how cold is too cold?? +rep

i have a tin shed grow the girls wake at 3pm and go to sleep at 9 am at night its been starting to get cold thats why i made it day at night for temps but still somtimes its in the sixties they seem ok rirht now but its only gunna get colder so how cold is too cold

I am dealing with the same issue...
If you go below 70 you will see slow growth...
Space heater? or ummm
Heat mats, my local hydro shop has them and they work great to keep roots warm.

Or if your going ghetto: Wrap a heating blanket in thick garbage bags and wrap em up.

I read many commercial grows keep the temp at 57F. As long as it doesn't reach below 32 your plants should survive. These lower temperatures will, however, lock the nutrients in the soil. If you're concerned about a frost, perhaps you should consider putting in a heater. Happy growing.

Keep in mind most space heaters use about 400watts on a low setting, and a general radiant heater uses 1500watts...

So keep that in mind power wise...

so im trying to keep the roots warm?/??????

+rep is way too cold.

dude in nature temps vary from hour to hour but the growth will slow down under 48 degrees .If it gose under 40 you might have a problem with frost.

i use propane tank with propane heater attached ...i also cover all walls with insulation...2 400wcfls..nd it works great

is it the roots i need to keep warm????

The room your heating in general. But say a near frost was to come, your roots are more venerable.

my box goes from 65 to 75 in the winter but i really dont see any slow growth. personally if my temp went below 60 i would be worried about slow growth. i like to keep that 10 degree difference between day and night. i always make sure my light is on in the coldest part of the 24 hour day. peace.

pickleman said:

so im trying to keep the roots warm?/??????

Click to expand...

Im dealing with the same issue.
I bought some sheets of 2ft by 4 ft Styrofoam sheets @ lowes for 12 bucks.
I have them stapled under the panda lining my floor and the ceiling ..the room is air tight so it holds the heat in my room until i vent it.works pretty well.
lowes also has some floor mat heaters.
I have never seen or used them but looks like it could be promising.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productList&N=4294961544&Ne=4294967294&Ntk=i_products&Ntt=heating+mat

me too im adding the insulation as we speak but im in a 6x8 tin shed so im dealing with condensation too. hope the foam does the job

pickleman said:

me too im adding the insulation as we speak but im in a 6x8 tin shed so im dealing with condensation too. hope the foam does the job

Click to expand...

is it cold out where u r ?
It snowed 4 inches here last night lol.
condensation is a bitch.
I had my light intake pipe sealed against a window outside sucking cold air.
after 3 minutes with the lights on the intake pipe and fan was dripping a ton of water from condensation on to my floor.
The inside of the system was bone dry.
just on the outside of EVERYTHING was wet..
who said this was easy?

Meeeeeeeee.....haha..noobss

if the temp is too high or too low it can slow growth. but there could be other issue's along with the temp causing slow growth also. its all about trial and error. you have to make sure everything is as close to perfect as you can get it. i hope its just the temp giving ya troubles and not something else. just make sure and check, it could be something thats easy to fix. i have 10 fems right now that are 12/12 from seed that are only 4 inches tall and 2 weeks into flower. but i know they will only get about a foot tall because of how i grew them. good luck to ya. peace.

Ok, i'm not an expert so i can't answer your question about whether it's more important to keep the roots warm as if it's more important than keeping the rest of the plants warm.

I can tell you a few things that I DO KNOW. That is first of all, you should use some kind of styrofoam or (polystyrene?) to insulate your pots from the cold ground to help keep them from cold temps. #2 the ideal temp for growing is between 70-75 degrees Farenheit. That is "ideal" & not what is required. I know over 90 will fry your plants. I am not very familiar with what is too low. But if you want to do well, then you don't want to approach what is too low or what is too high (90 F). Since you are growing in an outdoor shed then too hight wont be a problem in the winter months. So you need to worry about getting too cold. This can actually be a blessing in disguise. I say this because you can take care of your cold problem & help your plants @ the same time. You do this by heating your shed with a Propane heater. If you do some research about indoor grows you will realize that typically hight temps are the problem as opposed to cold temps. Also you will learn that CO2 supplementation is VERY good for plant growth. In very large grow operations CO2 generators are used. In small operations CO2 tanks are used. Anyways, a CO2 generator is essentially a propane or natural gas heater. But since heat is a problem for most grow rooms these CO2 generators are propane heaters optimized for maximum CO2 with minimum heat. Well in your situation (@ least thru the cold months) a regular propane heater will produce CO2 which will be a HUGE benefit for you plants & it will produce heat which you need to reach ideal growing temps.

Basically I say Get a good propane heater. You can keep you plants @ a healthy temp & @ the same time be giving them an awesome CO2 boost. It's win/win. & it will be well worth the money you spend on propane as long as you plan on doing this more than once.