Grow Room Too Hot, Plants wilting.

I just installed a 600w HPS because I'm going to start flowering. Came back after install about 4 hours later and room was significantly hotter. Don't have a thermometer yet(anyone have any suggestions), and my bushier plant and my smalled plant had major leaf witling. No browning or burn marks, just very flimsy droopy leaves. I quickly propped the closet door open and turned the room air conditioner on.
My questions are:
Will the wilting leaves be okay if the temp drops?

Can I leave the door on the room adjarded durning the light hours with no ill effects? The whole room and door and pots are mylar'ed and its still quite bright in the room.

Any solutions for keeping the closet cooler? All i can think of is buy a cheap door and cut some holes for vents in it. I currently have just a big 20 inch fan blowing at an angle in the room. Was never a problem when I had just the flouros on it. don't want my babies to die, they've come so far.

i think the plant will be ok but really it all depends on how high the temp got. i'd say over 95 degrees and you can easily kill a seedling. i think if it continues to wilt more after the temps are down the plant is probably dying. i wouldnt try to cool them down to quickly either or you may stress them out and/or kill them.

They're not seedlings they are a good 12" tall. I was just about to begin flowering.

they will probably be alright then. unless their getting worse.

its been to soon to notice any difference? will it be okay to leave the door cracked? Also should I water or mist them to help rehydrate them. I transplanted today and watered them.

if you replanted today and watered plus the heat they me be a little stressed. i would just keep the temps down and leave them be for a few days.

hey depending on your budget here is an idea..buy a cheap door like you mentioned earlier and get u one of those really small air conditioners..like under $100 at lowes then cut out the door to fit that and that way you can keep constant temps..but I guess that all depends on how stealthy you have to be and budget...what strains are you growing?

its bag seed so I have no idea. I'll take some pictures for a grow journal soon for everyone. Its my first grow obviously so I've been really trying to learn as much as possible. I was thinking the cheap door idea but i realized that the door is in a really old house and probably isn't standard sizing. Do anyone think that a bathroom exhaust fan would work if I put a piece of MDF instead of a door? and have a hole cut at the bottom for my 20" fan?

just found this bad boy.
6 In. 110VAC 250CFM In-Line Duct Fan - 3011 at The Home Depot

Can I wire this thing straight to a plug and plug it into an outlet? This would deff. solve my problems. just have this suck the air out right by the light to the top of the door and have a little hole cut in the bottom as passive air intake..? would that work?

No thermometer and/or hydrometer in the room?
Bad Doug! bad Doug!

Fix the heat!. Whats your room? If a closet/cabinet then you pretty much *have* to get a sealed air cooled hood/cooltube (fresh air in, an out of the room)

Footnote and gripe: I see SO many people bash the CFLs with cost being a big factor. "You could get a 400HPS for less then that!" But the caveat of this is that if its a closet or cabinet, you can't get the socket and batwing.
You need the cooled hood, ducting and fan. Now you are a lot closer to the $400 mark.

Ok, off the soap box, sorry.

You do keep the ballast outside of the room, yes?

For a thermo/hydrometer, I'm lazy and like info at my fingertips. So I got an indoor/outdoor digital. Its a 2 zone. Stuff the remote in the grow room, sit the base station on an end table and I'm done. Can monitor it from the living room while watching House. I think it was like $30 from Walmart.

Plants will bounce back fine once temp drops as long as its soon.

Cheap? The door idea will work. But keep in mind that the cheap doors are hollow, so a hole at the top and the hole at the bottom are internally connected. (a can of Great Stuff foam insulation will fix that. but remember it expands a LOT.

DougBenson said:

I just installed a 600w HPS because I'm going to start flowering. Came back after install about 4 hours later and room was significantly hotter. Don't have a thermometer yet(anyone have any suggestions), and my bushier plant and my smalled plant had major leaf witling. No browning or burn marks, just very flimsy droopy leaves. I quickly propped the closet door open and turned the room air conditioner on.
My questions are:
Will the wilting leaves be okay if the temp drops?

Can I leave the door on the room adjarded durning the light hours with no ill effects? The whole room and door and pots are mylar'ed and its still quite bright in the room.

Any solutions for keeping the closet cooler? All i can think of is buy a cheap door and cut some holes for vents in it. I currently have just a big 20 inch fan blowing at an angle in the room. Was never a problem when I had just the flouros on it. don't want my babies to die, they've come so far.

