worried my plants will get COLD

something i didnt think about until i was having my morning smoke/meditation session that i live in the atic of my girlfriends house. it got so and gets soo cold in the winter. no heat makes it up here in the winter and all we use is this little space heater. this made me consider 24 hour veg. im sure temps got below 50F. wow i am really worried about this. the only thing ive some up with so far is like a heating pad??? idk what i can do to add heat when its dark. i never thought having to little heat would be the issue. and its not even like im using hot lights, i have 4, 3 and a half foot, long standard shop light length, grow tubes. and a few other grow tubes in some old aquarium hoods for the sides. they dont get very hot at all. im stumped guys all the help you can give me would be great i need something here or i think im definately down for the count. i mean yea colder temps can be good but my plants would die im sure of it. thanks a lot guys. happy smoking, tuneinTURNONdropout

The temp should not be a problem unless it gets below freezing for quite a while. The cold temps will turn stuff purple which does not affect quality but looks nice.

yea i heard you can get purplish and bluish tints from cold temps but i thought the minimum temp should be like 50F to 55F. i didnt know it could drop as low as freezing. thanks a lot

DR.Greentrees said:

yea i heard you can get purplish and bluish tints from cold temps but i thought the minimum temp should be like 50F to 55F. i didnt know it could drop as low as freezing. thanks a lot

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Last year my water bottles were freezing every night before I finished my harvest. None suffered any damage from the cold just from my limited growing skills.

You really shouldn't let your temps get much below 55 during the night cycle - freezing temperatures halt any growth in weed.

That being said, what kind of a setup do you have? Is it contained, i.e. a grow tent or a smallish room? If so, get a 250/400 watt HID and the heat from that should keep your plants fine - run the light cycle at night and the dark during the day to take advantage of the heat from the sun hitting the roof during the day (even in winter it shouldn't get THAT cold up there with the sun baking the roof).

Good luck.

youll prob have a drop in crop size but if you think of the plants that grow in the wild the night temp is always gona drop

i had a similar problem but not quite as extreme, i just but an electric blanket under the pots on a low setting, more because the water wasn't evaporating from the pots, plants are fine.

its a 4' high 8' long and 2' deep. this is cut into 2 parts. one 4 by 4 by 2 for veg. one 4 by 4 by 2 for flower. flowering room isnt set up yet since im dirt poor and well the veg room was difficult enough to come up with money for materials. its in the atic so it does get pretty cold. but me and my girl live up here i think i was just freaked out in my head a little before. i turned on the space heater today. and within 5 minutes i was sweating. given it isnt cold today but itd not hot either. i think when winter officially comes ill have to figure something out. it is enclosed. its not open on any side. im gonna be running 20 hours of light in my veg room too. i dont think the temp can go down that much that quick if my room stays about 85 - 88. and just like Sonder1984 said ill def be puttng a heating pad or 3 in there. thanks for all the input guys i appriciate it a lot. happy smoking. tuneinturnonDROPOUT!

Bob Smith said:

You really shouldn't let your temps get much below 55 during the night cycle - freezing temperatures halt any growth in weed.

That being said, what kind of a setup do you have? Is it contained, i.e. a grow tent or a smallish room? If so, get a 250/400 watt HID and the heat from that should keep your plants fine - run the light cycle at night and the dark during the day to take advantage of the heat from the sun hitting the roof during the day (even in winter it shouldn't get THAT cold up there with the sun baking the roof).

Good luck.

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I am not sure wher you got this information regarging 55 degrees. It does not sound that accurate to me. I also heard that photosynthesis cannot take place above 90 degrees and I can't believe that either. I know folks who have temps in the hundreds all summer (it was 110 yesterday there and 106 at my place) so I find that hard to believe as well. The freezing temps don't come until the end of the season anyway so the plants are budding and really don't seem to mind the cold temps. I was told that the cold temps will make the plants turn purple and that did seem to happen last year. As loing as it does not get way below freezing I do not believe there should be any problem. The Mazar-i-Sharif strain grows in mostly inhospitable climate in Afghanstan. They grow it until December or January even when there is snow on the ground and get up to a kilo or more of excellent weed. So the extended cold temperatures don't seem to hurt it.

Information is good! I hope someone else weighs in on this subject. I can't really do anything about the outside temps except water more when it is extra hot like the last week.

just had to post that i love your avatar dr. greentrees... LOL!!!! +1 for that...

Its funny that you have been suffering living there but now you are worried about heat. lol sorry I am just stoned and thinking too much

seriously. all summer me and my girl complain constantly to eachother about how hot it is up there. i never thought i would encounter a problem where i didnt have enough heat. always thought id be running out buying fans

get a heater..also i was told by a old timer that u really do not want much more then a 20 degree diff between lights off and lights on...

yea we have a little space heater for the room. just dont know how its gonna work since its not too cold yet. im hoping to keep temps between 67 and 87. and give some rep to that old timer cuz he is 100% right lol

dgk4life said:

get a heater..also i was told by a old timer that u really do not want much more then a 20 degree diff between lights off and lights on...

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I hear a lot of information on growing temps as well. Half of it is correct . I have also heard that plants will not grow in temps above 100 degrees but don't believe that either. Knowledge is good. If someone has a scientific source of knowledge on this subject I would like to see them chip in.

What is the high temp and low temp for photosynthesis?

Will a change of more than 20 degrees really hurt the growth?

If so does a 30 degree change slow the growth 10%, 90% or what?

What about a 50 degree nightly change for outdoor plants?