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Hot Weather Alert!! |
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| It's that time of year again where temperatures start hotting up and grow rooms start over heating. Take a look at our hot weather alert and get yourself ready for the summer heat. |
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Introduction
The hot weather has arrived and with it comes a few potential problems we need to protect ourselves from. Bugs - especially spider mites – are much more likely to invade our garden in warmer conditions - as if we haven’t got enough to worry about with the summer heat making it difficult to keep the temperature down in the grow room!
Keeping your grow room cool
The usual technique for keeping the room cool is to have a grow room with reasonable headroom ( 6 feet plus), and have good air exchange. The right amount of air exchange is roughly 200m3/hr for each light. If the room is still a little hot (27oC –28oC is what you should be aiming for) don’t worry too much as long as your plants are still healthy and growing. It’s often hard to get the temperature below ambient temperature, especially with all that light. When measuring temperatures do it in the shade well away from the light. Input fans become more popular in the summer as they do help cool the grow room. Check out the Blueprint in the back of our catalogue (request your copy here) to match up input and output fans. Oscillating fans and air circulators can also be used to cool the air in the room.
Keeping your hydro system cool
Active Hydroponic Systems
Growing in active hydro systems as opposed to passive pots always helps in the hot weather. All that water and oxygen around the root zone helps the plant control it’s body temperature better, avoiding over transpiration and the leaf damage associated with this. Use air pumps and airstones where possible in nutrient solutions. Keep nutrient tanks covered from all light and possibly try adding an extra cover or some thick reflective black white sheeting over your existing cover to help stop nutrients getting too warm. Water and nutrient temperatures should be kept to about 21oC if possible. Above this temperature, oxygen content in your nutrient solution will be reduced, and nutrient uptake by your plants. If it’s much over 21oC that then use Oxy-Plus to boost oxygen levels. Pointing an oscillating fan directly at your nutrient tank can also be used to help keep tanks cool and oxygen levels high.
Passive Hydro Pots
You may want to use Oxy-Plus to boost oxygen levels to the nutrient solution and root zone.
Be sure not to use Oxy-Plus with any biological products or in soil unless you intend to use an Oxydator. An oscillating fan blowing on the sides of the pots should help keep the root zone a bit cooler. Don’t let nutrient solutions get too warm before using and always stir vigorously before application.
Keeping your plants cool
In summer most people have their lights a few inches higher – you won’t lose too much in terms of light and the slight drop in temperature can sometimes mean the difference between a good yield and a poor one. A healthy plant will perform better with slightly less light than a damaged or struggling one will with maximum light.
If the lamp height is too close then the plants leaves can over transpire causing large rusty marks on the leaves a few days later. Similarly oscillating fans can sometimes do more harm than good if positioned wrongly, causing wind burn (leaves curling up, dying back from the tip, turning a golden colour and going all crispy). To avoid this don’t blow hard on the tops of the plants or leaves where there is a lot of light as this just dries the leaf out. Instead use oscillating fans to gently blow through the plants from below and a small fan to blow directly at the lamp bulb to take the heat out at source.
Using an input fan will also help cool the air inside the grow room, use a slightly smaller input fan than output fan and pump the air in at the bottom of the room. For input air use air from inside a house if possible where temperatures are friendly, CO2 levels are high. Extracted air is best removed from the premises, or into the attic or another room.
Don’t have your lights too close, we recommend a 600watt light at least 4 foot from young plants and about 2 foot from bigger flowering plants. Lamp heights will vary from room to room, in passive pots lights may need to be a few inches higher.
Heat Shields are very useful, especially with multiple large light systems as they will help even out the light and heat over the whole garden. They also prevent hot spots directly under the lamp.
Light Rail 3.5. These comprise of a 6 foot rail and motor. The motor moves quite slowly, has an adjustable time delay at each end and can carry up to 50lbs in weight. The rail has adjustable motor return stops so you can move your light from a few inches to the whole 6 foot. These systems are very popular in summer especially with 600 and 1000 Watt light systems, not only will they increase the size of your garden and your yield, they will also spread the light and heat alleviating hot spots under the lamp and generally relieving heat problems a bit in the hot weather.
Bugs
With the summer comes a greater chance of spider mite infection and other pest problems and the hotter it is the quicker they reproduce. Try not to draw air into your garden directly from outside, inside household air has a friendlier temperature and contains less bugs and if the house is lived in then much more CO2.
Spider mites are the most common and the most devastating of pests, for full information on how to deal with these nasties is on our fact sheet on spider mites. Don’t blame your mate who gave you that cutting straight away as they are outside everywhere! In peoples gardens, parks, pathways, and they can live on your clothes for 3 days, or they can just walk on in through the window. It’s good to have a regular Bug check every 5 days, to scan the plants for the first signs on infection (i.e. clusters of small white dots on the top of the leaf). Buzz Off is still our favourite natural spray. You might also want a look at our article on dealing with spider mites here or download our in depth pdf file here.
Fungus nat and other Scarid fly are just as common although breed a lot slower and are nowhere near as damaging as spider mites. Blow oscillating fans across the top of the root zone as they like to breed in the still air in the top of the pot, this will slow them right down. Also use yellow sticky traps to catch the flying adults. It’s hard to avoid the odd fly, if they become a problem talk to our technical team on 0845 345 5176 for current effective products and methods.
Springtails are another bug we see a lot of in summer wherever there is a lot of water. They are small and white-ish with a small hooked tail they use to spring and jump with. You often see them in the top of a pot or on the water surface in Aquafarms and other hydro systems. You know that these small white wriggly things aren’t a form of scarid fly lava because there are no flies around and they spring and jump. You can get natural predators to get rid of them but as they tend to come and go and do no real harm to the plant over a three month cycle, I won’t worry about them, they’ll probably just be gone one day. You can flush them away to a certain extent, and they don’t like Oxyplus.
In general
If you’ve not grown in the summer before, the main differences from winter growing are: the plants will drink a lot more and eat a bit more; you have to make sure your nutrient solution doesn’t get too warm, especially in the second half of the lights on cycle; you will need to top up and change the nutrient solution more often in re-circulating hydro systems, especially when the plants are bigger; your light will need to be a few inches higher than it was in winter; more air exchange means more yield, some people have one set off input/ extractor fans for winter use and a larger set for summer use; there is no doubt that an active hydro system will cope with the increase in heat better than a passive hand watered pot, giving you healthier plants that can cope with more light and give bigger yields.
If you find after all of this that you are still struggling with heat problems, please give our technical team a call on 0845 345 5176 and we'll be only too happy to try and help.
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GroWell Hydroponics Ltd, Solihull, Birmingham, UK
Blooms Garden Centre, Kenilworth Road
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