Proper air circulation in a cannabis grow can be the difference between success and failure. Plants need a constant supply of fresh air for photosynthesis to work correctly.
Indoors, cultivators can use a variety of grow tents, cabinets or rooms dedicated to growing. Fans or exhaust systems are a common way to keep air moving in these spaces.
Humidity
Humidity plays a critical role in maintaining the ideal air circulation within your grow. This will ensure that the cannabis you produce is fresh and vibrant, with a high quality aroma and flavor. The right humidity levels will also help to ensure the health of your plants, and reduce the risk of pests and pathogens.
The ideal relative humidity (RH) for your grow room depends on a number of factors, including the size and climate of your grow area. This can vary widely, and you’ll need to find a way of measuring and controlling the level of moisture in your room.
During the early flowering stage, the optimal RH level for your grow is around 50 percent. This will allow your buds to dry naturally, and prevent the development of bud rot. However, it’s important to note that too low a humidity level can stress your plants and increase the possibility of mold growth in their leaves.
If your RH is too low, you’ll need to use a dehumidifier or other method of removing excess water from the air in your grow area. This can be done by hooking up a dehumidifier to your grow room’s ventilation system or through an exhaust fan.
You can also keep the humidity in your grow room down by increasing the airflow and making sure your fans run continuously, especially at night. This is particularly important in the last two weeks before harvest, when you’ll be harvesting your buds, and can help prevent bud rot from forming.
In addition to preventing bud rot, you should be aware that excess moisture in the growing room can also lead to mold and mildew growth. This will not only destroy the trichomes that make your buds so unique, but it will also result in an unpleasant taste and smell.
The best approach to achieving the perfect amount of humidity is to monitor it closely during each step of your grow, from the seedling stages through to the final curing. This will ensure that your buds are the best they can be and will help you get a better return on your investment.
Temperature
Like most living things, cannabis plants require just the right balance of light, water, nutrients, and air to thrive. If any one of these elements is missing, the plant will fail to grow or even die.
As plants grow, they also need proper ventilation to ensure optimal air circulation and a healthy balance of CO2, temperature, and humidity. These conditions help prevent fungal disease and marijuana pest infestations while promoting plant growth and yields.
The average cannabis grow room has an air volume of 480 cubic feet, and an efficient exhaust system should be able to circulate this amount of fresh air every minute. This rate of air exchange helps regulate the grow room’s temperature and improves gas exchange at the leaf stomata, which is what regulates water and oxygen flow in leaves.
It’s important to note that an exhaust fan should be located high up in the grow tent or room so that the warmest, most stale air is pushed out of the space before it can be heated and inhaled again by the plants. Most growers place the extraction fan, carbon filter, and ducting in the top section of the grow tent or room, which keeps the warmest air at bay.
Depending on the type of cannabis grow you’re doing, you may need different airflow and ventilation strategies to keep your cannabis plant happy and healthy. For instance, cannabis seedlings that haven’t had enough exposure to air can tolerate minimal ventilation and grow in small incubators; as your cannabis seeds grow into larger, more mature plants, you’ll need more frequent, higher-volume airflow, and a more robust exhaust system.
A steady breeze is best, but direct and strong fanning can damage your plants’ leaves or stems – particularly the bud tips. Alternatively, look for a remote wall fan with multiple settings that can be adjusted from a distance.
While it’s not necessarily a necessity, an airflow and exhaust system can be like a spa treatment for your plants. It’s an investment that will pay off dividends in the long run, and it will help you maintain a healthy and productive cannabis grow.
Pests
Proper air circulation is the key to healthy cannabis plants. It reduces mold growth, distributes heat and humidity and helps prevent pest and fungus infestations. It also removes excess moisture from the canopy of plants, allowing them to absorb more water through their roots for better growth.
Many growers also add amendments that naturally deter certain pests, such as neem seed meal or crab meal. These substances have a natural scent that pests do not like, which can help control unwanted nematode populations and fungi in the soil mix.
Some growers even utilise companion planting to combat pests, combining specific plant species in a way that encourages their natural defenses to be active in the cannabis garden. The presence of ladybugs, for example, can help keep pests under control, as they feed on mites and other insects that are detrimental to weed crops.
Another way to combat pests is by using sticky traps. These cards are placed in the grow room, and a number of different species will feel attracted to them and will get stuck to them. These can then be removed without having to use pesticides.
In addition, some growers use predatory insects to combat pests in their cannabis crops. These are beetles that resemble small lady bugs and are effective at eating spider mites, as well as fungus gnats.
Choosing the right species for each pest is critical to controlling them effectively. For example, Stethorus punctillum can be used to target spider mites, while Phytoseiulus persimilis is a good choice for fungus gnats.
For more advanced pest management, growers can use high-performance heating, ventilation, cooling and dehumidification (HVACD) systems that maintain target environmental conditions that can prevent the emergence of pests. These systems include features such as filtration, light treatments and photocatalytic oxidation.
Aside from preventing pests, proper air circulation is essential to cannabis cultivation because it allows for the removal of excess heat and humidity from the grow room and helps regulate temperatures inside the crop itself. This can help prevent growth retardation and foliar damage that may affect the quality of your harvest.
Smell
Whether you’re growing cannabis indoors or outside, proper air circulation is one of the most important things for successful growth. The importance of air is incredibly simple – all living things, including plants, need to breathe to survive.
It is not enough to provide your plants with the proper lighting, water, and nutrients, but they also need adequate fresh air in order to thrive. Without enough oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air, your plants will not have the necessary energy to grow.
Plants breathe through microscopic pores on the underside of their leaves called stomata. These pores regulate the flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide into the plants as they grow, ensuring that they get the oxygen and CO2 they need to be healthy.
When there is too little or too much air coming in to your grow room, your plants can suffer from a range of issues. These include overheating, causing the leaves to burn, and even odour problems (which can make your grow smell terrible).
In addition, cannabis plants need good ventilation in order to avoid pests and mould. These creatures can wreak havoc on your cannabis crops and wipe them out entirely in some cases.
Aside from combating these pests, constant airflow over your cannabis plants also helps carry away the moisture that is released during transpiration. This can significantly reduce the likelihood of your cannabis crops becoming infected by white powdery mildew, mold, and bud rot.
For the best results, make sure that your fans blow over the canopy of your cannabis plants rather than directly in front of them. This is because direct fanning can cause damage to the leaves and stems of your cannabis plants, which can result in wind-burn symptoms, such as claw-like deformities.
To ensure that your cannabis grow has sufficient ventilation, calculate the required CFM of your ventilation fan. This can be calculated using your grow room volume and a basic formula.
