Grow Room Can auto plants thrive in temps a bit cooler?

[Stone420]

A comment from an auto grower saying Ruderalis tolerates cool weather has me considering how to best utilize my indoor growing location during the winter months as I’ll explain:

My grow tent is in a cabin built over horse stables at my farm. I have a central unit for HVAC, but the unit struggles to keep up if I set the temp at real comfortable temps. In the summer I can set at 80, and the grow room location has best cooling, so that room is around 78F. The LED puts off minimal heat, so I am around 81F in the tent. At night the temp is 75F and the temp swings are minimal so the plants love this range of 75F to 81F.

In the winter, the heat bills are enormous if I set at 68F. So I’d really like to set at 60F if I could get away with that low of a temp? I think the LED would warm the tent to 63 - 64F, then get a bit cooler when lights off, but I run 18 hour light for autos.

My question is will an auto with Ruderalis genetics be well suited for growing in a bit cooler temp than a sativa may like? If this is a Yes, I may want to consider growing auto strains exclusively inside during the cold seasons.

 

[bad dragon bzzz]

Check out @trailanimal grows way way north so can be done.strain choice comes into it but doable

 

[Stone420]

Thanks, Archie. I hope @trailanimal will see this tag and respond. If some auto strains are more suitable for cool climates than others, maybe @trailanimal can point me in the right direction.

 

[TempNameTBD]

You growing in a tent or a room, you able to insulate in order to keep heat in ?? Just a thought how about a budget solar panel and battery to use just for a heater?? Even if you spend day or two charging then you get reduction of your costs, or setup the solar panel in a tent hooked up to a heater and controller etc? Just a couple of suggestions.

 

[TempNameTBD]

Come to think of it, would that work? I might try that myself, some solar panels in tent pointing to light? Charging a battery and being directly recirculated too the heat/other items.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/hazylazys-medicinal-garden-of-weeden.72145/

 

[Stone420]

Very interesting idea @HaZyLaZy !

 

[TempNameTBD]

What sort of fans are you running? EC is an investment but will save about $5-7 a month and if they are hooked to a controller to reduce their speed when at certain temps that will help as fans won't be running on full and your be able to maintain temps that way. Where are you drawing your intake from? Is it direct outside or just in home? That makes a big difference, it's just about trying different things tbh.

https://www.autoflower.org/threads/hazylazys-medicinal-garden-of-weeden.72145/

 

[Stone420]

My cabin is built only with windows on the front and back, so there is no direct air draw from outside since my grow room in interior. My intake and exhaust fans are equipped with speed controllers, but to be honest, I leave the tent open most of the time. Its so pitch black dark in the grow room at night, I never worry about light leaks. I have a small clip on tent fan and a table top oscillating fan lightly blowing from outside. When the smells get too strong, I zip the tent and run fans plus 2 pole fans. Since I don't live in the cabin, I generally run the lights when I can work the photo plants...but auto plants don't get too wierded out if they have light intrusion.

 

[STILLSMOKIN]

My cabin is built only with windows on the front and back, so there is no direct air draw from outside since my grow room in interior. My intake and exhaust fans are equipped with speed controllers, but to be honest, I leave the tent open most of the time. Its so pitch black dark in the grow room at night, I never worry about light leaks. I have a small clip on tent fan and a table top oscillating fan lightly blowing from outside. When the smells get too strong, I zip the tent and run fans plus 2 pole fans. Since I don't live in the cabin, I generally run the lights when I can work the photo plants...but auto plants don't get too wierded out if they have light intrusion.

I use a small space heater in my room. But also with my 4x4. I strapped it to a shelf zip tied aiming down.

 

[Arthur]

Something like a propagation matt would help. Or swapping to HPS thru the cold months... if the tents in your room, you'll benefit from the extra heat as well.

But yeah, for cold weather growing, @trailanimal is the man to ask.