Heat problem in closet grow

[s10lowrider]

So I'm facing a heat problem. I have grown previously in a 4x10x10 closet (no ventilation aside from the door cracked open sometimes), within a 2x2x4 tent (actual grow area), with success.

I have since been forced to use a 2x5x10 closet. Within that closet, I have the 2x2x4 tent fitting very snuggy but I do still have the back vent open (which is about 4" away from the wall) along with a fan blowing the heat out of the top.

I also have some other fans (1 small brushless motor 120v fan and a couple 12v pc fans) that I can and will use to circulate air in the tent

I have been testing temps before I put my seedlings in there and it hit 97 degrees fahrenheit today with the closet door closed, which the closet door needs to be during the day (8am-4pm).

I'm considering either buying one of those "as seen on tv" portable\personal ac units to keep it cool or my other option is using a diy ac cooler.I am also looking at buying a co2 bag and a portable dehumidifier to add no matter what.

I am curious if there is anyone else dealing with the same constraints and/or issues. I can't really vent the heat out through the closet because I rent, but at the same time, I do the painting here when people move out so I could cut a hole in the ceiling to vent the heat if need be (I would just prefer to avoid it because that makes a lot more work for me, if/when I move).

 

[HayStack]

It sounds like the closet is just a bit too small to get rid of that much heat. I would say, since you do maintenance there, just cut a small hole in the ceiling and Add a vent tube from the top of the tent up into the crawl space. Not sure why you cant leave the door open during the day, but if you could that would help a lot.

I don't think one of those personal coolers would work. If you are talking about the kind I'm thinking you are. They are just a tiny swamp cooler. So, the amount of evaporation you will get from the water won't be much. Plus it will raise the humidity quite a bit.

 

[TorturedSoul]

If you have to keep the closet door closed from 0800 to 1600, make that part of your dark period. Or all but the last two hours, if you're still in the vegetative phase.

Aside from that, if it's too hot, you simply don't have sufficient surely through the tent.

Cannabis plants can survive at 97°F, but they're not going to thrive without really intense light and a good bit of CO2 supplementation. Not "bag" - tank and regulator.

The thing about those portable air conditioner units is that they pretty much all suck - unless you want to spend over $2,000 for one, and then people will wonder why you've got an industrial AC unit in your home. Oh, and they're larger than two feet, lol. There are a few dual-hose units that... don't quite suck. One that is advertised as being a 14,000 BTU unit will provide about as much actual cooling as an 8,000 BTU window unit.

Why can't you have the door open during the day? Isn't there a door on whatever room the closet is in? If so, close and lock that. If your answer is that there have to be people in there, then you're effectively screwed anyway because cannabis plants tend to reek, lol, and they'd notice the extractor fan moving air through a carbon filter if you decide that you'd rather they not leave each evening smelling like your cannabis garden.

 

[s10lowrider]

I suppose the closet door doesn't have to be shut all the time, but it would be a lot more convenient. I may take the plunge and cut a hole into the attic but we will see.

I have dropped the temperature substantially today though. I added another fan and found out my wife had shut the central air off so that's running again. With the closet door open it's now at 79.

My tent does leak some light though so I'm gonna to put up a blackout curtain because it's lights out from 8am-4pm.

 

[s10lowrider]

UPDATE:

I have switched out my exhaust fan for a higher cfm one that I was saving to use with my carbon filter. So far, with the closet door shut, it's been sitting at 84°F.

Is that still too hot to not have supplemental co2?

I did order a blackout curtain to block the light but still be able to keep the door open, so I don't have the world's brightest night light. Figured I'd try it if 84 is too hot.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I'd start sweating at temperatures above 86°F or 87°F. Well, I would start sweating at 68°F, lol, but the plants... You know what I mean.

But it depends on the light, too. If I was using a couple of low-wattage CFLs, I'd be more concerned than I would if I was using a 400- or 600-watt HPS. In fact, if I was using the latter (and not trying to illuminate too large of a space with it), I'd want temperatures in the mid-80s or so. As it becomes cooler, plants are less able to process light-energy. The previous sentence is a fact, but I am not aware of any actual studies done to quantify it, in other words, what kind/wattage/intensity of light can be fully utilized at or above what temperature. So I guess we just have to guess, lol.

 

[s10lowrider]

Thanks for the response. I forgot to mention I'm using a 600watt led but it's only pulling 270 watts from the wall.

With the light off, it's about 75°F with the door cracked open about 8". With the light on it's 79-82°F depending on how far open it is.

I was hoping to have a little veg area in my closet too with about 100watts of cfls but I think that will be asking for trouble.

I guess I'll just play around with the setup and see what works best for my plants.

Thanks again fellas!

 

[TorturedSoul]

If you're really concerned about heat... artificial light sources have two "producers" of heat, the bulb or LEDs - and the ballast or power supply. If you decided to replace the power supply wires with much longer ones, you could move that source of heat out of the grow space. And a little electrical gizmo/box that had a fan in it might not cause any suspicion even if it was in plain sight. Perhaps a person could use a PC tower (some of them are quite large) for this purpose, and then tell anyone who asks that it's a server. IDK.

Technically, you can do the same thing with a CFL bulb, but it can be a pain in the arse, since they're glued together. And people who use CFLs tend to run anywhere from several to lots of them, which multiplies the PITA. Still, extreme situations call for extreme measures....

 

[s10lowrider]

So I bit the bullet and cut a hole at the top and ran some insulated ducting to it and have my 6" fan pulling air out of my grow closet into the closet in the other room with a vent disguising the hole.

