Controlling the odor in the next room

[jojo677]

Hey all,

I've posted a few threads, had a few harvests, and as things are warming up (70F-80F) in my area, I'm having trouble controlling the smell. I'm currently growing Northern Lights and Cindy 99, as they are both low odor strains. I plan on finishing up the NL, and continue growing the C99 indoors as long as I can keep the odor in check. I like the C99 also, as the NL has a "weed smell", but the C99 has more of a "pineapple smell".

The answer is yes, I have a carbon filter. It is homemade, and though the exhaust isn't completely odorless, it vents outdoors and I haven't had any issues with smell outside. Inside is another deal though. The grow is in a closet, attached to a room. The room next to the closet smells faintly, as does the room next to the room that room. The fan I have is powerful enough to pull a negative pressure in the room, so I'm not really sure how the odor is escaping. The floors are lined in plastic, and all the walls/ceiling are covered in panda film.

The thing that interests me, is that heat in the grow room seems to have a big effect on the smell. As it has started warming up, the smell has spread. I'm using LEDs and should have enough air movement to keep the temp around the 75-85F range though. I'd rather not spring for an AC unit...

I do, however, have to take the plants out of the closet to water/harvest them. I water every 2-3 days, and have plants in veg and flower. Obviously the flowering plants smell more, but I'd like to keep my perpetual grow going. I've tried "Ozium" in the affected rooms, but it only works temporarily.

Is it worth looking into getting some ONA products or using Lemongrass Extract (as recommended by Granny)? Or is there something else that could be going on?

 

[Nagini]

Hey jojo I would definitely recommend ONA products. I use ONA Pro gel. If you want to get creative and noise is not a problem (in my case it is so i just use the gel) you can make a ONA bucket. Pretty much a 5 gal bucket drilled with holes (dont drill towards bottom of bucket you'll be adding liquid), then you'll mix ONA concentrate, soil moist polymer, water in bucket, at top of bucket you'll have a circular fan pulling in air to the ONA mix. Works weel from what I've seen but I don't have personal experience. For me, the ONA gel suits my needs. My room smelt really strong of soil.... I opened ONA gel, walked to the other side of my house and back, and my room had no hint of soil. Hope this helps. Also, is your carbon filter made with filter pads or crushed activated carbon?

 

[jojo677]

I appreciate the reply. I don't particularly want to use ONA gel, if I can solve the problem another way. I'm not really sure how long it will last, but since I'm using it in a room with little odor, it should last awhile.

My carbon filter is made with activated carbon pellets, and was made in the typical 'can' fashion. It's not necessarily quite big enough to match the fan, but it's all vented outside anyway, and the room is in negative pressure.

An interesting side note: I looked up the MSDS for ONA gel, and it lists terpenes as the active ingredient. This is interesting to me, as terpenes are what gives weed it's distinctive odors...

 

[jojo677]

*bump*

Anyone?

 

[jojo677]

bump

I would appreciate ANY input!

 

[jojo677]

To those that may have been interested in my solution, here's what I did.

1. I realized that the two stinkiest rooms that were close were carpeted, and I had harvested several plants in them. I probably got some little bits in the carpet, plus carpet holds a lot of odors, so I used some scented carpet powder and vacuumed. BIG DIFFERENCE!

2. Next I needed a way to ensure that it wouldn't get stinky in the future. I'm a cheap guy, and I didn't want to buy a jar of ONA gel for $20 if it is only going to last a few weeks, so I took the ONA bucket advise and made my own. A 32 oz bottle of concentrate is $17, and polymer gel is $10. I bought a 2 gallon bucket for $4 and used a PC fan and power supply I had laying around (and a speed controller, though not necessary). There are tons of tutorials, but this setup seemed to effectively neutralize the odor, and I pretty much only use it when I remove the plants to water.

So the odor may have only been due to the fact that I harvested in the carpeted rooms, that I remove my plants to water them, the odor escapes the grow room slightly, or a combination of all/any of those. Problem solved.

 

[Big Budha]

An O zone generator will eliminate the smell entirely

 

[AKgramma]

I found out early that my babies had a strong odor, but couldn't put out the big bucks to buy, or even construct, inline carbon filters, so when I came across the DIY odor bucket, I thought it worth a try. Being that ONA is so expensive, much more so here in Alaska, I went the cheepo route with solid odor control containers, 2 to a 5 gallon bucket, and no water. So far they work perfectly. Still experimenting with different scents and jars of gel, tho. The Linen gets a bit overpowering.

Below is the assembled unit: total cost about $30 if items purchased new.


Opened to show just how basic this set-up is. I don't have a problem with humidity, so didn't use any water in the bucket. I used the front cage of the fan as a cutting template, then mounted the fan with silicone caulking. The front half of the cage is slightly smaller than the back half, so the fan sits perfectly on a lip (without the front attached). That was the only construction really involved in the project.

 

[Weaselcracker]

An O zone generator will eliminate the smell entirely

BB - I used to have an ozone generator. I ran it into my out vent ducting about 10' from where it exited outside. It seemed to help quite a lot, but I never really got the hang of you how to use it. I got a carbon filter instead. My understanding is the ozone needs to sit and mingle with the vented air for a few minutes and then be expelled to the outside. I never quite grasped how to do that although I didn't put tons of work into it I admit. How can this practically be done? A spare room or chamber for the ozoneated air? A couple of timers that are offset so that one fan kicks on in the 'ozone room' a few minutes after the vent fan in the flowering room? My vent fan was hooked to my thermostat and went off to cool the room when it got too hot- and I could never figure out quite how to make it all work with the ozone generator. How do you do it? Thanks

 

[AKgramma]

I hadn't thought of the carpets. Thanks for sharing! I will be careful when I move plants to the flower closet and then to the drying box. Will use that pet-strength odor carpet powder and periodically clean the carpets.

Since I'm only into edibles, there won't be any smoke stinking up the carpets, the clothes, the bedding,the drapes. But bits of green stuff and trichs could be a problem. I suppose I'll find out fairly soon, eh? ;-)