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Cold Weather Alert!! |
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| Don't let the cold weather get the better of your plants! Make sure you protect your grow room and keep your plants healthy with this handy hints and tips article on dealing with cold weather problems. |
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Cold Weather Alert!!
With the cold weather encroaching upon us it's important to monitor propagators, grow rooms, root zones and nutrient solutions in order to compensate for low temperatures and keep systems operating at optimum levels. Failing to adequately prepare for a sudden cold snap or unexpected frost could leave your grow room in danger of a significant slowdown in productivity or in some extreme cases plants could even be lost.
Gardens particularly susceptible are those in non insulated attics or garages. Always try to grow inside a part of the home that is insulated against the cold like a spare or unused room. Especially during the winter, new air drawn through your indoor garden should come from inside the house where temperatures are more moderate and CO2 levels high. If possible, it is always preferably not to draw air into your grow room from outside during the colder months.
Propagators need to be kept at fairly constant temperature between about 21 to 27C when rooting cuttings, with more northern latitude varieties preferring 21 to 24C and more equatorial varieties preferring 24 to 27C. Some people root their cuttings under 24 hours light to help keep day and night temperatures more constant, using lamp height to control the temperature of the propagator. Heated propagators are also useful in keeping temperatures up and speeding up the rooting process. Other products which can help you achieve more 'friendly' temperatures during propagation include Budget Nutrient Heaters, Heavy Duty Hydor Nutrient Heaters, Heated Aeroponic Propagators and the Heated BioGreen Jumbo Propagator. You must try and root cuttings within three weeks to avoid any failures.
Root zones are particularly susceptible to cold temperatures, with colder conditions slowing plant growth and causing damage to the cells on the outside of the root surface. In NFT or other similar systems where the roots are semi- exposed, be sure to pay extra attention to root zone and nutrient solution temperatures. The ideal temperature for root zones and nutrient solutions is 21C. This temperature is warm enough to stimulate good growth rates and cool enough to maintain good oxygen content needed for the optimum growth rate scenario. Root zones contained in rockwool slabs or coco are less directly susceptible to cold root zone problems which predominantly effect yield more than health. Root Zone temperatures can be maintained using a Budget Nutrient Heater or a Heavy Duty Hydor Nutrient Heater if needed.
Plant and leaves
Cold air around any part of the plant will start to affect potential yield. Large drops in temperature at night will at least cause slow growth, slight purpling, yield drop and at worst cause condensation, leaf tip and margin damage, and rot. Have your lights on at night if possible to help even out lights ON and OFF temperature and think about using temperature sensitive fan speed controllers such as the KlimaVator.
Top Tips
- Insulate indoor gardens in attics, or insulate the attic itself.
- Don't top up systems or feed pots with really cold water, let it stand and warm up a bit first.
- Turn off glass type nutrient heater for 15 minutes before toping up tanks to avoid breakages.
- Have your lights on at night to help even out lights ON and lights OFF temperatures.
- Don't draw very cold air into the grow room.
- Propagators: ideal temp. 24C (24 hours constant)
- Root zones and nutrient solutions: ideal temp. 21C (24 hours constant)
- Plant and leaves: 21 to 24C - lights OFF / 24 to 27C - lights ON
Cold Weather Checklist
Here are a few items for monitoring and/or controlling temperatures around the plant.
- Heavy Duty Hydor Nutrient Heaters, virtually indestructable nutrient heaters with adjustable temperature control.
- Budget Nutrient Heaters, greta value nutrient heaters with temperature control.
- Heated Propagators
- Min-Max thermometers, to measure lights ON and OFF temperatures
- Digital and electronic monitoring and control equipment for environment and nutrient solutions are available, see catalogue or call the technical team on 0845 345 5176
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