Coolin your nutes

-Well Im gettin ready for the spring this time, last year left me scramblin to find out what was wrong with my plants when I noticed that my temps were up round 80 degrees. -If you grow aero and choose not to use root protection stuff this can be disasterous. -Your plants die.. -Anyhow... -Once I figured out that it was the high temps in my root zone that was killin my plants I started figurin ways to cool my root zones. -I got me a fridge and drilled holes in it and ran my nutes threw there but I still had to add ice to it to make it work, was prety fukt up, all summer I was feedin my li'l fridge ice, it was a royal pain in the ass! -Any how.. Once it got cool outside again I went back to usin runnin ground water to cool my root zones, but I said that before the weather got warm again, Id get an aquarium chiller. --But I decided that before I invested in an aquariun chiller Id try cuttin up my fridge and makin my own chiller. -I took all the guts out of it and I dunked the evap coil in a big tub that Im gonna fill with water to check how cool it will keep it, I have to guage weather if it could keep up with my heating needs, -if it can, I'l use it instead ! -Heres some pics of what I got so far, -I just gotta get some wire to wire the t-stat back up, -I had to cut the wires to it, they were in the fridge walls. -Well Im gonna get some wire and check it out tomorow but heres some pics now..

 

what kind of temps are you looking for lump?

 

-Hey Howdy Mud Hunter! -Im lookin to keepem between 66 and 68 all the time. -I was readin over my post and it occured to me that I might need to point out that the temps Im affectin are the temps in my root chambers, -the chambers that my roots hang in -in my flower room. -I was just lookin over the first post and I thought I mighta been a little vage. -Im gonna post a couple pics to show how I get the root zones cool now, -its winter so now I just run water threw a tub with a coper coil submerged in it, the coil contains my nute solution for my flower room, its pumped threw the coil and gets cooled by the water runnin over the coil, -the first pic shows the tub with the coil submerged by the runnin water, the hoses you see that arnt conected to the coper coil are the runnin water, one commin in from my sink and one goin out threw the tub wall and down my drain. -The second pic is of where the hose from the coil comes into the flower room and comes out of the manifold that splits it to go to its proper root chambers. -Hope I got the pics rite !

 

--Well I got it wired up and runnin. -I started it with 74 degree water with the room temp at 64 and Im tryin to see how long it takes to pull the 15 gal thats in the tub down 52 or so. -I'l keep ya's posted!

 

I love the setup...im just curious if you considered water to water exchanger from your well (unless your on city water) or ground source loop coil? The water source may be alittle more savings...but the ground source would be alot more efficient!

 

--Thanks alot Mud! -Im on city water and my lot is to small for the ground loop, -Id have to dig straight down. -Shure would be nice tho... I dig geothermal big time! <no pun intendid. -I started my tub of about 15 gal of 74 degree water out at 5 o clock, the room temps were from 64 to 62 degrees. As of 1 o clock this mornin the temp was 52 degrees, rite now its got the tub at 36! -The room temp is at 62. -I think its gonna work. -Well hopefully this'l save me $325, -thats the cheapest aquarium chiller I could find that would meet my needs. -The fridge costed me $75 at a cottage secondhand shop! -I guess I'l just wait till it gets too warm to use my run to waste cooling tekand switch tubs and dunk my coolin coil in this new thing and see if it works, -if it dont I guess I could order me up an aquarium chiller real quick! -I just shure the fuk aint runnin ice to my shit every 4 hours THIS summer! I think it'l work, I guess we'l see when it warms up!

 

Sweet set up lump.... i would be interested on run times verses temps...maybe this summer update on results? So should a soil lover be concerned about soil temps?

 

--Im gonna unplug it and wait till its warmer but I think its gonna do it! -Its down to 34 now! -><>**^^~~ -I think that if your growing in soil ya just gotta watch your ambiant temps bein thats the only way to keep your root zones in check(your pots). -I just wouldnt set my pots on any warm surfaces and Id try to keep my ambiant temps around 78 or so. -I hope some dirt Guys chime in if I said something wrong, -I never grew anything in dirt.

 

I'am gonna post some soil temps (if I remember tomorrow). interesting idea MH. b1

 

well I got to thinking....naturally the air temp during veg or flowering would be alot warmer then the soil temp....im just wondering if I should cool my pots...say down to 60-65

 

--Heres some pics of ice! -It froze up around 5 o clock yesterday! -I think its gonna work!

 

Well....? Come up with anything b1

 

yeah, generally I see the dirt in the pot temps to be within a degree or two of the average room temp. I measured two pots that overnighted outside and the night's low was 65 and when I measured in the am, when the outside temp had risen to 75 the dirt was @ 71. Same sized pots inside, where the temp doesn't vary much from 79 day or night, showed 76 degrees. Hope this helps. b1

 

Do you think the ladies like to keep there roots cooler? I built a special box for mine...im running 80+ ambiant & 71 soil. The fan pulls air through the box. The air entering the box is taken from a 65 Degree room

 

I'll answer that from a strict physiological point of view: plant biology, just as animal biology, carries on by biochemistry. Chemical processes are dependent on various components such as availability of materials. Temperature is one of them and each biological specimen has an optimum temperature. Generally higher temps allow higher rates of biosynthesis but if the temp goes outside the optimum on the high side, damage to the structure (roots in this case) occurs. Most subtropical plant species have an optimum range of 75 to 85 degrees, based on the temperature averages one sees in those regions and you can therefore surmise that the cannabis plant will have selected for that temperature range to function optimally.
I am going to watch with interest what others will have to say about this. b1

 

soooo....where in the world is the best optimal location for MJ. And in that area what is the avg. soil temp & avg. ambiant temp?

 

the optimal or the best or the best optimal or the optimally best?
I'd look at the great river valleys of mesopotamia. b1