When many gardeners go about setting up the conditions for their at home hydroponics gardening system, they forget about one important aspect of the process. Ventilation.
The ability for air to move through the area and keep your plant healthy is imperative, which is why we wonder why it is so often overlooked. For those who do not want to skip over this important part of the hydroponics gardening proves, here are 6 steps on how to set up grow room ventilation:
Place a fan somewhere in the chosen grow room. If there is a screened window that gets good breezes, then the fan might be unnecessary, but we still think a simple fan can go a long way in having proper ventilation in a grow room.
Place your grow lights in the needed spaces and identify the hot spots. You won’t know exactly where the hot spots in your grow room will be until the lights are hung and on. The reason you need to know the hot spots in the room is because this is where the ventilation will be most needed. The hot air combined with the excessive amounts of water used in hydroponics systems will create a dam and mildew atmosphere that can cause mold and other problems. Keeping the air circulating in these areas is important. Once you know where these hot spots are, place the fan near that area.
Install light timers, or work out a good schedule for each of the grow lights. Keeping the right temperature is important. You need to do some observation to find out how long it takes your chosen grow lights to reach this temperature, and then set your light timers to work accordingly. If you do not invest in light timers, make sure you know how to remind yourself to go into your grow room to turn the grow lights on and off.
If needed, black out your windows. Constant exposure to sunlight can cause problems to plants, especially if they are being given their primary light from grow lights. If your grow` light give them the light they need for photosynthesis and warmth, then avoid an over exposure problem by blacking out the window in the room. When you do this, be sure that you don’t reduce the ventilation by blocking the fans or the breeze from the window. Blacking out only a portion of the window might be the best way for you to go in these situations.
Arrange your plants in a way that will allow for air flow. If they are too close together, they will not have the space needed to have air blow in between them and give them the air they need to thrive and grow large. It can also stunt growth to have them too close together in that there will not be room enough for them to grow as big as they would like.
Invest in a CO2 generator. This is a simple device that can be placed in a corner. It will increase the air flow like a fan, but will produce small amounts of CO2 that is like a steroid for plants. They love the stuff. Not only will this increase your ventilation, but it will increase the growth rate of your plants, and will improve the size of your plants.
These 6 steps are simple, but they can make a huge difference in the health and vitality of the plants in your hydroponics system.