How bad is low Humidity?...

Hey folks...

I have my set-up in my basement in the laundry room. In the summer the humidity is fine, however in the winter its always low. Unfortunately I have a weak breaker box or something because if i try and add anything else like a fuse will blow. I have the important stuff like my lights, heater, and fan but anything more will blow the fuse... My question is would it be fine to grow with the humidity level around 20% or will it cause the plants to lack luster?

Veg stage will slow with so low RH but they will grow, just incredibly slow, if nothing else put some buckets of water out, not great but better then nothing, ultimately you should get a humidifier for winter months and if your in a basement you will probably need a dehumidifier in the summer when you buds are plumping up. Bring in an electrician to move some things around, add a circuit or increase your breaker size.

Extension cord from a different circuit? 20% is too low imo

iPerculate said:

Extension cord from a different circuit? 20% is too low imo

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They seem to be growing slow. Ill have to invest in a humidifier.

A NON PURCHASE way to humidify ( especially a tent ) ... I place a shallow Tupperware dish with water ... As it evaporates it humidifies . Cheap simple .

@Ghost of Davy Jones,
Where I live, we have like 15-30% humidity all year and the plants suffer a little, but I have found that if I use silica it takes care of most of the issues. Then again I am not growing for profit, only personal use so my expectations on grow yield seem to be considerably lower than most "for profit" growers.

Budzbuddha said:

A NON PURCHASE way to humidify ( especially a tent ) ... I place a shallow Tupperware dish with water ... As it evaporates it humidifies . Cheap simple .

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Heh, cheap, simple and ineffective for the most part. For all the hassle, it raised my tents RH by 3% tops.

Ghost of Davy Jones said:

They seem to be growing slow. Ill have to invest in a humidifier.

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Low RH doesn't cause slow growth. Some have it that low humidity is fine in that it causes the leaves to produce more resins as a countermeasure. I'd explore other possibilities if it were my grow. Countries that produce execellent hashish have desert like humidity.

grassy007 said:

Heh, cheap, simple and ineffective for the most part. For all the hassle, it raised my tents RH by 3% tops.

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You must have done something wrong .....

I added an 11% difference in my 3x3 .... And if I add another so on and so forth ..

No magic involved

I like your easygoing attitude about your grow! Me, I obsess over making my grow as perfect as possible. That being said, I’d never grow in those conditions.

Check out the video in this link. Read the article too if you’re up for it. http://www.just4growers.com/stream/temperature-humidity-and-c02/vapor-pressure-deficit-the-hidden-force-on-your-plants.aspx

In reply to Budz...I've done that method and did one better. Your containers are incapable of evaporating water very fast. They're too deep. I used more shallow drain pans so the water would evaporate out faster. It still got me minimal results. I honestly can't see how you got those improvements in humidity using such small and deep water containers. Are you sure your local climate didn't rise in humidity at about the same time? No offense, but really, lol.

BTW, I have the same meter as you. I didn't see more than 3% rise in RH with all the hassle of filling water pans each day. I'm saying, don't expect drastic results increasing humidity the passive way. Unless of course, you have a setup with 3 fans blowing over cloth material soaking water up from 3 five gallon buckets.

I do what Budzbudda does but I did invest in a dehumidifier for flower.

grassy007 said:

Low RH doesn't cause slow growth. Some have it that low humidity is fine in that it causes the leaves to produce more resins as a countermeasure. I'd explore other possibilities if it were my grow. Countries that produce execellent hashish have desert like humidity.

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I somewhat agree with this and will say.

That yes you can grow in low humidity you just have to tune yoyr nutrients to match the water uptake needs of the plant.

I agree dry conditions can seem to increase crystal production.

plants will adapt to low rh

Consistency is more important than hitting any one threshold environmental parameter.
What you don't want are large swings.

ANC said:

Consistency is more important than hitting any one threshold environmental parameter.
.

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That can't hurt, at all, for optimum results. I've been within reason so far, but still struggle with inconsistencies. Still working on that after 2 stealth grows. Getting there for optimum results, I believe. I learned tons with just two grows.