Click to expand...

oops. no the ballast is in the room. Does it give off significat heat? If I remove it and run that fan that a posted with a duct to my hood (no cool tube) will that be okay. I found these great accordian doors for $25. Which will work I think because they arn't insulated at all so it will also let radiant heat pass through.

yeah I would try to get the ballast out of the room cause it can put off quite a bit of heat..that accordian door would probably work but you dont want it so thin that it lets light in if you plan on using the light in the room itself..you will want close to complete darkness when your lights are off so i would check on that first before buying it..

okay so i just installed 2 160CFM in a 2x4x10 room, one for exhaust and one for intake. i ran the vent for the exhaust to be right by the opening of the hood to get the hottest air. Its still going upwards of 90-91degrees. I used a 1/4 plywood door instead of the accordian door. the room that its getting ventted to was 73degrees. anyone have any idea. also the room temp after light is off drops to like 75 is 18/6 of 90-91 / 72-75 really bad for the plants? they are a week from flowering. any suggestions

no one knows? any help would well....help.

DougBenson said:

okay so i just installed 2 160CFM in a 2x4x10 room, one for exhaust and one for intake. i ran the vent for the exhaust to be right by the opening of the hood to get the hottest air. Its still going upwards of 90-91degrees. I used a 1/4 plywood door instead of the accordian door. the room that its getting ventted to was 73degrees. anyone have any idea. also the room temp after light is off drops to like 75 is 18/6 of 90-91 / 72-75 really bad for the plants? they are a week from flowering. any suggestions

Click to expand...

The grow room should be within several degrees of the outside room.

Hmmm. Quick dumb Q, but I gotta ask, the intake and exhaust fans are facing the correct ways?

Intake is low and exhaust is up high?

Now you say the room is 2x4 and 10 feet tall?

Is that exhaust fan 10 feet up?
Wheres the lamp in relation?
You raise lower the lamp or plants?

The 72-75 is ideal. Shoot for that with lights on. Lights off temp drop should be less then 15 degrees (10 or less is ideal) A big spread can cause condensation and do bad things with the humidity.

I have read that sometimes using the 2 fans for exhaust with passive intake can produce better results then and intake/exhaust combo. Worth a shot (depending on whats involved.)

In theory, you change over your air twice a minute (2x4 = 8 x 10 = 80). How does the exhaust actually feel??

Oh, and where are you measuring temp?

BigBudBalls said:

The grow room should be within several degrees of the outside room.

Hmmm. Quick dumb Q, but I gotta ask, the intake and exhaust fans are facing the correct ways?

Intake is low and exhaust is up high?

Now you say the room is 2x4 and 10 feet tall?

Is that exhaust fan 10 feet up?
Wheres the lamp in relation?
You raise lower the lamp or plants?

The 72-75 is ideal. Shoot for that with lights on. Lights off temp drop should be less then 15 degrees (10 or less is ideal) A big spread can cause condensation and do bad things with the humidity.

I have read that sometimes using the 2 fans for exhaust with passive intake can produce better results then and intake/exhaust combo. Worth a shot (depending on whats involved.)

In theory, you change over your air twice a minute (2x4 = 8 x 10 = 80). How does the exhaust actually feel??

Oh, and where are you measuring temp?

Click to expand...

The fans are facing the correct way. I have the exhaust at the top and running flex duct to right next to the light to suck away hot air and then the exhaust at the bottom with flex duct running to the near the air condition to suck in cold air. I also have a fan on the other side of the intake fan circulating the air.

As for changing it every minute I'm not sure...I don't really know what 160CFM feels like. what I can say is that there is a notable force of warm air coming out of the top of the exhaust and that the end of the ducting will easily suck in a small piece of paper off my palm.

I bought a $10 digital thermometer and the sensor is tied to a shoe lace that is hanging just a few inches above the top of the plants. The plants are approxx 15" from the 600w HPS and show no signs of burn(except for the initial incident) and if i put my hand at the top of the plant it doesn't feel anything more than slightly warm. How hot is 90F really? whats it compare able.

the plants to day are no longer drooping like they were the last two days.

Before I bought my cool tube, I used to have daily temps around 92-93', I used to grow some pretty decent stuff, But I have to say, my first grow with the cool tube, that my plants just look better, almost like they are less stressed. My canopy is like 4" from the glass it keeps it that cool........ I have a 450ish CFM inline fan, a passive vent cut into door and a oscillating fan in the room. that's it. My grow room is always within 1' of ambient house temp. If you can afford it, buy a cool tube or vented hood, and a big cfm inline, vent outside, and watch 'em grow!

I don't have the room for that whole set up so we didn't get a vented hood. I will be changing the set up as we will be moving the location after the next harvest or two. Can't believe the cool tube works that great.

I just saw they make cool tubes that have half reflectors on them, That might work... where can I get just the tube at? I have the ballast and the light.

I can hold / touch the glass with the light on...... Got mine @ local hydro store, but there are 100's of online stores......