cooling the roots: critique this idea

so i've been thinking about the difference between wild cannabis and indoor cannabis and i keep coming back to the fact that outdoor cannabis tolerates intense heat much better than indoor cannabis. it dawned on me that outdoor cannabis has a root system that is much cooler than the air temperature and indoor cannabis generally has a root temperature that is similar to the air. so i wondered how much cooler it was outside so i stumbled upon this website that shows the difference (unfortunately i have no idea where these readings were taken). http://www.duanesworld.net/duanesworld.net.sensors.htm it looks like the site updates daily but basically the outside temp was 82 degrees, 1 foot down the ground was 72 degrees, and after 9 feet down the temps were in the 50s. basically the seed germs in the upper dirt which is still warm, but then the roots grow down into the colder stuff. so i have decided to "cool my roots". my seedlings are a week old and their roots are established. i can find no contraptions made for this purpose so i was thinking a laptop pad or something. obviously i don't want to cool them to the 50s and i don't know how i could control this, but i am hellbent on trying this out unless someone can give me some good reasons about why it is stupid.

The roots act like the radiator of the car, also0 the other way round too as the plant warms the roots in the sun when the ground is too cold...

...if your growing hydro, you can get a res chiller.

are you new? cannabis likes warm roots.

skunksquirel said:

The roots act like the radiator of the car, also0 the other way round too as the plant warms the roots in the sun when the ground is too cold...

Click to expand...

does the plant warm the roots, or do the roots cool the plant?

mr.smileyface said:

are you new? cannabis likes warm roots.

Click to expand...

ya i'm new. how does cannabis like warm roots if the roots 1 foot below the surface of the ground are 72 degrees when the air temp is in the upper low 90s? (apparently that site updates on the hour, the air temp went up but not the ground) do roots not grow downward? who says cannabis likes warm roots?

edit: i should clarify i am not suggesting the roots be COLD, just cooler than the air temp, particularly when it's hot. example 85 degree air and 70 degree roots.

I'm testing an Undercurrent(rdwc). The solution is kept at 68* The room at 83*
I read some where that if the roots were kept cool the plant could tolerate higher temps.
So far, seems to be correct. The plants are doing a lot better than my soil less stadium next door. I attribute this to the Undercurrent, but there seems to be NO heat related stress so far. I'm 2 weeks into flower and all is well.
Fred

fred flintstoned said:

I'm testing an Undercurrent(rdwc). The solution is kept at 68* The room at 83*
I read some where that if the roots were kept cool the plant could tolerate higher temps.
So far, seems to be correct. The plants are doing a lot better than my soil less stadium next door. I attribute this to the Undercurrent, but there seems to be NO heat related stress so far. I'm 2 weeks into flower and all is well.
Fred

Click to expand...

this is exactly my theory. it's going to be more difficult to do since i grow in soil, but the principle remains the same. i am determined to make this happen.

mr.smileyface said:

are you new? cannabis likes warm roots.

Click to expand...

Nuh uh.

Heat speeds chemical activity and hastens nutrient uptake. I thought that was a fact?
This is why some strains dont do good outside. çlones need heat to root. I thought that was enough for you stoners to believe it. The roots dont lie.

mr.smileyface said:

Heat speeds chemical activity and hastens nutrient uptake. I thought that was a fact?
This is why some strains dont do good outside. çlones need heat to root. I thought that was enough for you stoners to believe it. The roots dont lie.

Click to expand...

this is correct, seeds and clones prefer warmer roots. it is natural for a seed to germinate in the upper soil which retains heat from the sun. once the plant is established and grows into the ground it is completely unnatural to have the roots at say 85 degrees. in an indoor soil setup the roots are essentially the same temerature as the air. if you can find me one spot on the earth where cannabis grows where you can dig down a foot or two and have the ground temperature be 85 degrees (or less than 7 degrees difference from the air) , i will drop it. just as there are layers of roots that prefer different moisture levels, i submit that there are levels of roots that perform better at different temperatures. the root temperature almost never changes, regardless of the air temperature, meaning that these "cool roots" at some parts of the year (spring and fall, imagine that) ARE actually warmer. i guess mother nature is retarded. she's been doing it wrong all along.

mr.smileyface said:

Heat speeds chemical activity and hastens nutrient uptake. I thought that was a fact?
This is why some strains dont do good outside. çlones need heat to root. I thought that was enough for you stoners to believe it. The roots dont lie.

Click to expand...

The only time that adding heat to your plants roots is beneficial is when germinating seeds and rooting clones. All other times, the point is to try to cool your roots. Consider:

Take two identical clones, put them outside in identical 5 gal black buckets with the same exact soil and then grow them exactly the same way, only take one of the buckets and paint the outside of it a nice flat white. The plant in the white bucket will outgrow the one in the black bucket EVERY SINGLE TIME because its roots are not under stress from excessive heat. Shit ill even do you one better - take a third clone, dig a 5 gallon hole in the ground and plant it there, and do everything else exactly the same. That plant will outgrow both container plants because the roots are much cooler and much more comfortable a foot underground.. Cannabis DOES NOT like its roots to be too hot, nor does it like its roots to be too cold. It just doesn't much care for extremes of either heat or cold. The idea here is that a plant's roots will not continue to grow once the ambient temperature is too high.

Note: Almost all my cannabis knowledge is based on years of growing outdoors in relatively hot Northern Cali...I have grown indoor before and I did have great success (with all my 5 gallon buckets painted white lol), but I am by no means an expert on growing indoors. If you are talking about indoor, then I apologize in advance, as I am not familiar with all the intricacies of that method growing and I could very well be wrong

Did you measure the temp of your soil yet? Mine definitely feels cooler than the air still but they are on the basement floor

your theory is rellavant imo

i can't believe i didn't think to paint my pots white. what an idiot. my soil is usually only about 2-5 degrees cooler than the room temp. i'm going to paint the pots white and see if it makes a difference. even 2 degrees would be worth it. in the near future i plan on building a table for the plants where the table surace would be level with the soil level and enclose the bottom and try to cool it somehow. my goal is to have the roots consistantly around 68-72 degrees, even if for some reason the room drops below this (dark period in the winter months). it's all about consistancy. in outdoor conditions the soil temp is the ONLY thing that is ever consistant.

Seems like alot of work for a plant with such a short life span.. but maybe who knows it could pay big dividends due to plant health. Make sure you post results

keep them as cool as u can. usually heat is your problem but they can get to cold. root temp for veg and flowering shoud be 65 degrees. shoot for that you can have about 10 degree fluctuation like 60 to 70 degrees. thats what i like to do check out air pots and smart pots they have pretty good temp control.

paint them white and mabe even use mylar or tin foil. divert the light energy.

one more thing to you get more colors on your babies if the soil temp is correct

This is a dead thread, but you get a better root ball with cooler roots. I've got a fan blowing right on my two plants pots and the flow moves from low to high in a reflective tunnel. I've constantly got a convection cooler on my plants and it seems to keep the roots happy and my top cola happy too with a CFL up her ass.

Definitely cool your roots if your plant is hot and warm your roots if your plant is freezing.