Hello: too hot for first week in Ebb & Flow in hot shed?

Pacer

New Member
I'm working on cooling this shead down. The first week almost fried my seedlings. I'm working on cooling down the place but a lot of damage have been done. I'm using 1/3 ratio of nutrients but I'm worried that they won't make it. Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated.
Thanks Pacer
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Bummer.
Bet your water temps are out of control too.
I am forced to grow in an outdoor tin shed due to logistical reasons. I have to run a window ac unit 24/7. I foamed up the cracks and put a layer of insulation on the walls and ceiling. The insulation was incredibly effective.
If your shed is light sealed, you might want to invert your lighting schedule and run the lights at night. If you're lighting 24hr light cycle in veg, you might consider an 8 hour dark period during the hottest part of the day. Cooltubes or LEDs can help as well.
I tried a lot of different hydro methods... all ending in failure due to heat. Then I tried hempy post. Been growing hempy ever since.
 
Thanks, I am in the process of insulating. Thank goodness it's not tin, it's regular roof tiles. I have multiple holes in the bottom, it's up on skids, I put in a 13 inch attic fan so it draws the cool air underneath the shed. I'm running 24 of the compact 32 watt Florescent lights, so not too much heat from them.
You said you went to hempy post. Is that a strain or does that mean you went from hydro to soil?
(Believe it or not I grew some back in the 60's but that was outside and ended up with pollinated plants. But, back then sesamelia was just being discovered.)
REALLY appreciate your input.
Thanks again, Pacer
 
I might suggest you do a bunch of research. With a hydro system, you really need to control temps. If your res gets out of control, you'll end up with root rot in a heartbeat.
Many things have changed since the 60 my friend. Some good, more worse. Happily, growing knowledge, lighting, and strains have really improved.
Hempy Pots are a type of drain to waste hydro. I've found that temps are MUCH less critical in Hempy Pots. Basically, you get a 5 gal bucket, drill a hole a few inches up, fill it with a perlite+vermiculite mix, and feed it a hydro diet letting the water run out the hole during feedings. There are a lot more details, but that's a 1000ft summary.

Do some reading... check out all the sticky posts about basic growing techniques. I see many people diving into a hydro setup without a proper understanding of basic nutrient, environment, and lighting techniques. This can be very discouraging.

As for your heat issues, what are the outdoor temps in your neck of the woods? How hot is your shed getting? Are you measuring the temps at plant top height? How is your fan exhausting the heat? How far are the lights from the plant tops?
I use the 32W CF bulbs as side lighting myself. They actually put off more heat than you might imagine. Each one has an individual ballast... the heat generating part of a CF bulb. A single larger light might save a degree or two.
 
Hello Tead, Actually I've been researching quite a bit. Last Tuesday I went to the shed and cut two more ventilation holes, this allowed the cool air from underneath the shed to flow across the plants. I was amazed at the comeback they made with just that. Today, Saturday, I went up there and the temp at plant level was 92.5F. We put up insulation on all walls and the roof. This should put us over the hump... I have more photos but can't get them now, only have two. First I want to thank you very much for all the info you gave. I felt like crying last week but now I'm rejuvenated. They are coming back strong and healthy. I'll let you know about next week and what they look like. Thanks Again.
Best regards, Pacer
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Music to our ears!!! Thanks!

Wow, they popped back up fast. That's awesome.
After you get your insulation up and whatnot, you might consider some white paint all around. The white paint will reflect more light than the bare wood walls.
I'm also worried about your water reservoir temps. Warm water grows root rotting elements very quickly. I believe the water reservoir needs to be in the 70s to avoid the rot.
 
Yea, I wish I had the other pictures to show. This is the start of my third week and I think I can keep the air around the plants around 82 at night and 90 in the daytime. The shed is on a skid and the holes are in the floor at the far side of the attic fan. The shed is air proof on three sides so the ventilation comes all the way under the shed and then up and over the plants. I studied under ground air conditioning at one time. Works.
But, what you say about the reservoir temp bothers me. At this time I was planning to put nutrients in weekly and change the water every two weeks. Do you think I should change water weekly also? And is there anything I can add to help the water? If I were there daily I could add ice but it's a weekly affair that's why I ended up going with the Ebb and Gro.

