Environment maintenance of small indoor grow spaces in high temperatures and humidity

[stinky]

Hello 420SA!

I am in Durban, and I have been stewing in the heat and humidity of the past few days and wondering how members are maintaining their indoor grow environments under these weather conditions.
In particular, I am interested in indoor spaces of one square meter or less including tents, cupboards, wardrobes or DIY spaces.

Could you please share:

• What are your temperature ranges ?
• What are your humidity ranges ?
• What kind of space and size ? Tent/cupboard/DIY
• What kind of lighting  and power? CFL/HID/LED
• Veg schedule ? 24/0, 18/6, 12/1 or other
• Flowering lighting schedule ? 12/12, 11/13 or other
• Flowering in day or night ?
• What ventilation/cooling and power ? Fans/ACs in tent or room/other/none
• Humidity control ? Dedicated dehumidifier/other/none
• Maintenance of reservoir temperatures (if applicable) ? Chiller/ice water/ice blocks/other/none
• Anything I missed/additional comments or queries ?

Hoping to hear from a lot of Durban/KZN folk, but welcoming contributions from any members with experience of growing under high heat and humidity conditions, even if briefly every year.
How do you cope ?

Peace!

[PsyCLown]

I am not in Durban, currently no grow going...

 

However temperature and humiditiy, without an AC and/or dehumidifier you will never be able to achieve and maintain RH and/or temp below the ambient RH and temp. Simple as that.

If the room you are growing in is say 30C and 70% RH, the lowest you will be able to get it inside your tent would be 30C and 70% RH.

I am not aware of anything which will make a significant difference and be able to maintain that unfortunately.

[stinky]

Just now, PsyCLown said:

If the room you are growing in is say 30C and 70% RH, the lowest you will be able to get it inside your tent would be 30C and 70% RH.

For sure! I am eager to understand how users are combining fans/AC etc to maintain proper environment when the temps and RH are at these kinda numbers. What light/ventilation combos and other strategies being in small grow spaces.....

 

 

[PsyCLown]

Small grows of 1sqm or less, it's a bit difficult as I feel it becomes harder to justify the cost of the additional equipment and running costs.

Also in such a small tent, the space is important. You do not want to place a portable AC or dehumidifier inside as that will take away from your precious space.

 

So best would be to then run them in the same room as the tent, however this becomes less efficient as you are then cooling and dehumidifying the entire room as opposed to just the small tent.

 

When one runs such equipment inside the tent, you do not have the fans running all the time. You have them on a timer so that the cool air does not just get blown out the tent.

[Ill_Evan]

You should first get some data on the area you are growing in and see what the current humidity/temperatures are and then make a determination of what is possible for the space you have. 

If you know for a fact you will be struggling with humidity/temperature indoors at this time of year and do not want to go more than the requested 1sq/m or invest heavily into aircons etc one method would be to time your grows in the year that the natural indoor conditions are within parameters you want. Do as the outdoor guys do 

[Bakstein420]

Hi @stinky. I am also in Durbs and growing in a 120 x 50 cupboard. I am always broke as fuck so couldn't get a tent, much less an aircon or dehumidifier. Would really love a dehumidifier though.

I have lost most of a harvest to bud rot before, almost got me off growing. What I do now is pick resilient strains and make sure I keep my canopy nice open and breezy. I mainline my plants and have a small clicks fan to circulate air and a bathroom extractor to vent. 

I dont monitor Temps but humidity is usually around 50-60 with lights on but can shoot up to 80 when the lights go out.

Outside:

Inside:

[Ill_Evan]

45 minutes ago, Bakstein420 said:

Hi @stinky. I am also in Durbs and growing in a 120 x 50 cupboard. I am always broke as fuck so couldn't get a tent, much less an aircon or dehumidifier. Would really love a dehumidifier though.

I have lost most of a harvest to bud rot before, almost got me off growing. What I do now is pick resilient strains and make sure I keep my canopy nice open and breezy. I mainline my plants and have a small clicks fan to circulate air and a bathroom extractor to vent. 

I dont monitor Temps but humidity is usually around 50-60 with lights on but can shoot up to 80 when the lights go out.

Outside:

Inside:

Now that's lekker. 

[stinky]

@Bakstein420

16 minutes ago, Bakstein420 said:

I am always broke as fuck

I hear you bru. Hats off to the way you have optimized that space and your resources under your constraints.  I am just now looking over some of your grows and learning more about your setup, but the results are great! You are getting some real bang for the buck here.

Is this a current/recent grow in the pic ?

I noticed the smaller plant. Do you full veg/flower runs ?

15 minutes ago, Bakstein420 said:

growing in a 120 x 50 cupboard

What's the cabinet/flowering height?

16 minutes ago, Bakstein420 said:

pick resilient strains

Maybe much overlooked  factor. Maybe I need to add that to my original questions. What strains have you found the most success with and what are you running in the picture ?

16 minutes ago, Bakstein420 said:

I mainline my plants

Super neat mainlining! Must practice this one day. How many weeks did it take to build and veg ?

[Bakstein420]

Yep this is my current grow. The smaller plant is an auto iv been growing outdoors. I put her in today coz the weather is cloudy.

The max height from light to floor is 1.2m, so mainlining also helps keep the plant low and spread out.

A top strain I really enjoyed was LSD by Barneys Farm, I still have 2 seeds left that I am keen to grow again. Has a high resistance to pretty much everything and is easy to grow.

Currently have Banana Daddy and Zour Apples from Ethos growing. I must be honest and admit I chose these just because I really wanted to grow some Ethos strains. They just look so yummy.

Not exactly practicing what I preach lol 

[Prom]

3 hours ago, Bakstein420 said:

 

I dont monitor Temps but humidity is usually around 50-60 with lights on but can shoot up to 80 when the lights go out.

 

There is your mold issue. Check to install more ventilation for your off hours. Your mold forms during your lights are out and humidity shoots up. If you let your humidity go over 70%, you will get mold.