How To Keep Grow Tent cool? 10 Heat Buster Tips You Can Do Now To Control The Heat

It is summertime and the heat is rising to make it hard for us as humans to stand these new heat limits with the global warming affecting us all and our plants are not different. With the increasing heat plants require more protection from the growers and maybe more than ever or will be at risk of wasting all the growing efforts and risk the crop to be wasted. So how to keep grow tent cool?

Growers started to use grow tents especially for extreme conditions that the plants cannot survive such as the excess heat, but what happens when the grow tent itself is heated more than the plants can withstand?

Searching for the root cause of the heat would be the perfect start for the solution which will enable the growers of tackling these heat generators so they can eventually lower it down and control it within the acceptable levels. Speaking of the root causes of the heat in the plants can be divided into two main sections:

•         leaves temperature are affected by the air temperature, air movement, humidity and the proximity and the intensity of the grow lights.
•         Root temperature is affected by the grow medium temperature and the temperature of the nutrient solution.

What can we do to overcome the rising temperature inside the grow tent?

1.       Increase the air exchange: increase the capacity of the input and the extraction fans to have more hot air removed from the tent and more cold fresh air brought inside the tent. Also make sure to the output ducting outside the room where the grow tent is, to make sure that the vented out air will not be recycled again through the input fan. And the same with the input air it should be taken from the coolest place possible.
2.       Lower nutrient strength: when the heat increases plants will take more water but that means that will take more nutrients as well and this can cause toxicity issues, so reducing nutrients in the nutrient solution 20% by adding more water to the nutrient solution will prevent any possibility for toxication.
3.       Increase air movement: use an oscillating fan to move the air inside your grow tent especially the air between the grow light and plants. A good ventilation system will help circulate the cold input air in the grow tent and also elevate the hot air to be vented out of the grow tent.
4.       Increase humidity:  in case humidity drops below 50% in any stage you might want to use a humidifier to help increase the humidity as it has a cooling effect on the plants.
5.       Switch some lights off: when the heat increases try and switch some lights off especially the High-intensity discharge lights as they emit a lot of heat, you can also use the dimming feature which is available in some grow lights as it will decrease the amount of heat the light is putting off.

6.       use air-cooled reflectors: air-cooled hoods allow to remove up to 50% of the heat generated by the grow light, it uses the insulating ducting to vent out the heat generated from the light outside the tent.
7.       Run grow lights at night: it helps bring the temperature inside the grow tent lower as it is generally cooler at night than during the day, let alone the savings on the electricity bill.
8.       Use an air conditioner: using an air conditioner can be an alternative to the ventilation system who prefer to seal up the grow tent tight and switch on the AC. This also works in the heated areas where the ventilation would be so effective in removing the excess heat.
9.   Use CO2: increasing CO2 inside the grow tent can be a solution as it makes your plants withstand higher temperatures than in a normal atmosphere. Plants under elevated CO2 can withstand heat degrees up to 30 Celsius while in normal it is a maximum of 26 Celsius.
10.   Relocate grow tent: moving the grow tent to the coolest place available like a basement allows benefitting from the natural insulation the cool air available, also moving the grow tent near a window will provide a good ventilation option as it is used to vent out the hot air and also provide circulating air in the room itself which gives permeant access to fresh cool air to go inside the tent.

Growing during the hot season with the excessive heat levels can be challenging and if not following a strict routine to protect the plants and provide acceptable environment to grow it can expose the plants to all kinds of pathogens, diseases and crops loss. Luckily steps like these are available, applicable and affordable same as the tools required for it if any. Finally check out our environmental control section which will help control and provide the best environment within your garden.