Grow Tent , how are you raising humidity?

[Tynehead Tom]

okay, I'm not a new grower but am new to growing in confined spaces ie: grow tent. Mine is a DIY 6x6x7 Ice fishing hut converted to a grow tent.
so lets set the scene
the room is a 12 x 12 spare room, tent in the middle.
I have 2 x 4" diameter passive intakes on the floor, in opposing corners.
exhaust fan outside tent pulling air from tent and venting it out the open door of the room and into the house. The window in the room is cracked open one inch to allow cool fresh air to be drawn in.
In the tent I have a 14" oscillating fan modified to sit on floor blowing straight up to the light. (it no longer oscillates).
I have a 940 watt Super ace hortilux HPS hanging vertical, bare bulb.


so, my day time night time temps are perfect 81F at hottest lights on, cooling to 72 during lights out


problem is at 81F my relative humidity in the tent is 35% and during lights out lowest temp it's rising to 50%
I'm flowering only in the tent and need to increase that humidity during lights on to 45%


so, how can I maintain a 45% tent humidity ?
I don't want to dick around with home made DIY humidity tricks unless they really work and are dead simple.
basically I'd like to hear from folks who have had the same problem and what they did to overcome it..... in a tent.

 

[olekingkole]

I use this.
http://www.mainlandmart.com/humidify.html

Not cheap, but it works.

 

[Tynehead Tom]

hmmmm, thx for posting that olekingkole. Might be a little more than I can manage this round and would probably take a few weeks or more before I could even get a unit like that delivered to my neck of the woods.

I'm in the sticks, hours from any biggish cities so supplies are hard to come by quickly.
I'm trying to come up with some kind of evaporator unit I can DIY but I also don't want to add heat to the tent. 35% humidity seems a tad low for the plants to flourish. There are also room humidifiers, I remember having one in my room as a kid when the dry air used to give me chronic nosebleeds. wonder if one of those kind of humidifiers could be adapted? my only thought here would be it keeping up with the air exchange....
hmmmm. I'm used to big rooms running on minisplits and dehumidifiers LOL never really had to deal with a low humidity scenario before

 

[GreenPanther]

fan bro

 

[Tynehead Tom]

@ GreenPanther , I have fans.... and everything is running at optimum air exchange, steady temps thruout the lights on cycle.
I also have a desk top type fan circulating air around the inside perimeter of the tent which I didn't mention in first post. Overall, I'm extremely happy with how the system is running, I just need to bump up the humidity of my naturally dry air.

 

[GreenPanther]

@ GreenPanther , I have fans.... and everything is running at optimum air exchange, steady temps thruout the lights on cycle.
I also have a desk top type fan circulating air around the inside perimeter of the tent which I didn't mention in first post. Overall, I'm extremely happy with how the system is running, I just need to bump up the humidity of my naturally dry air.

the air in your growroom will always have a bit more humidity then the natural air. exept you buy an electric machine against humidity. my english isn't the best, i hope you understand what i mean.

 

[Tonygreen]

Could try a few 5 gallon buckets of water sitting in there. I keep a few bowls of water in my veg space on a much smaller scale and it works like a charm.

Easy enough to try without spending $$$.
Hangin wet towels is a pain but works ha!

 

[jav2043]

Bucket a water with a towel sitting half way in the water acting as a wick ftw

 

[Tynehead Tom]

Tonygreen, I might try that, maybe make up something that can wick water up into a medium that I can put airflow thru..... hmmmm
I tried a bowl of water with a peanut shaped car washing sponge in it and humidity didn't change. I set it on the floor inside the tent in front of one of the passive intakes.

welcoming more ideas while I get this sorted. Meanwhile I'm going to research humidifying units for my permanent rooms that I'm still building. I'll probably only be using this tent for this one crop.

 

[krunchbubble]

okay, I'm not a new grower but am new to growing in confined spaces ie: grow tent. Mine is a DIY 6x6x7 Ice fishing hut converted to a grow tent.
so lets set the scene
the room is a 12 x 12 spare room, tent in the middle.
I have 2 x 4" diameter passive intakes on the floor, in opposing corners.
exhaust fan outside tent pulling air from tent and venting it out the open door of the room and into the house. The window in the room is cracked open one inch to allow cool fresh air to be drawn in.
In the tent I have a 14" oscillating fan modified to sit on floor blowing straight up to the light. (it no longer oscillates).
I have a 940 watt Super ace hortilux HPS hanging vertical, bare bulb.


so, my day time night time temps are perfect 81F at hottest lights on, cooling to 72 during lights out


problem is at 81F my relative humidity in the tent is 35% and during lights out lowest temp it's rising to 50%
I'm flowering only in the tent and need to increase that humidity during lights on to 45%


so, how can I maintain a 45% tent humidity ?
I don't want to dick around with home made DIY humidity tricks unless they really work and are dead simple.
basically I'd like to hear from folks who have had the same problem and what they did to overcome it..... in a tent.

