What's the maximum outside temperature for a successful indoor grow?

Hi all,
I am wondering if I should bother starting an indoor plant with outdoor temps in the mid 70's during mid-day?
Should I just wait till autumn?
Thanks!
Sammy
 
That should be managable. I dont bloom indoors in the summer but it was 82 at midnight the past two days and the humidity gets up into the 80% regularly.
Holy smokes! 82 at midnight!!? Thanks for the input! I'm so excited to see if this GSC from HSC takes off like the beast they claim it will be ;) As I now only have 5 vertical feet to work with, I predict their will be some big-time supercropping :)
I don't think the temps will hit anything above 75 here.
---> the most important question for someone in my climate is probably "of the 18/6, which hours of the day will we utilize to keep grow-tent temps as low as possible."
----> I'm thinking of running the light from 5pm to 11am.
_____________________________________________________ anyone else in my situation? Or have been in the past?____________________________
 
Last edited:

Farmer's Hat

Well-Known Member
I harvested 12 plants every month, for many years. Had 4 lights, split the cycle in half so that I was harvesting every 4 weeks. During the summer I ran a portable AC 24/7. It helped keep the room at perfect temp. Costs go up, obviously, but its not as bad as you might think.
 

VaSmile

Well-Known Member
Best temps for veg are low 80's and upper 70's for bloom. Your lights will produce a decent amount of heat even LEDs. If you can vent outside your tent should stay just a few degrees warmer then your lung room. If you vent into your room the temps of your tent and room will balence to equalibrium. The the question to ask is how good is your hvac and are you willing to use extra climate control dedicated to your grow
 
I harvested 12 plants every month, for many years. Had 4 lights, split the cycle in half so that I was harvesting every 4 weeks. During the summer I ran a portable AC 24/7. It helped keep the room at perfect temp. Costs go up, obviously, but its not as bad as you might think.
I will look into these mini AC machines! Thanks!!!
 
Best temps for veg are low 80's and upper 70's for bloom. Your lights will produce a decent amount of heat even LEDs. If you can vent outside your tent should stay just a few degrees warmer then your lung room. If you vent into your room the temps of your tent and room will balence to equalibrium. The the question to ask is how good is your hvac and are you willing to use extra climate control dedicated to your grow
Hey VaSmile!
I have zero AC lol. Now, I only grow one plant at a time, so of course I will only prob go so far towards perfect climate control...but when you consider how much you can harvest from one SCROG'd plant :) ...it could very well be worth a cheap mini AC machine.
 

VaSmile

Well-Known Member
Hey VaSmile!
I have zero AC lol. Now, I only grow one plant at a time, so of course I will only prob go so far towards perfect climate control...but when you consider how much you can harvest from one SCROG'd plant :) ...it could very well be worth a cheap mini AC machine.
You can probably get by without one. If your day time temps are mid 70s thats fine for lights off. Im going to assume ambiemt temps at night are mid 50s your light will double as a heater for your tent and raise your lights on temps where they need to be. More likely to need a heater in the cold months. I dont run any climate control dedicated to my grow. I got a decent hvac and adjust my lights and fans to get my temps and rh% into a safe range. Temps in the 60s will slow growth a bit but wont harm the plants 90f is unlikely to cause heat stress if its just for a couple hrs a day during the middle of the light cycle.
The energy use of most ac or heat units is more then what your lights and fans use. Dehumidifiers pull a good amount too.
 
Interesting! I hadn't considered that my dehumidifier was a large energy draw. Of course with only one plant, everything I'm using is relatively small, including my dehumidifier, but that is god to know! I did notice last grow that it sure heats the tent up a lot. Must be nice to have one that sits outside the tent with a hose of some type inserted into the tent.
Thanks VaSmile! Your information has me thinkin about growing a plant :) Sure am curious about what the GSC from HSC will look like!
It will be my first non-hydro grow. I will use Fox Farm Happy Frog and Ocean Forest, or at least that's the current plan. Will be great to finally be able to do the SCROG method. Hydro made that next to impossible.
Sammy
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
I grow in the Mojave Desert indoors and I did not use A/C in my house. You can't keep the humidity up. My grow survived because my humidity was 20% or less. I also shut down my lights when my canopy measured 105. So growing within the VPD is out. You won't get beauty queen plants in the summer here. So that's when I run most of my seeds tables. But from the clones I've grown both in high temp/low humidity or within VPD parameter the only difference I noted was that my harvest was reduced by a small amount since my buds went a little more airy.

I also kept a fan or two blowing hard on them so there was no chance of any spot heat build up. Hope that helps.
 

curious2garden

Well-Known Mod
Staff member
Hey VaSmile!
I have zero AC lol. Now, I only grow one plant at a time, so of course I will only prob go so far towards perfect climate control...but when you consider how much you can harvest from one SCROG'd plant :) ...it could very well be worth a cheap mini AC machine.
My 14K mini wasn't enough for one room. Depends on your environment. I'm currently trying to finish up a 27k minisplit
 

VaSmile

Well-Known Member
I grow in the Mojave Desert indoors and I did not use A/C in my house. You can't keep the humidity up. My grow survived because my humidity was 20% or less. I also shut down my lights when my canopy measured 105.
Whole moley i go into damage control at 90F
Is anything other DWC an option for you? How much water dose it take to keep them happy in that kinda dry heat?
 

VaSmile

Well-Known Member
It will be my first non-hydro grow. I will use Fox Farm Happy Frog and Ocean Forest, or at least that's the current plan. Will be great to finally be able to do the SCROG method. Hydro made that next to impossible.
Sammy
I have always used soil. Gonna dip my toes into DWC this winter. Hope we can pick each others brains for succsesfull transitions
 

natureboygrower

Well-Known Member
Holy smokes! 82 at midnight!!? Thanks for the input! I'm so excited to see if this GSC from HSC takes off like the beast they claim it will be ;) As I now only have 5 vertical feet to work with, I predict their will be some big-time supercropping :)
I don't think the temps will hit anything above 75 here.
---> the most important question for someone in my climate is probably "of the 18/6, which hours of the day will we utilize to keep grow-tent temps as low as possible."
----> I'm thinking of running the light from 5pm to 11am.
_____________________________________________________ anyone else in my situation? Or have been in the past?____________________________
Run your lights at night like you mentioned. They will be fine. Just make sure to have plenty of fans and ventilation. Defoliating your lowers will also help
 
I should mention that my grow room was a separate building. How big is your grow tent? There might be a simpler solution than running an AC unit.
I will be using a 2x4x5ft tall tent which itself sits in a 5x5x6.6ft tall tent which lays on its side (ceiling was too low I learned while setting up tent, lol). both tents have their own inline fan/charcoal filter which allows me to open up the smaller tent to work on the plant, then zip the tent back up and allow the fan/filter in the larger tent to clean the smell before I open up the larger tent to exit the area. I generally only turn on the fan in the bigger tent for the brief period of time spent working on the plant and about 10 minutes after I have zipped up the smaller tent.
 
Top