co2, is it really worth it, and how much does it help?

Alright guys, im contemplating the use of co2 or not, is it really worth it and is the differenc in yeild extremely drastic? can you give me some examples? i.e. yeilded xxx before co2 and xxxx after co2? Also if you include what setup you used that would be great aswell. I think a thread like this would definately help the newer growers.

I personally do believe in co2 but i'd ike to hear some first hand stories from you guys. thanks!!

BUMP Someone help this discussion out!

it only helps if you havs a lot of plants
or a few big plants
the answer is yes and no
let me ask how many plants do you have
and how long do you plan on veging or how tall do you want them to be

I have a fully sealed co2 enriched grow its amazing if it wasnt for the co2 my first grow would have been avarage at best I have recorded growth rates of 6" per day and .95grm per watt for what its worth Id say co2 is a must. it doesnt make it easy just more productive I havent yet quantified my results with others who have simular set ups I dont know anyone who isnt just augmenting with co2 , I hope to get help here as well, my times are totally baked 12wk blooms in 10wk,8-10wk bloom no end attained, harvested at 11wk first grow 7 plants 3/4lbs ea. avarage but all at once alot of work. have a great grow

i havent used co2, although i know plants crave co2, unless your plants are in a well populated area that everyone creates co2 for the plants.
ive heard great things, so id recommend it. id like to get some myself

I've never used it before but am going balls out with a CO2 controller for my flowering tent - figure that even if I don't get the 20%+ increase in yields that you're supposed to get, even a 10% increase in yields covers the $1,000 worth of equipment.

Gotta figure all the people that use it can't be wrong, so I'm gonna give it a shot.

theres no point adding co2 untill you have optimum light and humidity. ive also been thinking of adding co2 (the cheap D.I.Y way.) ive read the "suger and yeast" method works pretty well, but you may need to rig-up a few bottles, and watch out for "Bugs". Although the advantages of added co2 cant be underestimated!

greenjambo said:

theres no point adding co2 untill you have optimum light and humidity. ive also been thinking of adding co2 (the cheap D.I.Y way.) ive read the "suger and yeast" method works pretty well, but you may need to rig-up a few bottles, and watch out for "Bugs". Although the advantages of added co2 cant be underestimated!

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Well I've got a 1K in a 4x4 tent and my controller will turn on the exhaust and intake fans if the RH or temp gets outta line, although with it being an unheated garage and my 1K being cooled by a dedicated 435CFM fan, I'm thinking that the tent may only be exhausted 3 or 4 times per 12 hour light on cycle.

I'm gonna try to rig it up so that if low temps ever become a problem, my fan cooling the 1K will shut off, thereby heating the tent up.

So temps should never really be a problem, and we'll have to see about humidity, but in the dry winter, I'm thinking that'll be okay as well.

co2 does many things it will buffer heat can grow at up to 95 deg. growth is amazing bugs dont like it rah rah rah keep your temp constant flucuation will cause plant to strech at alarming rates I was 80deg for 12hrs light and 60deg dark co2 enrichment follows 12/12 so veg is intentionally depleted for 6hrs stoma dont get too lazy in theory I must get going and please regaurd my info as a newbie

co2 is a blesssing in disguise 600w or better luighting and co2 is a must for nice buds ( i.e. thick and frosty ) without co2 youll get more airy buds ive notice at least a quarter oound differance with co2 on 9 plants so 18 will get ya about a half poound more... etc... do the math its pays for it self

Good question. I was wondering the same thing, as I am wanting to start a room with 20+ plants in the near future. I wont get into what im going to use because this isnt my thread. But I do want to ask where you can purchase a co2 setup and whats the best way to set it up?

Thanks for the reply guys, I believe a plant needs co2 to grow, , i wonder what would happen if you grew a plant in a sealed environment and only supplied oxygen, no co2. Would the plant die?

death would result

can somebody explain to me whats the best way t0 use co2,like can i have a co2 tank on a timer with a hose streched above my plants and holes in it and another timer that switches the fans off as the first one turns the co2 regulator on and couse its set to get the desired amount of co2 to fill the room in 3 minutes how long do i keep the fans off before turning them on meaning how long does it take the plants to soak it up so the room can resume to function normaly the ventilation and that.