Hopefully I'll be topping some of the plants next week, to clone them into flowering to weed out the males. I'll be down to 10 plants by then.
You know, I'm a real believer in Medical Marijuana. 3 years ago I had two skin cancers cut then burned off. A year later I tried and ended up getting rid of five more by using the oil. That works.
It's nice of you to take an interest and I appreciate all the help I can get. Sometimes you run across miss-information either on purpose or someone going on a tangent. It's nice to run across someone sincere. Thanks
 
Found some words on res temps....
Ideally water temp should be between 65-72 degrees. Oxygen is best absorbed around 65 degrees, so that is everyones target. You should take the temp at the bottom for the best reading.

So... it would seem that you're going to have temp problems in your water res. There are chillers, but they can be spendy and may not provide enough cooling. I personally tried many things. Water coolers, ice based systems, air exchangers. None gave me any workable solutions. I've often considered underground cooling, but when you live below sea level digging any significant depth turns into an exercise in flood control, tho some sort of well system with a heat exchanger at the bottom might be functional in my world. Wish I had an old well in my backyard.

I'm just loving all the med news coming in these days. Feds are not so motivated to do investigational studies on a substance they classified with heroin. I'll be happy when it gets more attention. It's just driven me crazy over the years.

420Mag is a very friendly place. That credit really goes to the volunteer moderator staff. If a post starts to get rude and crazy, they will actually step in. It's really just the difference between a moderated and un-moderated forum. The staff is pretty awesome around here, and that leads to cleaner forums, which in turn leads to helpful and friendly humans. I don't play in the other popular forum sites... they're just to noisy and crappy.
 
Your right about chillers being pricey, I'm still thinking about that the water in the res.
Let me bug you about one other thing. I'm using the starter kit that came with the Ebb & Gro, Technaflora. It's not even enough to go through one season. I was thinking about General Hydroponics 3 Gallon Plant Growth Formula | FloraMicro, FloraGro, & FloraBloom, along with CaliMagic. Any suggestion would be appreciated.
It's nice communicating to someone that's done this a number of times.
Thanks Doug
 
Simplicity, I understand. Getting back to root rot. A number of years ago I worked as a tech for Spa's and pools. I had to learn about algae. Most are benign, harmless but there were some that would hurt water plants. It may be this algae that causes the root rot. I'm thinking if I clean, scrub it out, the res. every week instead of just changing the water out, that I may avoid a bunch of algae. Then once a season clean out the pots. This is just an idea I thought I would run it by you to see what you thought.
Thanks for all the Knowledge.
Here are some of those missing photos from the second week.
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Well... anything growing in your water in an active hydro system is very bad. Things start clogging up. The growing 'things' can pull nutes and air out of the mix. PH can dance quite a bit. No things good. Many folks address the issues with Hydrogen Peroxide.
Honestly, while I can sit on the sidelines and cheer, I'm not so hopeful for you res. I'm a little surprised you haven't run into pythium or other root rot already. Sorry to sound so negative. You might be able to keep it at bay... but I never was.
 
im fixing to do the same system and all this conversation has been spot on as to what to look for and address, a " stable " grow environment is a must. been fighting that since day 1. too hot, too cold, too much nuets, mildew, but I've learned soooo much in a short period of time that I've been here and the growers here are very helpful, if there's a problem im having somebody has already been thru it and can point you in the right direction. I'm also growing in a shed , insulated and electrified, the temp swings and RH are not going so far on the swings now. still having RH problems but hay.... when it's been raining for the lats 4-6 weeks and the RH outside it 90% not much i can do, my dehumidifier is working as hard as it can, hoping for warmer dry air to come around, usually in June we are in a drought lol. the water chiller is something i might have to do a wait and see thing, i can keep it cool in my shed with the AC, so dont know if that will keep my water cool enough. i have a soil grow now but when its done i think I'm going to do this ebb and flow but I'm thinking coco coir for my mediem instead of the LEKA? ill be watching
:passitleft:
 
Old thread, but I am game. I grow in a greenhouse, and here we get almost 17 hours of sun a day @ 3700'. You need two things in a hot environment: ventilation and circulation. The plants can handle the heat better than the roots as long as they can breath. Keeping the roots cool isn't a problem in my greenhouse because I grow in the ground which is a massive heat sink, and the plant shades the roots.
 
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