moisture condensation problem!

[datura_kid]

i had this on my mind when i built new room but somehow hoped it wont present such a problem...i have a 2mx3m room which is my new space never used for this...acctually never used for last 20 years...so in this room i have 2 outer walls, and room itself is completly sealed with 1,5mm thick nylon...

the problem is that moisture condensates on outer walls (from inside on nylon exactly), more up by the sealing and more in corners...the result are sliding drops of water and dripping drops of water...now i have 2 concerns: first and major is if somehow it drops on my electricity (aldo electricity is away from it on the other 2 walls) or on plants which would be bad during lights on, and second is potential battle with moisture in flowering (but for now my fans can extract it very fast)...

when i was testing the room before starting this grow the weather was warmer and there was no big temperature difference between exterior and interior so this wasnt happening...

what do you think my options are? as i first mentioned i thought this might happen so my backup solution is removing the nylon. I suspect it will continue to condensate but it wont be able to slide on the wall as it can on the nylon or drop down...

in other rooms i have alot of outer walls but moisture only builds on windows (glass), which brings me to conclusion it only (or at least more intensivly) builds on smooth surfaces..

 

[Lazyman]

With a room like that, you'll often need a dehumidifier to keep the humidity at about 50% RH, independent of temp controls. After all, if it's nice and warm for your plants, you don't want to have to blow a bunch of cold air on them just to lower the RH a little, right? Buy a dehumidifier before it's too late, a 40-50 pint model should suffice for your space.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Sounds like the new walls are singles.

The reason the glass in your regular walls show condensation while the wall does not is because of double wall construction. There are two, insulating walls with space, and perhaps additional insulation, between them. This slows down the temperature change between inside and outside. The glass is a very thin, single wall and an excellent temp conductor. It has direct contact to two temp zones and the change is instantaneous, thus moisture forms on the cold side of the surface.

Double the walls or get some insulation between the wall and the plastic.

 

[datura_kid]

With a room like that, you'll often need a dehumidifier to keep the humidity at about 50% RH, independent of temp controls. After all, if it's nice and warm for your plants, you don't want to have to blow a bunch of cold air on them just to lower the RH a little, right? Buy a dehumidifier before it's too late, a 40-50 pint model should suffice for your space.

i don't know if dehumidifier would help with this condensation problem cuz its result of warm and cold meeting together at a surface...i just started this grow and am in veg where i like RH 75-80%, the plants love it...and i dont need to blow too much cold air in, exhaust does the most in keeping low RH, it can lower it from 80% to 40% in just few minutes if i run just little higher exhaust voltage. And even this is not necessary because i keep the RH higher by a revolving fan blowing in a wet cloth put on his left-right path so it hits cloth all the way to the left and the rest of the movement goes to plants. Also just one 400w HID does great job at keeping low RH, they are now onder just one MH cuz they are babies in beer cups but after i transplant and put them under 4 x 400w hps thats gonna do the job just fine...

@freezer: yeah that would definately be the best thing to do and i guess only way to completly resolve this, but beacuse of manny factors this is really bad timing for any bigger work on the room.

 

[Lazyman]

Sure it would, if the inside air is dry, then there will be far less water vapor in the air to condense out on the cold surface. 75-80% is very high and will likely cause powdery mildew problems shortly, dry it out! Even if there is still some condensation on the walls, the dehumidifier can remove it from the atmosphere as it evaporates again.

 

[datura_kid]

never had problem with any tipe of fungi and always had higher RH in veg, there were even some old grows that had very high RH (like 70%) during flowering because of not very good setup plus humid air flowing in from outside and no way to lower it at the time, and i never even saw a sign of mold...maybe it was just luck =)

but i gotta tell you you scared me all right, i might just lower it a bit...

 

[Lazyman]

Yeah, I can't think of any good reason to have RH that high, plants need to use their roots for water, not their leaves. When RH is that high, stems can even start to sprout roots of their own! A drier RH will encourage healthier root development as well as stronger/larger stems to transport water and food up and down the stem. High RH would slow or inhibit that process.

 

[datura_kid]

yes i used to see some "adventious" roots coming from stem above the soil...but never thought about connection of RH and root development in that way (dont thik of adventious roots but underground roots development and rh)...its hard to make final conclusions on certain subject because there is so manny different opinions of very experienced people that swear by it, but one is shure - high RH will give nice evironment to fungi and mold development ...somethimes you just have to trust yourself and your first hand experience, but in this case ill trust you because you are probably way more experiencec than me...i hold it 55-65% right now and see how it goes...

thanks for your help!

 

[Lazyman]

Anytime bro, good luck and keep us posted!

 

[datura_kid]

well damn...i think like 1/3 of my babies are infected...i cant believe how i never encoutered this shit till now...

the second set is coming out of most of them and thats were they got it (greyish coloration) which is pretty usual place to start as googled pics show...

will 1 tablespoon of baking soda mixed with gallon of 8 - 8.5 ph'd water help against it, and how often to spray...acctually sprayin is kinda bad idea since they are so small, maybe just one drop on every infected plant before of lights out?

i read of neem oil and few other things in US but i doubt that i can get it here, maybe something simillar under different name...