Grow room tempature! First grow

[Big Mac Daddy]

This is my first grow ever. Have always had a green thumb, never smoked pot so much before but now I am and I want to grow.
I am BROKE and the budget for this is tight but have done all kinds of research. My basement grow is cold. On average 64 degrees F.
So I don’t have a fan blowing on it, but I do have a register from the furnace. Heat comes out of the pipe at 84F, blows on the plants but the room thermometer never goes up. The hot air is definitely hitting the plants dead on, but it’s not like, right up next to them.
Any ways, I know these girls should be kept at 70f at least but just wondering if I should of bought a heater when I started or still plenty of time to fix this? I know to expect small yields if this maintains.

Again, budget is tight! I didn’t want to get to crazy with the first attempt. I figure if I could grow anything, let’s get basics down before dishing out some cheddar

 

[TorturedSoul]

Some general statements:

• Yes, it sucks to be poor - but, hey, at least you are among what appears to be the growing majority (as am I).
• Congratulations on doing the research first. That will serve you well, both in your first grow and in the future.
• One thing to remember about growing in basements is that the floor (especially if bare concrete) is a huge "heat sink," so to speak, and may be quite cool even if/when you manage to get the air temperature up. Plants seem to be more affected by temperatures in the root zone than in the portions of the plant that are above ground. Therefore, it is a good idea to place some kind of "barrier" between the floor and the bottom of your plants' containers. Small sheets of rigid foam type insulation seem to work well for this purpose, and are fairly inexpensive (at least when you aren't trying to insulate your entire house with them, lol).
• I have always been a little uncomfortable with the thought of directing air that is significantly warmer - or cooler - than the general environment onto plants, although I realize that it's still going to be better than allowing them to get too cold or hot. Have you seen those oil-filled electric "radiator" heaters? The ones I've used have a thermostat dial/wheel along with two power switches, which allows the user to select (for example) 600 watts worth of heat, 900 watts worth of heat, or by flipping both switches, 1,500 watts of heat. Instead of energizing a coil/etc. and then moving air across it with a fan, a heating element warms the oil, the entire heater warms, and then gently radiates the heat. As heating the oil is not an instantaneous thing, it does take a few minutes for such a heater to begin warming the area - but it also means that the heat output does not stop the moment the heater shuts off, which seems like it would be easier on the plants than if they were subjected to cold cold cold HOT HOT HOT cold cold cold with a heater of a different type.

Good luck with your grow!

 

[moderngroroom]

This is my first grow ever. Have always had a green thumb, never smoked pot so much before but now I am and I want to grow.
I am BROKE and the budget for this is tight but have done all kinds of research. My basement grow is cold. On average 64 degrees F.
So I don’t have a fan blowing on it, but I do have a register from the furnace. Heat comes out of the pipe at 84F, blows on the plants but the room thermometer never goes up. The hot air is definitely hitting the plants dead on, but it’s not like, right up next to them.
Any ways, I know these girls should be kept at 70f at least but just wondering if I should of bought a heater when I started or still plenty of time to fix this? I know to expect small yields if this maintains.

Again, budget is tight! I didn’t want to get to crazy with the first attempt. I figure if I could grow anything, let’s get basics down before dishing out some cheddar

Temps are extremely important and keeping them stable is key for a successful grow..
What kind of lighting are you using? This should warm up your
Grow space enough to keep it around 75 degrees or are you just growing out in the middle of the basement? if you have photoperiods you are going to have a alot of light leaks which can cause your girls to go hermie in then your there with seeds all up in your plants.
Yeah budgets suck i know that but with a limited supply of money to get ok things to grow isnt out of the realm of not being able to get acouple of things you need in the grow space to where you can have a pretty descent harvest and when your lights go out your plants night time temps needs to fall to around 64-66 degrees during lights out period theres are lot of variables here we can discuss

 

[Big Mac Daddy]

Thank you guys for your input.
Lights, I bought one of these for my main light - RECORDCENT Dual-1000 LED Full Spectrum Indoor Grow Light

And am trying a little experiment for side lighting (because of budget) using a 4 utility clamp light with a spiller - 8 bulbs total all 100w replacement bulbs, LED white light - EcoSmart 100-Watt Equivalent A19 Dimmable Energy Star LED Light Bulb Soft White (2-Pack)

Clamp Light - HDX 5-1/2 in. 60-Watt Aluminum Incandescent Light Fixture with Clamp

Before any one tells me i wasted money on bulbs, I did get them on sale and the clamp lights i had laying around. Again, budget is killing me so I had to get creative, use things I had.

They are not on the floor right now, they are just over a foot tall. I was going to keep them off the floor when i enter flowering too. the space is a bit big, no light leaks, mylar walls, and have about 6 plants. I'm legally allowed 12 so i figured i would try the basics, if it works, great, if not, crap... I might not have top shelf stuff, but if it works that's good enough for me.

