Tips & Tricks to Beat the Summer Heat for Your Indoor Grow Space

-Gabrial House-

Summer is right around the corner, and while that is exciting news for the outdoor gardener, some indoor growers will be cursing the heat. One of the big problems for indoor growers is their heat footprint from their grow lights. In this blog we are going to talk about some easy ways to beat the heat! Whether you’rr starting a new grow space or already using an established space, we will look at some tips and tricks to keep your room in full summer swing.

If you are starting a new grow room, there are a couple things you can do right off the bat to keep your heat output as low as possible. The first thing we would want to look at would be our grow lights. Grow lights, as amazing as they are, are basically heaters hung in our grow space. I would look at getting LED grow lights for a climate like we have here in the South. If you have never used LED grow lights you will be shocked at how well these lights perform. They are extremely powerful, super efficient, and the best part is they don’t put off any heat!

If you are an established indoor gardener and already have a great HID light setup but have difficulty running it during the summer, here are some tips that could save your harvest! First, start by running your lights after the sun goes down instead of during the heat of the day. You might also want to consider using a separate inline fan for just your grow lights, brining air from a cooler “lung room” over your hot lamps and then directly out of the grow space. All Sun System hoods have a double gasket built into their hoods so you never have to worry about hot air from the grow space entering the hoods and mixing with the cool air from the lung room. Lastly, I would consider bringing Co2 into your grow space. If you supplement Co2 it will take a lot of stress off of your plants having to cope with the heat.

One of the big problems from a hot grow space with hydroponics is root rot. The best solution for this is to get an inline chiller and hook it up to your recirculating hydroponic set up. This will keep your water cool and stop root rot in its tracks. We want to keep the water around 65-72F so root rot never becomes an issue, and the water holds more dissolved oxygen. However, if a chiller is not an option, then you would want to look at a product like Botanicare Hydroguard. This product is a beneficial strain of bacteria called Bacillus Amyloliquefaciens. The bacteria colonizes the rhizosphere and protects it from pathogens or poor growing conditions. Hydrogauard is a great value for what it does. I am sure both you and your pants will love it!

Don’t let the heat get your indoor grow room down. If you put some of these tips and tricks to use it should making growing in the Southeast a bit easier on you, giving you more time to enjoy the hobby of indoor gardening. Come on down to Fifth Season Gardening Co. and ask us how to beat the summer heat!