Lighting The House of Vorkosigan

[Vorkosigan]

Glad I went out to the tent tonight while my best friend was over. The cinder blocks along the sides were picked up from Lowe's outdoor area today to be used as plinths for my plants to sit on after transfer. Being outdoors in the winter conditions they absorbed a lot of moisture. When I opened the tent tonight I felt the beaded water on the back of the door & immediately went, "Oh $hit!" I turned on the extraction fan & intake fan to low to knock the humidity down from 60% to 40%. The blocks are drying now, just don't want rain in my tent! I hope the temps don't get too crazy low tonight with the fans going to clear out the water.

 

[witchyhour]

This week has been a battle of temperature and humidity stabilization out in the tent!

4Dec - 1st feeding for Blanca, Sierra, & Jewel. 1lt of water mixed with nutes at 1/2 strength - .25mL of Mammoth P. 2mL Medusa Magic & Hygea Hydration. 1mL of Gaia Mania, Zeus Juice, Herculean Harvest, Athena's Aminas, Demeter's Destiny, & Aphrodite's Extraction. Fed 120mL to run-off. Mona still receiving seedling feeding of spritizing with water mixed with Poseidonzime. Added large bucket of water to tent to try and increase humidity, average around 25% relative humidity. Moved light down and turned on cobs.
6Dec - Sierra & Mona have second leave sets, Blanca & Jewel are barely showing second leaves. All but Mona are lime green & showing stress issues. Changed light schedule to 24/0 due to night temperatures dropping to 55F, too low for metabolic processes (I am a firm believer in giving plants a night period for increased respiration but the temps are so low the plants couldn't respire so I would rather have less-effective metabolic processes than no metabolic processes and dead plants). Despite the stress Sierra was praying hard. Blanca, Sierra, & Jewel all received 120mL of feed to run-off.
7Dec - Removed Mona's humid dome. Added seedling heat mat under all girls to increase bottom heat & relative heat in the tent. Added another 2 gallons of water (in milk jugs) to tent to attempt to increase humidity.
8Dec - Marked improvement in Blanca, Sierra, & Jewel with feedings & 24/0 light. All babies received 120mL of feed to run-off. Mona looked a bit peckish so she received her first feeding.
9Dec - Sierra is currently leading in growth at 3" tall & looking to sport her third leaf set. Blanca is 3" but still happy with the second leaf set. Jewel is 2.5" and still on second leaf set. Mona comes in at 1.5" and trying to bust out the second leaf set. Sierra is droopy, possibly too much water in the bottom of the catch-cup. Drained all catch-cups. Light is 21" away from canopy.

Family photo View attachment 670502
Sierra is a little droopy but killing the growing game in the tent LOL View attachment 670503
Blanca has a bit of color on the base of her leaves. View attachment 670504
Mona is sporting color but it will probably turn green once she absorbs her nutes. View attachment 670505
Jewel had the most fried finger leaves of the group View attachment 670506
Another family shot View attachment 670507
This is how I'm battling low humidity - heat lamp points at open bucket of water to heat the surface, fan rotates to cool the water and increase relative humidity. View attachment 670508
The jug on the heat mat is for next feed mix. View attachment 670510
The 52F & 23% were from me checking the garage range for ten minutes while I talked to the girls. View attachment 670511

The humidity level... that's wild! Lots of misting on your future! [emoji121] LOL

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[witchyhour]

Glad I went out to the tent tonight while my best friend was over. The cinder blocks along the sides were picked up from Lowe's outdoor area today to be used as plinths for my plants to sit on after transfer. Being outdoors in the winter conditions they absorbed a lot of moisture. When I opened the tent tonight I felt the beaded water on the back of the door & immediately went, "Oh $hit!" I turned on the extraction fan & intake fan to low to knock the humidity down from 60% to 40%. The blocks are drying now, just don't want rain in my tent! I hope the temps don't get too crazy low tonight with the fans going to clear out the water.

Babies love very high humidity! It's the buds that get moldy with it. I'd let them enjoy it, only worry once you actually see buds with white pistils coming out.

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[Vorkosigan]

I'm more worried about electrical items in the tent getting rained on. I know the babies love the humidity, that's why I was okay with putting the cinderblocks into the tent before transplant time. I just didn't expect the mad amount of precipitation on the tent walls LOL.

 

[witchyhour]

I'm more worried about electrical items in the tent getting rained on. I know the babies love the humidity, that's why I was okay with putting the cinderblocks into the tent before transplant time. I just didn't expect the mad amount of precipitation on the tent walls LOL.

Oh, ok! I thought it sounded like something you'd know. [emoji106] [emoji4]

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[BigSm0]

Oh man I feel your pain. I'm outdoors in an unheated garage myself. I have to vacuum the floor on my tent daily. Luckily my real grow room in the same building isn't as bad but humidity is much higher than an indoor space would be.

 

[Vorkosigan]

@BigSm0 With the open water containers the humidity is staying 55-65% range through a 24hr period. Temps inside the tent haven't been below 70F for a few days but we're expecting a major cold spell for the next week. I may have to remove a jug or two of water to decrease the amount of rivulets I have going down the walls of the tent!
Our struggle is real LOL.

 

[Vorkosigan]

Garage temp while mixing feed today was 46F. Tent temperature was 68F and 60%RH. It's trying to snow outside and the prediction is 19F on Friday.

 

[Itisi]

Hey vorko.

You thought about insulating the tent? it'll make the temp and condensation easier to control.

 

[Itisi]

Sorry for the boring blurb: if the air in your tent is at 68f and 60rh your dew point (the point condensation forms) will be around 50f. Because the air surrounding your tent is below 50f, condensation will form at the point the 2 temps meet, your tent surface. A barrier between the tent and the garage air that buffers this is insulation. The bigger the difference in the 2 temps , the wetter it will be.

Itisi
it is isn't it?