fluctuating temps?

hi all,

i'm growing indoors in an un-heated part of the house.

when my lamp is on my temps are real good i think. between 70-80.

but when the lights go off it drops quite a bit.

what will this do to my plants?

stunt growth. i have a heater in there now, but don't want to use it much as it's 1000w of power!

im in the uk so temps are going to get low....

my stems are going purple, some all over, some have stripes.

will my plants go purple?

thanks in advance for any info

I think you want to maintain fairly consistent temps to avoid stressing your plants. You could look for a smaller heater, that draws less power. Get one with a thermostat so you can set it and forget it. Be careful though, some crappy ones that sya they have a thermostat...well I think it's just basically on some kind of delay because it still kicks on when its warm.

Purple stems are a sign of cold roots,which will slow down growth.If your growing in pots,you need to insulate,you could buy some heat mats and tape them around your pots.Or if your using a resevoir,buy a submersible reservoir heater.

OK, thanks for the responses guys!

i'll work on keeping them more constant.

A thousand watt heater is very low for a heater you'll be hard pressed to get much lower. Temps are a very important factor. You first need to get a accurate thermometer for the room. I have one with a remote I can monitor from the other side of the house. The temps from coldest part to the warmest time should be around 20 degrees difference. If your nights are real cold you should run your light at that time to help with the heating of the area. Hope this helps

thanks wwgrower

yea, i have my light on overnight because of the temps and also security reasons. paranoid it'll set of fire, haha.

should be insulating and such soon so hopefully it'll be sorted.

i'll keep you posted though