Get a CO2 boost. Just set up your delivery system and plug it in to a timer. I won one and honestly I dont see all that great of results.

co2 boost are worthless maybe sufficent for a grow tent thats it and thats a maybe

At eBay $350 for ppm controller and $25 to $50 for the gauges/regulator and solenoid. Another $80 deposit/rental at the welding supply company plus $20 for gas. So $500. Quick pay back when you consider it incraeses growth anf turn around time,..Incraeses yield and lowers cooling costs. Plus it greatly reduces odor problems as you have to exhaust less air as your intaking less air. However as your talking a nearly sealed room a window air conditioner during the summer and a window air conditioner used in the grow room exhausting into the grow room as a dehumidifier in the winter greatly lowers the humidity problems. A 80 plus degree grow with carbon dioxide means huge amounts of water being transpired. Co2 is not just something that you can just add by itself though as if you raise one parameter the others must be usually raised also. Balance is balance. Ie more CO2 means higher amounts of: light, water, nutrients, dehumidification control and usually a better handle on lowered temperature flucuations between night and day.

thanx all!!!!! been reading this and it help my questions out! but does that yeast and sugar really werk???..

yeast and sugar works but if u want co2 to def. work to its full potential u have to have a average of 1800 -2000 ppm constant!

I added CO2 augmentation to my set up a couple of grows back. I don't have any hard and fast quantatative data but I'm sure it made a noticable improvement.

I pay $52 for a 50# cylinder of CO2 from the local welding store. The full tank actually weighs 102#s so it's a little bit of a pain in the ass to move. On the plus side I don't have to go get a refill as often. You can get smaller ones. The welding store charges $7.50/month rent on the bottle. If you need a cover story for when you go to the welding supply store to set up your account you can tell them that you recently got a small MIG welder and you're setting up in your garage to do some arsty crafty hobby welding. Just play act like you're a newbie to welding and are trying to get set up and learn it for hobby purposes.

I pretty much have a DIY controller set up that consists of a solenoid valve out of an old welding machine a standard flowmeter for welding I already had in my pile and a $10 dollar electrical timer from WallMart. I've also got my tank set on a cheap bathroom scale I got at WallMart so I can monitor how much I'm adding to the room. Welding flowmeters are not calibrated for very low flow rates and it's hard to set them accuratley for flows under 5 cfh. It took me a couple of days watching how much the tank weight went down to get mine set where I wanted it. One pound of liquid CO2 (which is what's in the tank) will give off 8.7 cubic feet of gaseous CO2. Then it's just a matter of figuring your grow room's volume and using some simple formulas to figure out how much you need to add and how often.

Sure it would be nice to spend a lot of money and get the latest high tech set up for doing all this but that's not what I got. Besides you don't want to get in the habbit of doing everything the easy way. That path is definetly a slippery slope straight into hell. My grow room set up is pretty much a lashed together Rube Goldberg affair that contains a lot of Scottish American Engineering (in other words I'm cheap and have trouble parting with a dollar if I can figure out an acceptable work around).

During the summer months I've got to vent some heat from my space so I have my vent fan set up on a timer to come on every so often. Typically during the hottest months this would be for a half hour every 2 hours but this keeps slowly changing depending on the season. It's been below freezing here the last couple of days so I haven't had to run it near as much. I always try to run it at least a hour or two a day just to flush the room. I've got another timer that the selenoid that controls the CO2 is plug into. I've got this synced up with the vent fan timer so that it gives the room a fresh squirt of CO2 right after the vent fan shuts off and at other regular intervals. Typically my CO2 runs for 15 minutes every two hours during the light period at a flow rate of what I'm guesing is some where between 1 and 2 cubic feet per hour. I've got the piece of aqurium tubing that carries the CO2 from the flowmeter attached to the back side of an oscillating fan so that it distributes it around the room.

I haven't rechecked my calculations lately but things seem to be going well and I'm right at the end of a grow cycle any way. I will be revisiting my numbers before the start of the next grow and probably be making some tweaks based on how much CO2 I've used on the current grow. My notes tell me that I hooked up a new tank on August 17 (18 days after switching to 12/12 to start forcing) and the bathroom scale tells me that since then I've used 21 lbs. of liquid CO2. Now it's just a matter of playing with the calculator a little bit to try and get an idea of what my average ppm has probably been.

Even if you don't get this CO2 thing exactly right according to all the supposed growing experts out there (and their oft times conflicting opinions) it's my opinion that some extra CO2 helps and certainly can't hurt anything. As to whether or not it's worth the added expense its difficult to say. There's a lot of other factors involved that if you don't have right (or close) no amount of CO2 will help out. I know there's people out there who are growing much better and higher yielding crops than I with out using it. Based on my experience so far (and the fact that I've got a system for it set up now) I'll probably continue to use it.

Jack

"Nothing is fool proof to a sufficently talented fool."