Hello everyone.
I just wanted to post results of heat levels and growth patterns I have seen with averages. Also mitigation techniques for higher temp vegging.
First "struggle"I had for a few years was running 5 tents in 1 big lungroom. Hotter lights. Average 90-95 for wèeks in Summer.
Mitigated with water and extreme circulation/air replacement.
EXPLOSIVE growth. I had jungles. Many older members have seen them. I cried like a little B about temps all the time.
Fixed lungroom. Dropped some tents. Sat on MAX 85. Averaged 83/70. Perfect? I dont think so folks. Plants shrank. Veg time increased. Jungles didnt just happen.
No changes but temps. 10° lower average.
Fast forward to today.
I am once again in high temps.
Changed locations. Garage setup. No climate mitigation but a swamp cooler, water and hella airflow.
Temps with cooler wide open into tent 94°. 99-101 when water runs out.
Ambient here is friggin 105. Heat index is feeling like 110.
The plants are exploding like back in my jungle days.
SUPER healthy. Stretching out. Explosive growth.
In summary,
I believe that our optimal indoor temps are off. I think mitigating the higher averages is easy and the plants prefer it.
Outdoor suffers much higher with wind and grow 12 feet high.
Just my thoughts from seeing the differences with long term growing in both environments.
Some pictures for the coloring book folks.
I like to run mine at 80 to 84 in veg, much faster growth. I do run cooler in flower, one to help preserve terps but mostly to prevent smells. I’ve found if I keep them at 70-72 I don’t have trouble with the filters hiding it completely, if I hit 80, whole yard smells like crazy! They do like it warm to grow though!
The avoidance of high temps are more geared toward the hydro growers since you need your water at cooler temps. Same with PH’ing. At some point they both got migrated into universal grow techniques. I screwed up a lot of plants trying to correct soil that didn’t need to be corrected. There was nothing wrong with them but I didn’t like the runoff PH so I caused a lot of damage trying to correct it while the soil buffers were doing exactly what they were meant to do.
I’m more interested in terpene production over simple high yields. Running at higher temperature is a concern for losing terpens.
Terpenes and trichomes are formed to PROTECT from heat correct? Wouldnt higher temps force more trichs? Have for me.
Stresses cause increased trich production, such as a deer or animal chewing on the plant, it will increase production to make them taste bad to the deer. I’ve found certain additives and light settings have had more effect for me than temps. Temps definitely affect smell, so there is definitely some proof that terps evaporate at higher temps. I’m sure humidity and several other factors have an effect too.
I grow hydro, with an aqua chiller set on 68, my grow room is very well insulated, running 3 exhaust vents out the top and 2 portable a/c units. My temps usually run mid to high 80’s. High humidity this time of year.
When I’m in veg everything is great, plants explode, about 4 weeks into flower I have to run a dehumidifier which exhausts into the grow room causing my temps to hit 90 to 92, and I usually get some foxtailing, which I believe is caused by stress of the heat.
To combat that I’ve just received a mini split, which I haven’t installed yet but will soon.
i know most of you all have more knowledge and experience than I do, but from what I’ve seen, high heat in mid to late flower hurts the finished product.
I agree high temps evaporate terps. Hence morning harvests. Terps and trichs form overnight, dissipate during day, reform at night.
I can see them being weaker after a day of sun. Why harvest in the evening knowing that terps and trichs are heaviest in morning?
This flower run for me will give more info for sure. Going to stay hot another month.
@TigerLilly posted this topic on my thread and woo doggie I’m glad they did. I’m gonna do first 2 month for the audio grow off in my garage. Attic temps gotta be 130+ here so that’s just outta the question. Garage it is, until cooler temps allow me to go to the attic for late fall thru early spring. I’ll put my ac on a pedestal and drain it into the water heater pan. Thanks for posting this!!!
lay the airflow on them my friend. Keep it moving and can get 100 and make it fine with extra water. Not nutes. Just water.
@Growdoc so I wonder if that’s why my TG is so frosty…. She got heavily frosty very early on.
She’s the one that nearly died when I went on vacation.. maybe that stress increase the trichome production
It’s absolutely possible. Hard to know what effect stresses may have until you try things on purpose and document results.
I think in veg they’ll be fine. I know in flower the temps gotta go down though or else it’s literally like popcorn. Just super fluffed, super loose buds. And worse, nanners.
Never ever had that issue. Even with grows 90 plus beginning to end. That I dont subscribe to with full sun plants.
Just me.
Mine was outside in a popup greenhouse. It was also middle of summer and would get like 110 heat index daily. Couldn’t keep a 5 gallon bag hydrated for squat.
Now that is a little hot..
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What additives do you think help? And how do you setup your light for more tricomes?
My lights run at 800-850 ppfd in veg after two weeks of 500, I go up a hundred a day until around 800, then when they are flipped, they get 1100 until 5 weeks, then I start backing down 30 minutes a week until week 7, last week they only get the red, fat red and uv at 600. I take them down to 10 hours on for the last one or two weeks. Silica, magnesium, and sulfur will all help trichs applied at the right time. I use the Dust I make, hoping to go to market with it by next year. There are no magic additives, but there are some that definitely help when the other needed techniques are applied with them. Stress is the biggest builder of trichs, again applied correctly and at the right time. @Dman1969 actually dropped a light on one of his and she frosted over like a windshield in January!
Think about the plant being in nature. Pots self defense mechanism is trich’s. It deters bugs and animals from eating it. When you supercrop you fool the plant. It thinks something is eating it and produces more trich’s to deter the critters from eating it. You can rip a few leaves off and it will help too. I hope I’m making some sense. 