These work surprisingly well and are cheap. Not THIS exact model, look for one with no LED's...
http://www.amazon.com/ZJchao-Ultras..._UL160_SR146,160_&refRID=1FA82TWGZV8PZ89K9NC4

 

[Tynehead Tom]

k, my wife found me a room humidifier/mister at our towns hardware store. gonna hook it up in the lung room portion and see if it makes any difference.
thx for tips so far guys, much appreciated


EDIT with an update. while I have no idea if this thing is gonna work, my wife brought me home a 40.00 after tax Sunbeam cool mist humidifier. (631-705)
I'm gonna put it in a large tray about 2 feet off the floor in the lung room and see if it does anything.
if that proves to be a hassle or a non starter, I'm gonna try a 5 gallon regtangular tote with a heavy wash cloth stetched across and hanging vertically into a bath of water with a small clip on fan blowing gently on the wash cloth. it's about a 10" wide cloth hanging into the water. gonna build this in case the cool mist humidifier doesn't do the job.


this is also making me rethink my garage rooms I'm building and instead of AC cooling, I may end up using a swamp cooler (radiator, running water and a fan) to gain the humidity I am not getting out of natural environments outside air.

 

[DemonTrich]

Houseofhydro.com
Ask for john, tell him.demon sent ya.

I run his 12 disc ultrasonic fogger unit, 80mm fan, fan speed selector, and a 20 gal food grade drum as my container. I can get my rh perfect to the VDP chart.

I use about 4 gallons a day, running 18hrs, with 15 minute breaks every 4 hrs on my timer

84* and 74% rh

 

[Tynehead Tom]

The strains I have right now, shiska 3 , sweet tooth 3 , are showing no signs of VPD deficit, all except for one shiska. everytime the humidity spikes up, it perks up, soons it drops below 45% it start the leaf edge curl and droop.
I'd like to maintain 45% humidity in my flower room so need to bump the RH overall by 10%. will let ya'll know if I figure it out and what I did to get there.
All the suggestions so far are appreciated, thanks and keep em coming. I'm sure others are reading this too and taking notes

 

[Tynehead Tom]

Well, I'm here to report success!!
putting the sunbeam small room cool mist in the corner of my lung room has changed everything. relative humidity at 80F is holding steady at 48% with window cracked an inch and the door open 8" (4" exhaust line ends 2 feet from the door , in line with the opening). I'm putting pics in my journal tonight. Gonna stay up till 2:00 am and monitor every hour to see if I need to make changes.

fak me a 40.00 fix, I can live with that friends

 

[zerocool21]

likely you will need to fill that more than once a day and becomes a pita, for a small area id say get an essick 821000 simple holds several gallons and can hold a specific rh. great for bumping your rh up if needed while drying.

 

[Tynehead Tom]

this one runs for 28 hours on a tank.
I'm still observing it tonight every hour. nuther 20 minutes and i'll be 6 hours into the 12 hour light schedule. temps krept up to 83F dropping humidity down to 41% so I moved the unit inside the tent in the corner away from plants and bulb, also opened the window another 3 inches to try and draw in more cool air. gonna check it again in an hour and see whats up. I think a slow fan on one of the passive intakes might just get me where I want to be. I don't want to go bigger on the exhaust, I think it is sufficiently moving the amount of air required, just needs to be brought down to 80F.
dialing rooms in is fun stuff, not so much when you have to stay up all night to babysit the first few days on a new system LOL

this tent crop is a "birthday" run, timing it to come down just before. It's a seed run as well so will have to isolate males and remove to their own area in one of the rooms I'm building in the shop.

 

[DONAJTHEIII]

humidifier

 

[Dr.King]

humidifier

Indeed this would be your best option. You said the tent was in the middle of the 10' x 10' room so that doesn't mean your tent is that big. I am guessing a 5' x 5' x 7' tent? Just a guess cus I use em . In my tents I use the humidifiers from wal mart that are $35 each. Only need 2 in each tent to bring my humidity from 20% to 60% with lights on and I turn one off before lights off to maintain 55-65%(I get lots of rain off and on). They only use 47 watts each so it's really nice if your having to work with a circuit box. Best of luck man.

 

[corky1968]

Other than a humidifier.

Maybe, a shallow tray filled with water and a fan blowing air on it towards your plants.
This way your plants get some humidity and exercise all that same time.

 

[Tynehead Tom]

Indeed this would be your best option. You said the tent was in the middle of the 10' x 10' room so that doesn't mean your tent is that big. I am guessing a 5' x 5' x 7' tent? Just a guess cus I use em . In my tents I use the humidifiers from wal mart that are $35 each. Only need 2 in each tent to bring my humidity from 20% to 60% with lights on and I turn one off before lights off to maintain 55-65%(I get lots of rain off and on). They only use 47 watts each so it's really nice if your having to work with a circuit box. Best of luck man.

tent's inside dimension is 6x6x7 , inside a 12x12 room
I got one small humidifier yesterday and it is "just" keeping things in the happy range. I think I'm going to go grab another one. yer right, they are cheap and use bugger all for power.


I think I got this figured out guys. Thanx for all the suggestions