My question now is, should I have the fan pulling out air in the top of my tent or the top of my grow closet? Or will it matter? Also since I'm going this route should I hook my carbon filter to this fan, or add an additional fan for it?

I'm also still deciding on where to pull fresh air from. I thought about having it pull from the bottom of the the closet I'm venting to, or venting in from my bedroom. I figure that venting from the bedroom would probably work better, but not be as stealthy.

 

[Icemann420]

Those portable ac united suck butt I spent 500$ on one and all it does is rum my humidity and electric bill up. Also you have to vent them through a window. Witch makes no sense how’s that portable lol. But in all reality it’s keeping my 8x8x5 at ruffle 78* with a 60% humidity. If I turn it off we are talking 85+* with low 40-45 % humidity. You need to vent the light area. Have a fan blowing upwards. And a vent sucking out the top. Also torturedsoul i agree with him change your lighting time so it’s off the hottest part of the day. That should help

 

[s10lowrider]

I now have a passive intake coming from my bedroom into the closet and a fan exhausting the hot air to the other closet Might add a fan to pull air instead of having it passive but with my closet door shut, it peaked at 82°F today which is a hell of a lot better than the upper 90s.

I did also change my light schedule. It now comes on at 6pm and goes off at 12pm. I thought about doing 8pm-2pm but I'll keep an eye on temps tomorrow when it peaks outside.

Pics show vent in other closet and the fan and ducting that feeds to it from the grow closet. I also have a smaller fan pushing out air from the top of my tent and one pulling in air at the bottom. I'm definitely planning on ordering a better exhaust fan but will probably wait until I need to get the carbon filter.

 

[gr865]

I pull my air from a room that I installed a window unit AC, have had to use it very little.
I cut a hole in the wall an ran 6" ducting from that room into the 4 x 4 tent. In the tent, which is in a 5 x 5 closet, I have a 6" Max-Fan Pro Series, attached with ducting to a 6" Phresh filter. That has ducting that extracts the air from the room and it goes through the wall into a garage. My temps run 78-80 lights on and high 60's low 70's lights off.

 

[s10lowrider]

I went ahead and ordered a proper inline fan. Its rated at almost twice the cfm of my crapppy booster fan that I have been using to suck out the hot air. It got up to 84 today in my tent today with the closet door shut, but it was also in the high 80s outside today and our ac was struggling. Hoping now that I have everything vented, the new fan will bring my temps down even more.

 

[s10lowrider]

Due to the unusual heat wave in indiana, I changed my light schedule to be lights on from 7pm-1pm. It's helped a lot so far. It's peaking at 81 in my tent now. The new fan will hopefully bring that down at least 1-2 degrees.

If so I'm going to add my cfls near the top of my closet and hopefully get a veg/clone chamber going as well once I figure out how to make it light tight. I used to have a NEMA box that I used for my veg chamber but I stupidly threw it away a while back. It could only fit 2 at a time but it was perfect for my space and stealth constraints.

Anyways....Thank you to everyone that has provided their input and/or advice at cooling my grow down!

 

[s10lowrider]

"She" (hopefully) (1st pic)came from a chem og 3 bag I got in Colorado. The 2nd pic is an unknown strain, which I don't know if anyone can actually see in the pic. It was planted 4 days after the chem. It has poked up from the soil but still has the seed's shell on it. Should I try and help it out to get the shell off or leave it be?

I'm hoping to make the chem a mother along with another seed that I got from Colorado, which came from a bag of Buddha Tahoe og(my favorite). I'm also going to grow the unknown strain to completion so i can get a feel for it all again.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Should I try and help it out to get the shell off or leave it be?

First, I'd try dripping a few drops of water onto it several times during the next day or so. If you have to remove it manually, it could be damaging to the seedling's cotyledons. If you still end up having to remove the seed case, be very careful. As you are probably aware, the cotyledons contain the seedling's initial store of energy and that, along with their ability to process a tiny amount of light-energy, is crucial to the production of the first set of true leaves. I'd be surprised if a seedling could survive with both (epigeal) cotyledons torn off.

 

[s10lowrider]

Thanks tortured! I just gave it a couple of drops and will give it a couple more before I head to bed. I have very limited grow experience, but I have had one other sprout do this and it shed it's shell on its own, so I'm hoping for the same outcome.

 

[TorturedSoul]

As in all things in life, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) applies, of course.

I haven't experienced this thing a great many times, but it's happened a few times over the years. I didn't "make a note" of these things or anything but, looking back, it seemed to happen in hotter/drier conditions. Like when I used CFLs for the initial plant development and might have had them a wee bit too close to the emerging seedlings - and those bulbs do generate some heat, which isn't a big deal to a room or even a tent in terms of gross heat... but might have been harsh when placed close to sprouts. So that's why I started dripping water onto them when it happened, trying to hydrate the "cotyledon : seedcase interface." It seemed to help, generally. But, sometimes, you have to remove it by hand. With luck, though, at least one cotyledon will have freed itself by the time you need to deal with it. Hopefully, both will have "assumed the position" and all you'll have to do is to remove it from the end of one. Or, better yet, you'll walk in and see the empty seedcase laying on the soil, lol.

 

[Gazoo]

I recently had a seedling come up with her shell on, next time I will plant a little deeper, thinking
it was to shallow and not enough time pushing up through the soil to help pull it off. Anyway I
did wait an extra day but she simply stretched looking for day light so took a pair of tweezers
and placed them in a position to squeeze the shell (between pointed end and bottom rounded end of seed)
and give it a gentle squeeze to release it. Fell off opened up and turned green in a few hours