I thought about switching the LED's to

I'm thinking a decent oscillating heater on medium would work well, then i could run a fan on low too. IDK. I was hoping someone would say "I've done that, they grew just fine" .. . Here's to wishful thinking.

I have kept track of every penny and every short cut i have had to take. I plan on typing it all up and listing everything with pictures for education purposes. So far, the money spent is $483.89 - 6 clones and a bunch of fix'n's ($135+ of that was because the Mrs.'s complained about the smell, my partner invested QUICKLY into a small charcoal filter. She still complains about the smell....) . Have not had an electric bill yet. Starting flowering this weekend.

 

[moderngroroom]

Thank you guys for your input.
Lights, I bought one of these for my main light - RECORDCENT Dual-1000 LED Full Spectrum Indoor Grow Light

And am trying a little experiment for side lighting (because of budget) using a 4 utility clamp light with a spiller - 8 bulbs total all 100w replacement bulbs, LED white light - EcoSmart 100-Watt Equivalent A19 Dimmable Energy Star LED Light Bulb Soft White (2-Pack)

Clamp Light - HDX 5-1/2 in. 60-Watt Aluminum Incandescent Light Fixture with Clamp

Before any one tells me i wasted money on bulbs, I did get them on sale and the clamp lights i had laying around. Again, budget is killing me so I had to get creative, use things I had.

They are not on the floor right now, they are just over a foot tall. I was going to keep them off the floor when i enter flowering too. the space is a bit big, no light leaks, mylar walls, and have about 6 plants. I'm legally allowed 12 so i figured i would try the basics, if it works, great, if not, crap... I might not have top shelf stuff, but if it works that's good enough for me.

I thought about switching the LED's to

I'm thinking a decent oscillating heater on medium would work well, then i could run a fan on low too. IDK. I was hoping someone would say "I've done that, they grew just fine" .. . Here's to wishful thinking.

I have kept track of every penny and every short cut i have had to take. I plan on typing it all up and listing everything with pictures for education purposes. So far, the money spent is $483.89 - 6 clones and a bunch of fix'n's ($135+ of that was because the Mrs.'s complained about the smell, my partner invested QUICKLY into a small charcoal filter. She still complains about the smell....) . Have not had an electric bill yet. Starting flowering this weekend.

Yeah just taking care of 6 plants is alot of work i dont know if you understand how much work it is to keep them 6 alive and well. I can understand money being an issue but to spend almost 500$ plus to pay on water bill with using more for watering and electric bill going up for the lights, just to say owell crap!! You can do this buddy with what you have now youll need a good nute line to feed with in not Miracle-Gro bc that crap is far from a miracle while growing canna its junk!! Ill look at the links you posted up when i get home in check them out

 

[TorturedSoul]

Looks like you have a total of around 250 watts of lighting (total), then. If it were me, I'd be grabbing a Dremel, hot knife, something and removing the plastic half-globe covers on those LED bulbs - I'd expect more of the light they produce to reach the plants (et cetera) without them.

In terms of space, what does "a bit big" mean? 3'x3'? That'd work out to approximately 27.7 watts per square foot. Not exactly confidence-inspiring; if you were growing autoflowering plants, you could run your lighting 18 hours per day all the way through, but with photoperiodic plants, at some point you'll have to make the switch to a flowering light cycle and then you'll only be giving the plants 12 hours of light per day.

 

[Big Mac Daddy]

Thank you guys so much for your response. You guys are awesome.

So I read this article which made think that when talking about Watts for LED light, it doesn’t matter - LED Grow Lights - The Myth About Watts - Garden Myths

Now I’m not here to say any one is wrong, but I agree with this article. It says “Watts is a measure of electricity used, not of the amount of light produced.”
I also found this thread comparing lumens - How many lumens does a plant need each
And I read every response, which I recommend doing for any one, very interesting responses and topic.

Any ways, I went LED to save some money on electricity, even though they were a bit more up front.

The room is about 9ft x 9ft but I have what I call “floating walls” so I can bring in reflective service closer or further based on the plant size. So the same lights can cover a 3x2 area while they are small, the when they are larger, the same lights can be adjusted to cover sides and top.

Based off the dozen of hours I spent watching grow videos and reading about PAR and light spectrum, what soil works and doesn’t, what gets rid of smells, worm castings and all the hydro crap, I realized there are tried and true methods, there are terrible methods, and then there’s a ton of everything in between.

Keep in mind, this grow took $500 so far to start, i could of save some money if I had more time to wait, and if the wife didn’t care about a smell. i’ve Already started cloning, I have 2 months left before I even think about harvesting these 6 girls, I plan on setting up a small fish tank to get a poor mans aquaponics set up, and the only thing left to add to this room is a heater. Other than that, water and electricity.

I’ll write a huge article after the first harvest, everything I did. I’m sure a lot of the pros will be happy to tell me what I did wrong, but if I can get some bud from it, I’m happy.