Wilting leaves as temps drop 2 efficient zone?

FocusedVisions

New Member
Hello RIU,

Growing NL auto-fem and Master Kush fem from Nirvana. Enviornment is a 4.6×4.6×6 grow tent 1000 watt HPS 6 in intake and 6 in exhaust carbon filtered with a small portable swamp cooler 2 reduce temps and add some humidity.
At times my temps rise out of what would be considered the optimal zone. As I lower temps the plants seem 2 droop in the optimal temps. Can anyone give me insight into why this is occuring? Is this normal? Im growing in soil FFOF/FFHF/perilite/dolomite lime and using ACCTs to regenerate mykos.
 

Astral Zoom

Active Member
my guess is just stress.. how much of a temp drop did they endure??


and, excuse my ignorance, but wtf is a "portable swamp cooler"?

my temps get high as well so this sounds interesting
 

FocusedVisions

New Member
They sell the portable swamp coolers at home depot they are small enough to fit in your tent and you have 2 manually fill them with water they cool by evaporation. My temps are usually in the 80-85f zone. If Im late on filling the swamp cooler the temp may jump to mid and sometimes high 90s. When the temps get 2 90 my girls fan out looking healthy and when I fill the swamp cooler band the temps drop to 80-85f the girls droop like they need a watering
 

Bublonichronic

Well-Known Member
That is odd, i dont have an experience with autos, but could you put up some pics ? Maybe the 1000w is a little overkill if there small
 

Bublonichronic

Well-Known Member
Those some gorgeous plants bro, only thing I can think is try to keep the Temp** as stable as possible... maybe get a little bigger tent and veg the plants a couple weeks longer for a much nicer yield , I hate using my 1000w in my 4x4tent, usually end up usin the 400w cause the plants just seem to like it better, a 600 is prolly ideal for a 4x4 IMO.
 

FocusedVisions

New Member
Those some gorgeous plants bro, only thing I can think is try to keep the Temp** as stable as possible... maybe get a little bigger tent and veg the plants a couple weeks longer for a much nicer yield , I hate using my 1000w in my 4x4tent, usually end up usin the 400w cause the plants just seem to like it better, a 600 is prolly ideal for a 4x4 IMO.
3 of the plants are NL auto-fem the other 3 are Master Kush. The Kushs are still in Veg. I plan 2 flip them when the autos finish. The Autos were 2 provide me some meds while I get my perpetual cycles with the Kush going.
 

DIYer

Well-Known Member
Get rid of the swamp cooler
Ditto. Thread dug up for the right answer IMO. One thing we got going for us here in the desert is low RH, if you wanna use the swamp during veg id say thats ok, but i'd surely ditch it when you want sticky icky.

If you need the swamp to keep the temps right, you need more ventilation, and a carbon filter thats rated to handle it. I wouldn't run a 1000w through anything less than an 8" tube. A higher CFM blower might do the trick too. Where are you venting the hot air? If back into the room with the tent in it i'd say thats a problem worth fixing too. I recently went a bit ape shit on my ventilation, much more than you think you need, is still never enough. Just my 2 cents.
 

HungryMan420

Well-Known Member
just get a small humidifyer it will do the job be happy with 10-15% if you can get it my plants are lush with 12% Humidity no dryness
 

DIYer

Well-Known Member
The difference between a humidifier and a swamp cooler, is equal to the difference between the nutes on a hydro store shelf. Just the label, they do the same thing. But what do I know, maybe we should all get butarded and go buy what we already have... :roll:
 

DIYer

Well-Known Member
Thats your gold standard? As long as the plants don't look bad? haha, Refer to my sig sir. Maybe we all need to read how the stomata works. From what I gather, as long as plants have water when lights are on, stomata stays open and plant grows. I search, and I find a lot of posts where n00bs worry about low RH, but none complaining about what low RH is doing to their plants. Search for problems associated with high RH though, hahaa. I'm curious what a potassium mist midday would do for stomata aperture, but if it ain't broke..... This dude has heat problems no ones addressing he address. A 1000w in a tent vented through a 6" tube?..thats carbon filtered restricted too?..haha I won't run a 600 through anything less than 8". Flex tubing isn't much so go big or go home. I'd put that carbon filter in scrubbing mode, not exhaust mode, and find a way to suck some non stinky air through your cooltube, AND vent the hot out of the room, not just the tent. Then you could probably stay 6", remove the heat, and not need the swamp cooler. Don't settle for not bad, don't buy more crap, do it right as rain.
 

