ConstantGreen
New Member
Hey I want to chime in with first-hand experience on CO2 supplementation. First, I agree the fungus bags are not robust to produce CO2 quick enough to make any difference for your plants. I've never tried them, but I've grown mushrooms before and mycelium has a rather slow metabolism that limits co2 output and drops off once it's finished colonizing. But I actually have a high-end co2 ppm meter so I may do some testing with them just to verify how little impact they make.
While you don't need to supplement CO2 to grow great plants and yields, I can say is that CO2 definitely makes a difference and can be efficiently supplemented with a CO2 tank and regulator. It would be expensive to supplement CO2 without completely sealing the environment you're injecting the CO2 into. Which means it wouldn't make sense in a tent. Unless that tent is in a sealed room that you can maintain the desired ppm levels at.
I personally use two flower tents and one veg tent in an 8x8' room. I repainted and sealed everything, augmented the doorframe with a threshold, shoe, and neoprene padding. The door is practically airtight and that's what you need. In such an environment, co2 can easily be raised with your breath alone. Working with my plants in the room for 20 minutes can bring the ppm from 400 to over 1000 from breathing. I also notice if I leave the door open and am cooking with the oven, there is an excessive amount of co2 that floods in and relieves my tank for the duration of baking. So I would not be concerned about breathing heightened co2 levels because if you cook with gas or work in a kitchen especially you're already exposed to 1000+ ppm frequently.
Lastly, CO2 does make a big difference in my opinion. It's too early for me to personally back that up with data, but if you look at the equation for photosynthesis, it makes sense:
carbon dioxide + water —> glucose + oxygen + water
In this equation, light is the catalyst. So increasing the amount of light is the easiest way to increase yield, because you're increasing the frequency that this chemical reaction takes place. I'll compare it to a highway, where increasing your light is increasing the lanes on the highway. Eventually, the amount of available light will allow every available co2 molecule to have its own lane on the highway, thus eliminating traffic and growing at the greatest speed. Without enough light, the lanes reduce and co2/water have to wait their turns.
Atmospheric co2 is at 400ppm. It would be interesting to know exactly how much light is required to max out growth at those co2 levels. It has been demonstrated that with higher light levels, you have extra open lanes on the growth highway that you could be filling with extra ingredients. If you have extra open lanes from excess light, and you add CO2, those lanes start taking traffic AKA drawing more water for more photosynthesis with the extra co2. That extra water uptake brings extra nutrients. This is why it's important to know what you're doing before adding CO2 because your plants will drink more and consume nutrients faster so it's more likely you run into nute problems if you're not on top of it.
If you manage to cradle your babies from start to finish with supplemented co2 levels you will see a significant increase in yields. Like 20%. It's expensive to get started with the proper gear (tank + regulator + controller), but depending on your capabilities that 20% could pay for itself quickly. The most expensive part is the equipment, the co2 gas itself is like $1 per pound. In my sealed 8x8' room one 20-pound tank lasts me over a month. And I run it 24/7 at 1200ppm.
A big key to co2 supplementation is sealing the room tho, and that brings other problems like heat, humidity and smell management. You'll probably also need an A/C when getting into CO2. For a sealed room, that means a window unit, double-hosed portable, or mini-split.
According to these graphs, peak light is 1500 ppfd and peak CO2 is 1200 ppm. But because of diminishing returns, you might as well save some money and get 90% of the effect at ~1000 ppfd and ppm. I like to keep it simple and that happens to be about the max PPM that you're recommended to feed nutrients at too.
While you don't need to supplement CO2 to grow great plants and yields, I can say is that CO2 definitely makes a difference and can be efficiently supplemented with a CO2 tank and regulator. It would be expensive to supplement CO2 without completely sealing the environment you're injecting the CO2 into. Which means it wouldn't make sense in a tent. Unless that tent is in a sealed room that you can maintain the desired ppm levels at.
I personally use two flower tents and one veg tent in an 8x8' room. I repainted and sealed everything, augmented the doorframe with a threshold, shoe, and neoprene padding. The door is practically airtight and that's what you need. In such an environment, co2 can easily be raised with your breath alone. Working with my plants in the room for 20 minutes can bring the ppm from 400 to over 1000 from breathing. I also notice if I leave the door open and am cooking with the oven, there is an excessive amount of co2 that floods in and relieves my tank for the duration of baking. So I would not be concerned about breathing heightened co2 levels because if you cook with gas or work in a kitchen especially you're already exposed to 1000+ ppm frequently.
Lastly, CO2 does make a big difference in my opinion. It's too early for me to personally back that up with data, but if you look at the equation for photosynthesis, it makes sense:
carbon dioxide + water —> glucose + oxygen + water
In this equation, light is the catalyst. So increasing the amount of light is the easiest way to increase yield, because you're increasing the frequency that this chemical reaction takes place. I'll compare it to a highway, where increasing your light is increasing the lanes on the highway. Eventually, the amount of available light will allow every available co2 molecule to have its own lane on the highway, thus eliminating traffic and growing at the greatest speed. Without enough light, the lanes reduce and co2/water have to wait their turns.
Atmospheric co2 is at 400ppm. It would be interesting to know exactly how much light is required to max out growth at those co2 levels. It has been demonstrated that with higher light levels, you have extra open lanes on the growth highway that you could be filling with extra ingredients. If you have extra open lanes from excess light, and you add CO2, those lanes start taking traffic AKA drawing more water for more photosynthesis with the extra co2. That extra water uptake brings extra nutrients. This is why it's important to know what you're doing before adding CO2 because your plants will drink more and consume nutrients faster so it's more likely you run into nute problems if you're not on top of it.
If you manage to cradle your babies from start to finish with supplemented co2 levels you will see a significant increase in yields. Like 20%. It's expensive to get started with the proper gear (tank + regulator + controller), but depending on your capabilities that 20% could pay for itself quickly. The most expensive part is the equipment, the co2 gas itself is like $1 per pound. In my sealed 8x8' room one 20-pound tank lasts me over a month. And I run it 24/7 at 1200ppm.
A big key to co2 supplementation is sealing the room tho, and that brings other problems like heat, humidity and smell management. You'll probably also need an A/C when getting into CO2. For a sealed room, that means a window unit, double-hosed portable, or mini-split.
According to these graphs, peak light is 1500 ppfd and peak CO2 is 1200 ppm. But because of diminishing returns, you might as well save some money and get 90% of the effect at ~1000 ppfd and ppm. I like to keep it simple and that happens to be about the max PPM that you're recommended to feed nutrients at too.
