Humidity

[BunchOfPiranhas]

How important is humidity? I have some seedlings that arent doing great, clones that are lackluster, and others in my veg room. The humidity is typically between 40 and 50 percent, sometimes a little bit lower though. I am trying to identify why my plants arent thriving. I've got a good soil mix (50%gro mix, 40% pearlite, 10% EWC), and am growing under flouros. Water is PH adjusted, no over fert problems.

I guess Im just trying to ID what might be stunting them. Any thought, experiences, and good cheap methods to up the humidity would be fantastic. I am currently working with dishes of pearlite and water to try and up the humidity, an idea i saw on here. It hasn't been grossly successful.

 

[Guest]

under flouros my friend you have no problem with misting them in veg....get a spray bottle..mist your plants..it would seem you could also have a bowl of water in there with a fan blowing on it to evaporate it..you could also wet a wash cloth(clean and put it over part of a fan)or just get a humidifier...i would just use a mister bottle

 

[Dan42nepa]

what kind of fluros are you using? I use 2 sets of shop lights each with a cool and warm bulb and they do ok. They cant match my 400w MH but my closet is busy at the moment.

 

[Endo]

What are your temps? are you running 18/6 or 24/0? i had a big problem with stunting recently, turns out i tried everything to fix it but the temps. i prefer the 18/6 schedual, being that my grow closet is on an exterior wall of the house, the temps on the floor where i had my pots was very very cold, and the temps at the lights were barely getting above 70 degrees, so i added a heater still to no avail the the temps at the lights went up but the floor still stayed cold, and the cold soil temp was what was stunting them and turning them yellow. not to mention it not being warm the water in the soil was just drowning them. solution: raise everything up about 24 inches... off the floor.. the temps are now a balmy 78 degrees and the soil drys out normally and the plants have all started to thrive, sorry that was a little long but.. check your temps and soil temps...then worry about humidity. my veg room is very small and the humidity is never about 35% and my plants grow wonderfully now.

this little girl was in horrible shape when she was sitting on the floor... now not a week later she looks amazing.


these little babies are over 2 weeks old if not more..... they were very stunted by the cold soil temps. they are finally starting to come back a bit...


good luck

Endo

 

[Guest]

Are you using tube floros?If so they shouldnt be more than 1/2 inch above the tops of the plants,any more than that is too high.I use a cool mist humidifer in veg when my RH drops below 50%,they are inexpensive compared to a dehumid and is an excellent natural mite repellent.

 

[BunchOfPiranhas]

a half inch??

a half inch??

Im also working with two shop lights. A one cfl as well. I rotate plants underneath that, trying to give my favorites a little extra light here and there. The soil temps should be fine. ranges from 75-80ish at that level.

I already have the water with the fan blowing over it, and i spray periodically. For some reason spraying just makes me nervous, so I try not to do it too often. I think I might just pick up an inexpensive humidifier. I have had spider mite problems, which was made worse by the wonderfully dry conditions.

But only a half inch away from the tops of the plants huh? as of now they are 2 maybe 3 inches away.

 

[Guest]

Thats too high my friend ,trust me on this you want a half inch max,my tops will often touch before I move the light up 1 chain link,then I wait a day for the plants to catch up.Each inch for a floro is like a frickin foot with a HID,I've used tube floros now to start seedlings and new clones for many years now.Its the best way to go.I have 250MH 400 combo and 1K HID's and tube floros cant be beat if used correctly.Correctly means almost on top of the plants at all times,3 inches is going to give you stretchier plants by far.After 5 or 6 inches in height,tube floros become ineffectiveEDIT O yea if you get a cool mist humidifier make sure you buy one with a visable mist,very important.It'll cost you about 30 dollars instead of 20.If there's no visable mist,dont buy it.It will help with your mite problems in veg bigtime.I havent had mites in veg since I started using it and I used to get them at least once a year minimum