees. Can some one please give me some advice? I switched bulbs to 400 Watt HPS. I'm waiting to see what that does but, I'm scared! I don't want to mess this up. Please help!

[Saturnalia]

98 is very hot. Can you do anything to cool this down a bit? More ventilation? I am struggling a bit with similar heat issues and don't know how I can cool my tent any further.

[Mbrozack]

I discussed this with my partner and he will see what he can do. I read the temp should be between 75 and 85 degrees. Does that sound right? Thanks again.

[Blaze4daze]

You could always use a ice coolor (ice chest) filled with ice, to cool down your grow area a~bit. Fill old used plastic water bottles with tapwater, freeze them overnight in your freezer, then cut the tops off and remove the ice chunk from the plastic by running warm water over bottles and put them in your ice chest. This will save you money, buying ice.

Point a fan into the ice chest and that will spread the cold air from the chest to cool your grow area. Fill your plastic bottles the night before, so they'll be ready the next day. You can re~use them too, if you cut the tops off and carefully store them in your freezer, overnight. Pour out the water in the chest, after they melt and replace them when needed.

This probably would increase the humidity, just like any air conditioner would too, but if your not in the last half of bloom, it doesn't matter too much. The second half of bloom, not so much, you might cause bud rot from the extra humidity. Maybe that will help you cool the grow area.

Better yet

I've even seen where a Styrofoam ice chest was used, a round hole was cut~out for a small fan to fit into and it was mounted into it, from the outside, near the top of one end of the chest and another round vent hole was cut out toward the top, on the other end, of the chest, attached to a 4 inch flexible vent hose, leading into the grow area. this all can be set~up, right outside the tent. The fan pushes the cold air, from inside the chest, where the ice is and it travels thru the other hole and out the end of the vent hose and goes into and cools the inside of the grow tent. Basically a home made air conditioner w/directional output. Worth a try. Good luck.

[Saturnalia]

Thanks B4D. I was looking at air cons but a) they are too expensive and b) the strain I'm growing is billed as being particularly susceptible to mould so I'm a bit nervous about upping the humidity. Luckily the warm spell has mostly passed but even here we're likely to get more hot weather.
My trouble is mostly that the tent is in a loft space and it's that that holds the heat. I need to work out a way of cooling that and then the air intake of the tent will be cooler.
Your reply has given me something to think about. Thanks.

[Blaze4daze]

Saturnalia

Dag~nab them loft gardens in the summer time, our other cabin up here has two loft bedrooms and they get a sizzel'in hot in them, come early summer, we try to avoid being in either one of those rooms, till later in the evening, when we're over at that place.

Even up here in the mountains, It's too hot during the day in summer to have the lights on for the plants, during the daytime and our evenings do cool way down, one of the reasons I moved up here from the valley 28 years ago. Cool mountain nights during the summer.

Have you tried having light~on period start around 10pm till 10am, during the cooler hours of the night yet? That's what I try to do here and my temps stay around 78 degrees thru~out the night, this past month of growing. they should stay that way till end of Sept., if not I have a 9 inch exhaust fan built into the wall that goes off a timer, 15 minutes every hour as a back~up to keep the room cooler, sucking out the hot air during the evening, if it gets too hot in there.

Worth a try if your not already doing it. I wake early like around 5am, due to my lower back and hip pain and get most of my gardening done, early. My lights come on at (1am) and the plants go out to the sunlight at 8am till 1pm, their last 5 hours of light~on period then back in the grow room with~out lights on, to avoid heating it up any more.

Hope you find a solution, best of luck, I'm out of idea's for ya. Do you have a basement, or a lower room to use instead??

[Saturnalia]

Already have the lights on 20:30 to 8:30. That way I avoid most of the heat of the day. Have a good extractor fan running all day while the lights are off so that keeps it down a bit. Trouble is that the air going in to replace the extracted air comes straight from the loft space and is hot. I will try and rig up some ducting so that it pulls fresher air in from outdoors.
There is a slight noise issue with neighbours so am reluctant to introduce any more fans or stuff that might make noise.
I have some garage space outdoors that would be better and easier to cool but it involves some delicate negotiations with the other half. If you remember from my original posts this has always been an issue and it has taken me a while to get some plants going at all. It's a delicate situation but I have a good negotiation plan. Slow and steady wins the race eh

[admin]

Hi Guys
Have moved this topic away from the Grow Diary section to a more relevant section. Just trying to keep it all ship shaped and in the right place.
Cheers