Wind Question

Im getting mixed reviews in my research but how much wind is to much wind to expose your plants to or is there harmful side effects if too much

Please antbody

hi james
what do you mean by wind. wind outside or the air youre dragging in from outside and pushing onto youre plants with oc gfans. sorry if this seems a bit stupid. but they both have very different answers....

im gonna guess your talking about air blowing through a indoor grow seeing your in grow room design and setup. and if not this still might help you. air circulation is a huge must for us growers. you want a fan to blow your plants around a little bit. just enough to make all your plants move around a little. this helps strengthen your plant and keep it healthy. too much "wind" or airflow to the plants would be blowing your plants around like they were in a storm or something like that which is stressful on the plant and you could end up with various problems including getting a hermi.

more or less keep the air moving around your plants and let them rock around in the wind a bit but just enough where they are all shaking a little bit. i personally use one at the tops of the plants to keep temps down and move them around and one on the bottom near the pots to keep good air circulation.

thanks drolove thats what i was figuring i just happened to watch a few videos and some guys had like serious fans blowing on there plants like the squirrel cage kind and here i am with an oscillating fan with lightish wind during veg then increasing as the plants get bigger and good circulation for the big flowers thought maybe some kinda hidden super wind technique i was unaware of

Man I don;t know what it is, but too much air flow on a plant stunts them alittle. It must make them transpire too fast, or cause minor tissue damage. I had 420 cfm intake sort of improperly set up, and whatever plant was closest to it would have problems. Nothing major, and they still matured, and had great buds. There was however a slight difference. I actually solved the problem by simply making a cardboard wedge that went 18 inches in front of the fan, and I never noticed the problem again. This was back in the "large closet grow" days, so I had a lot of limitations on what I could I do. BTW you can point an intake in a different direction, and just get two really cheap oscillating fans to "mix it all up". Then you just exhaust from the top of the room thru the hoods. Keep it simple whenever you can, and always remember exhaust is infinetly more important than intake!

i have a 750cfm exhausting a 1000w hps and 20inch oscillating fan on the floor aimed up wards strays around 75 77 degrees and i get almost rough with em in veg mode to strengthen the branches and kinda pinpoint the tops during the flowering never had any problems just kinda wondering where the sweet spot is or if its just a matter of preference and how much is too much any input would be appreciated

Sounds great man. That sounds perfect really, and if your talking about a household type oscillating fan, you'll be fine.

Very good read explaining that air flow creates taller plants, but the flexure created by sideways airflow is what strengthens stems. http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/content/54/383/845.full

In short, yes wind is good, yes you can have too much. Slow, steady breeze seems to be the answer. You have plenty of exhaust and under canopy circulation it sounds like. Maybe just try to get a fan above the canopy too for the reasons within that article. The bottom fan is good for circulation and getting hot spots up and out, but you're blowing air up, so for the effect on plant strength you want the plant to flex and that's much easier to accomplish with a fan above.

Couple more good articles if you're interested:

Wind & respiration
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1399-3054.1972.tb03625.x/abstract

wind & growth rate
http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/24/2/200.short

dankshasta nailed it, the plants grow slower with faster wind, to an extent. Makes sense, shorter=sturdier. BUT, some of these studies are finding total plant weight to be lower with wind, meaning they're shorter but still not thicker as a result. It seems like it's more species specific than originally thought.

DankShasta said:

Man I don;t know what it is, but too much air flow on a plant stunts them alittle. It must make them transpire too fast, or cause minor tissue damage. I had 420 cfm intake sort of improperly set up, and whatever plant was closest to it would have problems. Nothing major, and they still matured, and had great buds. There was however a slight difference. I actually solved the problem by simply making a cardboard wedge that went 18 inches in front of the fan, and I never noticed the problem again. This was back in the "large closet grow" days, so I had a lot of limitations on what I could I do. BTW you can point an intake in a different direction, and just get two really cheap oscillating fans to "mix it all up". Then you just exhaust from the top of the room thru the hoods. Keep it simple whenever you can, and always remember exhaust is infinetly more important than intake!

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lol thanks for this post man! you just helped me figure out something i had been wondering with my room. i have 4 white widow plants 5 weeks into flowering and the one closest to my fan has huge buds already compared to the others. maybe i need more airflow over the rest and ill get better results with them as well. they still got a good month to go so they might catch up.

thanks mike excellent info

Air movement is critical for quick growth. It basically allows the plants to breath and sweat. Too much wind and the leaves dry out and tips start to burn and curl. Drying leaves cause the stoma's to start closing on the underside of the leaves thus slowing things down and will close off totally if conditions persists. Not enough air movement will result in the exact opposite, the leaves can not get rid of moisture, plant begins to stall then mold can start.

You are looking for that sweet spot where all the leaves are just wiggiling. I have my room circulation with 2 6" inlines, 2 square box floor fans and 2 ocillators, all are blowing around the plants and never through them.

Hope this helps

Vaper

james76208 said:

thanks mike excellent info

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Glad to help

Sir.Ganga said:

Air movement is critical for quick growth. It basically allows the plants to breath and sweat. Too much wind and the leaves dry out and tips start to burn and curl. Drying leaves cause the stoma's to start closing on the underside of the leaves thus slowing things down and will close off totally if conditions persists. Not enough air movement will result in the exact opposite, the leaves can not get rid of moisture, plant begins to stall then mold can start.

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As far as I understand the opening and closing of the stomata is from VPD, not air movement. Air movement can increase the effect of VPD by further speeding transpiration, but by itself won't cause the change in stomata.

http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2010/07/plantworks-part-1-humidity-and-vapor-pressure-deficit/

You are 100% correct mike, What I understand is that the movement of air or lack of movement of air, kinda tricks the plants ability to sense its enviorment, thus in windy conditions they will dump huge amounts of moisture, in some cases so severe that the leaves will curl and dry.

I have seen whole feilds of wheat literally dry up due to windy conditions when there was plenty of moisture in the air.