Adding a vegging room and temperature control

[FCBoomstick]

Hi all! I'm currently growing 2 autos and one normal fem g13 in a 90x90x185 secret jardin dr90. It's my first indoor grow for years and first using a tent rather than a converted wardrobe so I'm actually finding myself over ventilated!

I'm using a Viparspectra 600W LEDS (actual draw around 280W) with both modes running all the time (veg and bloom). Got a 4" fan set up with a carbon filter, both rated for 175m3. All plants growing in plant magic soil and doing well - the critical kush auto is probably in the best shape I've ever seen a small plant! Plan is to grow the autos to the end on 18/6, LST and top the g13 in the meantime and then switch to 12/12 for the g13 to flower once I harvest the autos.

The grow is in the attic - temps currently around 22-25 Celsius in the day but as low as 15-19 at night (above lights). Humidity fluctuates accordingly between 45-65%. I've got a 2ft tube heater running down the middle of the tent to keep the roots warm and and a wet cloth hung over a bucket of shallow water for a bit of added humidity.

I'm worried that as it gets colder the grow will be more and more effected. Does anyone know whether these tube heaters will keep everything OK even if the outside temp is low? Any other ideas to keep temperature higher? Would adding insulation to the outside of the tent help? I thought about an oil heater but it would take up too much room in the tent I have currently.

Once the autos are done I will be setting up a second tent for vegging the next lot (non autos from now on) - at this point I wonder is it better to get a larger tent (120*120*200) and stick a 600W Hps in there and then use my Dr90 and Viparspectra for vegging. I could then use the extra heat output from the lights to warm up the vegging tent... Does this sound like a reasonable way of doing things? The other option is to get a smaller vegging tent and use a 200W cfl for this but I worry that four plants vegging under 7-8 weeks of cfl might be a bit... Pointless/damaging? It also doesn't solve the heat dilemma!

Help please! Many thanks!

Boom

 

[HigherTheHigh]

Save the fem seed, run the autos 24/0 7 days a week till harvest, running a fem in there will just decrease yield on the autos when you go 18/6 to 12/12.

Also dont worry about trying to add humidity, lower the humidity the better.

I dont believe and many others dont believe that if it says it only pulls 280w then its only outputting 280w

You can run a 600w in that size tent, i do when i just do 1 or 2 plants, led gives you quality, hps gives you yield aswell as quality.

If you veg a plant for 7-8 weeks just remember that it can tripple in size when you flip to 12/12, veg for around 4 weeks would be perfect.

If i were you i would stick the fem seed in at the last 3 weeks before harvest, 24/0 or even 20/4 will keep the inner nodes closer for a shorter bushier plant.

 

[187budz]

Lights on at night and off in the day to help with heat. Turn exhaust off 1 hour before lights turn off to maintain some heat.

 

[FCBoomstick]

Thanks for the reply! I'm not actually planning to run the lights on 12/12 until after I harvest the autos. They have a 1 week headstart on the g13 fem which I'm planning to veg and train until then. Although if I get a new hps as well I can move them about. Do you have a 600w hps in a 0.9*0.9 tent? How many plants have you got in there?

Edit: sorry, you said you've got 1-2. Gotcha. What sort of yield if you don't mind me asking?

 

[FCBoomstick]

And yes, bud187 I have been running it that way. But turning the exhaust off during and slightly before lights off is a great idea, thank you!

 

[FCBoomstick]

Just checked on the plants and the coldest point reached during lights off was 11 degrees! I've now stuck a 200w cfl in there must for some heat so we'll see how it goes. Starting to think more drastic heating methods are required...

 

[187budz]

Coldest mine have gotten was around 5. I know how ya feel. I have a "small" heater with built in thermostat. But I'm trying not to run it as even on it's lowest setting still pumps out over 750w of power.

 

[FCBoomstick]

OK the cfl definitely helped keep it above 20 last night despite some cold temps outside. Was a very healthy 26 when I checked before lights off but likely going to decrease sharply now both the led and cfl are off. I think I'm going to need to either move to hps or get an oil heater in there if I'm going to beat the winter freeze though.

5 degrees is definitely cold! Do your plants noticeably react to that?

 

[187budz]

Nope. Berry Bomb seems to be one hell of a strain. I'm sure it has slowed the growth down but there are no noticeable side effects. I wrapped the 5gal bucket in insulation recently so I'm hoping that will help keep the root zone warmer.

 

[HigherTheHigh]

Thanks for the reply! I'm not actually planning to run the lights on 12/12 until after I harvest the autos. They have a 1 week headstart on the g13 fem which I'm planning to veg and train until then. Although if I get a new hps as well I can move them about. Do you have a 600w hps in a 0.9*0.9 tent? How many plants have you got in there?

Edit: sorry, you said you've got 1-2. Gotcha. What sort of yield if you don't mind me asking?

In a 1x1m tent i would put 4 plants, 3 weeks from veg, 20L pots (you can use alot smaller) i ran a 600w hps in there, temps sat at 27c throughout, i got 13oz dry but i LST'd them and lolly popped them but every grower is different and iv learned its all down to each grow you do to educate yourself, its took me nearly 2 years to just start hitting good yield targets, a healthy line of nutes, lights and environment is all you need to worry about buddy!

 

[FCBoomstick]

So everything still going well so far with the "600w" Viparspectra. Plants are healthy and growing well. I've topped, lst'd and slightly defoliated the non auto g13 and left the two auto flowers to their own devices minus the odd turn of the pot/moving of leaves.

I bought a varispeed controller to slow the fan down and that's keeping the temps above 13 at night now and between 23 and 27 in the day. Definitely an improvement.

Pics below. Critical kush auto is 2 weeks into flower, blue cheese auto just less than a week. G13 tied down with potential colas atm. Running at 18/6 under Viparspectra v600 (and 200w cfl for heat mostly and some supplemental light). Just used plant magic oldtimer organic grow nutes so far, fairly sparingly at 2ml/litre every other water. Starting bloom nutes in the autos next.

Still undecided as to what to do about another grow room for vegging. Enjoying led so far, even these cheap ones, so was thinking of just getting some bigger/better leds instead of hps along with the 1.2m tent so I can go from 2-3 plants to 3-4 comfortably. Any suggestions on lights? I was looking at the Optic 4 from Optic LED... Anyone have any experience with these?

EDIT: to add photos

 

[FCBoomstick]

 

[FCBoomstick]

Update: Just to say that the G13 was finally cut and cured and is now ready to enjoy. We got 4oz from it in the end after it spent about 12 weeks under a 600W HPS. Lots to be learnt for next time but I'm certainly not unhappy with that yield. Definitely slightly affected by the cold but I think it was more an issue with growth speed than the final results. Tube heaters definitely helped take the edge off the cold. Now I've got the opposite problem of too much heat as we approach summer!

Since this grow we've decided to manifold/mainline a couple of strains (instead of just top and LST as I did here), with most of my new plants going simply for supercrop or LST only - really impressed with the growth rate on the supercropped ones so far. We've also increased our flowering tent to 1.5m (to fit four plants with room around the edges) and we're planning to upgrade to 1kW HPS at some point but I'll probably wait until I get a feel for the heat output in summer using the 600W.