I have questions about CO2. I got to talking a with a customer at work (I’m the manager of the Lawn and Garden Department at LOWES) anyway, he recommended CO2. I’ve read some mixed reviews about the ready bags, bags you have to activate, and buckets. Have/Are any of you used/using them? Has it worked? Have you noticed a difference? Would you recommend it.
I’m curious to see if it will really make a difference. I have no doubt that CO2 is beneficial for our plants, but do the bags deliver what they say they will?
Alot of people i know dont care for the bags. Unless you are pushing your plants really really hard with lights and nutes you wont have a need for co2. Too much co2 is also damaging. Good air circulation/ventilation with a slight mild turbulance will freshen air enough. It also seems alot of people want to put co2 in flower tents where its less beneficial than in veg tents. It might be really beneficial in a veg tent with autos to make them veg faster to permit better topping or fimming. Just dont let ppms get too high(1300-1600) and close your ventilation to a loop so you might also need an air chiller.
Exhale bags are a waste of money. If you want to run co2 its a rather expensive setup. Ive seen multiple topics on this commented on by @dbrn32@MidwestGuy and @Myfriendis410 and they all said its not really worthwhile unless you just have the extra money to blow and already have the best of the best with all your grow equipment and everything dialed in like nutes, ppfd, and any other issues that may typically come up
I had a buddy who had a really nice co2 setup but somehow it was leaking into his house (he has a full basement grow) and he wasnt aware and later found out that he and his wife had been getting sick due to a co2 leak thru the walls and into the main house. If you get co2 make sure you have testing meters to test for leaks outside of the area your pumping into. They told him 1 more week and he would of been super sick from co2 poisoning and since then hes sold his system to someone else for his own safety
For CO2 to be effective you have to pair it with very high intensity light and need to push insane nutrient levels which means hydroponics. The environment has to be sealed and due to the heat generated, the space needs elaborate heat and humidity controls. It’s a highly technical grow method that a couple of members practice. @peachfuzz is one: he uses a generator in a sealed environment and pushes only during veg in two or three hour intervals.
I would strongly suggest that dialing in all other parameters first is going to be less of a pain than trying to set up CO2.
With that said; how much flower do you want on hand? If you tailor your grow to your demand you may find you need a lot less of everything to get where you want to go. For example; it’s just the wife and I and I run a home built grow space 4 X 8 with homemade lights and currently I’m sitting on 8 POUNDS of flower. I’ll never smoke all of that so most is given away. These hybridized strains are so potent that usually it’s one hit and done. I actually wish I had some lower potency flower that I could twist into a doobie and smoke but it’s simply too potent (and I’m pretty chronic).
Dial in the grow space, top-of-the-line lights, photoperiod instead of autos, run something like coco or peat with good nutrients and you’d be amazed at your yields.
Before I started using c02 my flowers will come out airy/fluffy with no crystals. Once I jumped on to c02 my flowers became dense and bigger ect. I only pulled off one good harvest with out c02 and it was an auto flower white widow from ilgm.
Thank you All for the advice, I think CO2 is something I don’t need. I’m doing very well without it. I Grow just for me, I grow for the fun of it, I find it relaxing, and I like growing what I want to smoke. Thank you all again, this has been very informative.
Here’s some pics of my girls just for fun.
I asked about it as well and ended up figuring it wasn’t worth it.
That said I did make a diy CO2 dispenser because I had the stuff to make it and it didn’t cost me anything and I figured some CO2 better than none. I doubt it makes any difference but I keep it cranking as high as I can which is I have no clue because I’m not buying a CO2 meter .
LOL I got you!! I thought maybe I’d try one of those CO2 in a bag and see how it goes. But after the overwhelming less than favorable reviews, it’s not worth it.
Make your own if you really want it. That’s what I did, a gallon milk jug, a liter water bottle ( both with twist on caps) 2 tubes ( either aquatic or I had vacuum lines from my power stroke lying around and used those). 1 line goes from milk jug to bottle of water and one from water bottle to fan. Sugar, yeast and water and voila. That’s the basics but you can Google it If you really want to try it. Like I said it cost me nothing because I had everything lying around but yea from what I’ve seen it would take like 4 exhale bags or equivalent to make any difference at all in a typical tent.
I tried a diy CO2 generator several years ago when I started growing again. It didn’t seem to make a difference. It was a waste of time and money. The comments above are good. It takes experience, money, and work to do it right.
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