SKUNK School – Indoor Growing Environment for Cannabis

Hey there high there ho there, everyone. Today’s article about the indoor growing environment for cannabis is really more about how to help you become acutely aware of that environment—from your plants’ perspective. I’m going to show you all, two absolutely invaluable tools to help you with this, and these tools don’t cost an arm and a leg either. Many of you took an interest in this subject from my previous article, so I will dive deeper into it here for you, addressing the points of confusion.

I have been growing weeds for just shy of half a century now, so I know a few things. Around 5 or 6 years ago I became enlightened regarding my indoor cannabis temperatures and humidity in detail. When I say enlightened, I really mean sort of shocked … shocked by my actual level of ignorance here … and once I started using a couple of new growing tools, my final buds were even more stellar than usual. Ever forward my friends. Let me share with you some things that will take your grow to the next level. Let’s roll…

Indoor Cannabis Temperatures

I mentioned two specific tools above, and if you are only going to get one of them, then you want yourself a laser thermometer. The reason you want this tool is to get yourself some highly accurate temperature data from where it REALLY matters—at the actual plant tops! Your ambient indoor growing environment for cannabis (as it turns out) can be much different than the environment actually at your plant tops.

Indoor cannabis temperatures when growing in containers, and outdoor plants in the ground are two very different animals my friends; when it comes to temps it’s a huge difference. Keep in mind that outdoors, half the plant is well insulated from extreme temperatures underground. The plant uses its internal circulation to keep things good. Outdoor plants can deal with more extreme temperatures—both hot and cold—than indoor plants (or outdoor plants in containers) can, simply because container plants have no insulation for their roots, ya follow? The whole plant must deal with ambient temperature extremes. Plant tops outdoors in the sun are also the same essential temperature as most of the plant. Under lights, however, a big problem can arise… Yup.

Hyper Metabolism

Here’s the issue indoors you have to watch out for big-time, hyper metabolism. This issue occurs when the tops of your plants are very hot, above 86 degrees f. is time for concern here. Essentially, the very tip tops of your plants are processing food and water much faster than the rest of the plant can keep up with supplying. This problem is really a bad one when it comes to your final product because it will sizzle up all your best and biggest buds and take away a lot from flavors/smells and potency. How do we avoid this evil problem? I’m glad you asked…

1. Make sure your lights are at least 18 inches from your plant tops, if the problem persists move the light farther away in 4-inch increments until you find the sweet spot. Just keep checking with your laser thermometer at the plant tops closest to the light as you go. Keep them at or below 86 degrees. They can get hotter for brief periods no worries, but when you see this make the moves to bring those temps down.
2. Your plant tops can be at 86 degrees fine and dandy in my experience, but once you hit 87 and above… hyper metabolism can take hold. So, just do a bit of testing here and get the hang of about what temperature your room is compared to what temperature your plant tops are at. This can bring your attention to when you are wanting to check plant tops with your laser thermometer for precise data. Bing bang boom.

Your Indoor Growing Environment for Cannabis Monitored from Afar

Above I mentioned monitoring your grow room temps to alert you when you want to break out your laser thermometer and double-check plant tops. For example, say… you know from experience that when your grow room hits around 82 degrees, that’s when your plant tops approach 86 degrees, so you break out the laser thermometer and check. This of course involves you keeping tabs on your grow room temps. This can be problematic to do regularly every day for many of us. I have a great solution here man—Bluetooth Thermometer/Hygrometers. With these, you can just check your phone or pad to see grow room temps at a glance in real-time. Trust me when I say, you want these. They’re inexpensive as well.

Because these are Bluetooth you will obviously need to be near your grow room(s) to monitor them, however, if you need to monitor from farther afar, you can get Wi-Fi-capable versions of these for a bit more coin. These also allow you to set up alerts for temperature and humidity highs and lows so you always know if there’s a problem without having to regularly check your phone/pad. Plus, you can look back on your indoor cannabis temperatures and humidity for the last 15 min., last day, last week, month, or even the whole last year. This gives you some very valuable data. Yes indeed.

The Combined Possibilities are Highly Effective

I use three Govee thermometer/hygrometers in my garden. I use a Govee unit in each of my flowering tents, and another in my vegging/clone growing zone. If you use the same growing zone for all stages, you can use fewer Govee units. I hang my Govee(s) on a piece of string—it’s basically a big slipknot so the height is easily adjustable. So, your goal is to have the thermometer/hygrometer placed very close to your plant tops. Once you see temps are approaching say, 83 degrees, break out the laser thermometer and check plant top temps. Your ambient indoor cannabis temperatures, in the room matter of course, but what really affects temps at the plant tops huge, is light distance.

You just learn when to pay closer attention, to your flowering plants especially. The happier you keep your flowering plants the happier they will make you. Hypermetabolism is a fairly common thing in gardens I see. Once you set your alarms (notification alerts) it will allow you to pay attention only when necessary. Learn how to keep your plants in the “Happy Happy Cannabis Zone” temperature and humidity-wise. Flowering plants are already stressing on the natch, you don’t want a lot more stress from hypermetabolism piling on, and potential—irreparable—damage.

Afterword

In the photo above you can see handy little temp and humidity monitoring units that keep records of the highs and lows regarding temps/humid for the last 24 hours. These are handy, at least have some of these placed around so you know what’s really going on in your garden with a deeper understanding. But… using the combo of the Govee Bluetooth units along with the laser thermometer is sweet indeed. The Govee can also alert you to potential issues at hand. Like, if temps drop quickly in one room or tent, a growing light may have failed in that room/tent. Good to know—wink.

Here’s a link to the Govee Thermometer and Hygrometers  for your perusal. Swing by Kingdom Organic Seeds and have a look around. Make sure to check out – The Gamblers’ section for some really good seed deals, and high (sublime) potential. If ya wanna read another cool 😎 article by yours truly, check this out: Letters to Rev – Weird Cannabis Growing Problems … and … grab a copy of my True Living Organics 2nd Edition book to get your living soil growing knowledge on.

Indoor Growing Environment for Cannabis – The Next Level

If I wasn’t a hashish-smoking author and grower/breeder, and I had a 9 to 5 type of job, I would most def take this whole dynamic to the next level. By that, I mean you could set up Wi-Fi to control things like heaters, and/or portable A/C units, and/or dehumidifiers. This way monitoring with the Govee units can be done from anywhere with cell reception basically, and controls to alter your environment can also be used. If this sounds tempting, keep these things in mind:

• Any units like A/C, heaters, etc. need to come back to whatever your settings were after a power outage! Another advantage is, you will be able to see exactly when your power outage occurred on your Govee history data. So, make sure you find out how your units behave after a power interruption yeah?
• All indoor temperature-altering units like A/C and heaters (also dehumidifiers), draw a lot of juice, as in amps and wattage. Make sure you don’t pop any breakers by mistakenly turning on too many things at once.
• It’s always good to have a “backup monkey” LoL, which is simply a trusted friend/partner that has access to your grow that can go fix problems that may arise while you are at work or otherwise away, that you have become aware of via your Govee. Who ya gonna call?

If your room already has thermostatic temp controls, you are pretty much golden, temperature-wise. Keep humidity below 60%, especially at night—a little added heat at night helps big. Keep temps at or below 86 degrees at plant tops.  I’m outty for now my esteemed homeskillets, but I’ll catch ya all back here next time baybee. L8r G8rs…

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