Bublonichronic

Well-Known Member
8" for 600, you crazy bro, I run my 4k garden off 6" ahha, and have used a swamp cooler with great results, sooo, yea, I do agree heat seems to be a issue tho...maybe use a smaller light for that 4x4... Wait I already said that said that
also, I have noticed to low RH will make your budds more fluffy, dont know bout you, but I'm bout them dense dank buds, no that fluffy stick n stems shit that's all over the valley lol
 

DIYer

Well-Known Member
hmm,.. interesting. I find strain, and how i cure has a lot to do with how dense things dry up,.. but I'd be interested to read something corroborating that thought. I have so much misting equipment left over from my high pressure aero days, I could slap together a killer misting system if it was of benefit. If higher RH than I have ATM a benefit, I wonder if direct on the plant in the form of mist would be better or worse than a room humidifier. Could easily include some beneficial stuff in the mist water, which I could make RO to leave no water marks behind. It'd be more of a "natural" environment for sure. What RH do you shoot for in your flower power room?
let it rain?,.. hmm.. bongsmilie
 

Bublonichronic

Well-Known Member
Iv tryd the mist thing, would stop misting around week 5 to prevent mold..and I never said "high RH" I was saying anything is better than 0% , I find 30-50% to be ideal...but keep us posted if u do the mist thing, u might be suprised at growth
 

DIYer

Well-Known Member
30-40% sounds about as high as i'd go,.. maybe even less with direct misting to the plant,... :shock:
hmm,.. I have really high ceilings in my place, and misters that'll do 50 micron droplets, i could really make it a fine mist by the time it got to the leaves. Wondering what kind of organic cocktail could be mixed up regularly to mist with? I know just a few drops of neem oil into 5 gallons of RO will rid 100% of nats, I learnt years ago they like the humidity, might have to go back to that. A little potassium for the stomata maybe. I could make a quadrant with no mist and have the late stage ladies there. I'd need RH probes that set off the misters though,.. or else tweak my cycle timers to maintain 30%. My veg room is 19% RH atm,.. even though plants are plenty watered, I admit I feel like thats a neglect on my part. I do feel they've been drinking a lot. Silly too because I already installed misters in that room. I just gotta get the cycle timer tuned in,.. its a pain,.. RH probes would be cooler but I ain't got that tech yet.
 

FocusedVisions

New Member
Thanks for everyones comments and advice. As each plant has a basic growth pattern it also has its own growth signature the diversity of suggestions and experiences is really a benefit I learn from it all, even the sarcasm. My problem was traced 2 my medium not containing enough water retaining agents (vermiculite). The drooping patterns just so happened to take place as the tent would cool. Even with my Swamper on my RH inside the tent is 30% to 40%, most of the time it just serves as another circulating fan because I turn the water pump off during the dark cycle. I just added 2 250 watt CFLs for cool light spectrum all the way through bloom and 2 increase tent yield potential. 20130517_195449.jpgIMG_20130524_145542.jpg20130521_083306.jpg20130610_231509.jpg
 

DIYer

Well-Known Member
How you control your RH level? Does your swamp cooler have an RH sensor, or does a certain setting hit the mark you like? I'm thinking I wouldn't might a slight bump in RH, especially this time of year, and weather I go with a humidifier or a misting system, i'll want it auto fill and settable. Hell I just dropped almost 200 on blumats so i don't have to water all the plants NV is letting me grow now, i don't want to be watering a machine either, haha. for $30 i'm thinking this might be useful, the autofill part i've been doing for years with these cebek controllers.
 
Top