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Heat is killing my seedlings!


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Howdie all.

 

My first grow was relatively successful after some help from you wonderful bunch of people, now I request some more!

 

I grow in soil, and due to living arrangements have absolutely no where to grow except in a shed. I grow in soil using a HPS 600W light.

 

I have been trying to start seedlings and the hot days in Perth are finishing them off very early on. I want to know how to get them to survive, as I have had a very hard time getting seeds and have wasted many at this point.

 

I have tried to brainstorm and figured maybe starting them off indoors may help. I would have to start them in small punnets or similar, and I'm sure that would help get them going.

 

So 2 questions.

 

1. If I go and buy a couple of small desk lights from office works or similar, will that be enough to get them through the seedling stage? Apprentice wages makes anything better very hard to afford, and I have already spent a fair bit on the HPS setup.

 

2. If I can get them established and with a few roots indoors, will they be able to survive the 40degree days in the shed? Obviously on those days I will try and have it watered around midday and have a fan blowing on it to circulate air a bit. I know watering daily is bad but in this heat I can only see it being beneficial.

 

Well, I guess there's a third question :P

 

3. Do any of you in a similar situation have any other suggestions that could help me stop wasting seeds?

 

Thanks so much in advance for the help I'm sure you will provide! :)

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Hi Polony,

You might want to go have a look at cannaversity, but here is my advice anyway.

 

Q1. If I go and buy a couple of small desk lights from office works or similar, will that be enough to get them through the seedling stage? Apprentice wages makes anything better very hard to afford, and I have already spent a fair bit on the HPS setup.

A1. Don't piss around with desk lamps. Some of them heat up really badly and aren't meant to be left on for any great length of time. Go get yourself a 2ft fluro batten. You'll be able to use it for years.Mine was real cheap like $50 but I had to put a plug on it

 

Q2. If I can get them established and with a few roots indoors, will they be able to survive the 40degree days in the shed? Obviously on those days I will try and have it watered around midday and have a fan blowing on it to circulate air a bit. I know watering daily is bad but in this heat I can only see it being beneficial.

A2.How are you germinating your seeds? what is your medium prior to HPS?. What do you mean by a few roots?. Here's a bit of a rule you want at least 2-3 sets of leaves fully formed prior to HID lights from seed to be safe. They say that whatever growth is above the soil is equal to the growth below the soil. When you say you use soil. Is it a mix of potting mix and soil or just straight soil. Some potting mixes have wetting agents to retain moisture and work fairly well, reducing the need for constant watering

 

Q3. Other ideas.

A3. Now this all depends on the questions I asked in A2. From the seed how are you germinating them? I found that a saucer with papertowel or cottonwool soaked in water allows the bean to crack. From there I transfer the seed into a fine potting mix. I have an old esky that the lid flew off of driving down the road I place the pots in the esky and place the fluro on top keeping them moist with water but with no nutrient (youngsters are easily burnt by nutes). Now I allow them to grow and strengthen I place an oscillating fan blowing above them once the first shade leaves have developed. The movement of the air stabilizes and strengthens the growth. I try to keep the youngsters in the esky in the house where they will be coolest. Once I have the 3rd set of shade leaves I transfer them to my room medium, in my case being perlite, I have the lights way up high keeping the heat away from them and allowing them to acclimatise to the new environment. When new growth can be seen I lower the lights, but still being aware of the heat so not too close.

And away you go.

Now this is what I used to do when I was using seed but now I have a mother and don't need to bother. But I'm also in a shed with temp concerns. Are your fans on timers? If so make the intervals smaller or remove them all together, that's what I did just took the timers out the more air flow the more heat exchange. Your intake should be down low where the air is coolest and exhaust up high as the hot air in your room will rise.

Others will have other ideas

 

Merl1n

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Heya Polony, Simple answer....... it's too hot in the shed. It's 40c outside and will be for weeks. So ya sheds gonna be 10 degrees EASY above that.

Wait till the weather comes down into the low 20's and grow then, with ya lights on at night.

Nothing worse than fighting temps over here. I have a veg cabinet inside my house and yesterday that was at 38C at 8pm at night with a good fan set up with just a 130W CFL light, so ya got buckleys in the shed mate.

Just wait, I shut down every summer, I tried a few times to butt heads with the heat, just ends in hearet break or low yields.

Peace. Gh72

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definately go with what grasshopper said, its too freeking hot in the shed id wait, for the temps to drop, perfect grow temp is 28, so have a read in the cannaverity section, i did , the information is priceless..enjoy your hobbie, but dont fight the heat, you will lose every time..

 

stay stoney and enjoy life..

 

sirvape.. B)

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yep agree mate use flouros for seedling, cheap as chips to get second hand, also throw in a few small fans,

oen set to blow air at the 600w bulb, this will cool the lamp and push the heat away from the seedlings,

then in case some heat is seeping down set your other small fan to blow down on the seedlings (slow

setting)

 

Other thing is that you need to have some outlet for the hot air. your fans will be pushing the heat around

but you need it to escape somewhere so create some vents and keep em open while the heats so high

 

This should drop your temp considerably with min cost although really you cant beat extraction fans

to really suck all that heat out and blow it outside... but it comes down to cost and what you can

afford to do, end of the day whatever you do that reduces the heat is a good start!

 

Hope that helps

 

Benny

Edited by bonzaseeds
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hi

 

merl1n's top reply was excerlant advice - listen to the adavice on the fluro lighting as its your lifetime investment that will pay itself off in -notime providing you with fresh healthy seedlings - to keep mothers (keepers) and most importantly when and/or you turn to "cloning" there is nothing better than rooting cuts with fluro's ands you can forget the seed and the whole germination process.

 

I can recommend a set of twin 18" fishtank lighting - my choice and for the serious fluro grower it got to be Racks of T5's

 

I'm sure that merl1n's great reply helped - i'm sure it did !

 

As for the shed as a prospect - too issues apart from heat is

 

- light proofing for inducing flowering

 

- odor control (if needed)

 

Grow well !

:yinyang:

Nitty.

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