Tag: MH

There are a lot of obstacles to overcome when growing indoors. I am going to tell you my 5 top problems with indoor growing.

  1. Keeping the correct temperature for the plants. Understand that no electronic equipment makes 100% use of the electricity it consumes. A percentage of the electricity’s work capability will be wasted and the result is heat.  That heat transfers into your environment unless you take precautions. Air-Cooled lighting hoods, cooler running lights, proper control of ventilation will all help in keeping an optimal growing environment.  The My Smart Grow Automation system will allow you to monitor current environments and then make the proper changes needed to make the constant perfect environment needed for your plants.
  2. Keeping the correct humidity. Proper humidity allows the plant to breath and transpire water in the perfect symphony. Humidity adds pressure to the plant which is in itself a water pump. The added outside pressure of a over humidified plant will cause the plant to work abnormally hard to bring fresh water up from its roots as well as providing a perfect environment for mold to grow. Neither are good for your plant. On the opposite spectrum, too low of humidity will cause the plant to lose too much water due to the “suction” of water from its stomata causing a stalling of the plant trying to keep it’s fluids. You want and need an environment within 55-65 during the vegetating and early flowering periods, followed by 45%-60% humidity in flowering, lower in later flowering.
  3. Improper lighting schedule or timer malfunctions. You need absolute dark during the dark period. This means actually standing in your operating room, in the dark to see if there are any light leaks. Light leaks are both from the outside of the room in, as well as any LED or other indicator lights from power strips or ground fault outlets. You would be surprised as to what has a little LED light on it now a days. These light leaks stress the plant, and if prone to hermaphroditism can cause female plants to grow “male balls” full of pollen and pollinate your plants creating a female/hermaphroditism prone seed.
  4. Airflow. Fresh air is needed throughout your grow environment. You will need more than just a ventilation fan, you will also need an “air mover” to blow around any stale air pockets around the leafs. The air movement will aid in the transpiration of Co2 on the leafs promoting health and vigor. This can be done with any cheap oscillating fan set up to a nursery style metal variety depending on coverage and air movement needed.
  5. Water. Both too much and too little. Too much, you can at a long term issue cause root rot, short term you can flood your grow space with a hose that was left on.  Make sure to have a reservoir that cannot overfill your grow tray. Also make sure your grow tray has an overfill exit back to the reservoir in case your drain gets clogged with roots, which is inevitable with the My Smart Grow system because it creates the perfect growing environment causing fast growing of the root system.  You can solve the root plugging simply by moving the plugging roots out of the drain and re-folded under the root mass away from the drain.

Importance of temperature on plant growth

Temperature 68°f – 85°f

Needed Equipment to Monitor: (analog) Thermometer or (digital sensors w/ logging): My Smart Grow Multi-sensor

Needed Equipment to control: Air conditioner, and or Heater, Tent with inline Fan, combined with the My Smart Grow system

As general rules say, keep the grow environment at a 10 degree variable range.  Allowing night temperatures no lower than 68°f , (the plant will stop or slow overall growth tremendously at low temperatures). At the same time, do not allow the daytime temperature get any higher than 85°f, (or you will “heat stress” the plant which will stop growth without additional Co2 supplementation and possibly damage plant cells irreversibly).

Continue reading