Growing in a Cold Garage--Help

C

Captain Capsaicin

I have a couple of months to get this figured out but I'd like o get a little insight now so I can prepare. My wife and I just moved and the only place which really seems feasible to set up a grow room would be in the garage.
 
The problem is that it's damn cold in there. I have a 600W MH/HPS set up. I'm guessing that as long as the plants are raised off of the cold concrete floor that the temperature will be OK when the light is on. I could even be wrong about that.
 
Should I get a space heater for the dark period? My current intent is to construct the "room" with Mylar lined plywood. Anyways, any advice or suggestions would be very much appreciated.
 
Get some white Poly sheet and make a grow room can be made cheap with 2x2's and if you have the light on at night should keep them warm enough, you might have to keep it on all 24/7 if it gets to cold or get a little heater for when lights out. With a 600W you can have up to 4'x4' grow room I like at lest 7' high to allow me to stand in it if I need to.
 
I'll look into Poly sheet. I'd definitely like to do this on the cheap even if the end result is a bit ghetto. As seedlings they'll be indoors under CFL's. When they're in the garage, how cold is too cold? Ideally the temp would be in the mid 60's during the dark period? What should my realistic minimum temperature be?
 
I may have to wing this. Monitor the temperature and either keep a light on 24/7 as suggested or get a space heater.
 
I have a grow room in a unheated building as well. Instead of walling the room in plywood, I put up polystyrene sheets for walls then covered them in radiant barrier. The polystyrene by itself had a rating of R4, plus the radiant barrier adds at least another 4. The radiant barrier also acts as a reflective material and does a great job of diffusing hot spots. I think it cost me about $400 to build the room out in total. I have a 900W space heater in the room during germination to keep the temperature at 84 degrees and even in January the heater only kicks on for a few minutes each hour.
 
Fortunately I'll be able to germinate the seeds and get the plants going in a warm indoor place. I'll look into polystyrene. Do you have a layer on the floor? I'm assuming that you use it as a ceiling as well and really box off the area?
 
Edit: Theghostpepperstore, how large is your grow area?
 
I dont use the polystyrene as flooring since it will compress when you put weight on it. I did use it for the ceiling, covered by a few 2x4s which were tied to the rafters so that I had something to support my lights. For flooring, I used 16" square subflooring with the plastic feet on the bottom. This gives you a small airgap underneath the floor. I also put down some 6mil plastic on the floor and tape it about a foot up on the walls giving me a barrier for spillage/accidents. I replace the plastic each year. Also, I used aluminum tape to seal all the corners to make to room pretty much air tight.
 
Germinating indoors really is the best option, unfortunately I outgrew that option several years ago.
 
Polystyrene should be about $10-15 per 4x8 sheet if I remember correctly. The radiant barrier is pretty costly though and you may be able to skip that material and do just fine. I tend to over-engineer things, like any good engineer does.
 
Maybe I'll skip the radiant barrier. I'll definitely need to elevate the plants off of the concrete floor. Some Mylar and aluminum tape definitely seem to be in order. I don't mind some spillage but it does seem like the plastic could help to keep the temperature elevated. $10-$15 per sheet sounds very reasonable.
 
A minimum temperature to strive for would be no lower than 50Ft.  Below that (yet still above freezing) they will survive, but growth will be stunted.  This is relatively speaking, they'll do even better if it never gets below 60F.
 
Take the temperature of the concrete floor, it may not be getting as cold as the air in the room due to only being in contact with ground under it.  That factor in conjunction with pots that typically have a slightly raised bottom, especially those that are poor thermal conductors like plastic, may mean there is no need to raise the pots off the floor.
 
Running a 600w setup will really drive up your power bills. It would be much more effective to have a heater during lights off.
 
How many plants are you wanting to grow man? You could do a small grow room for cheap and use a smaller apace heater to keep the cost down at night. In small grow room I have found that the bigger watt HID lights put off enough heat to allow the temperature to stay exactly where its needed. As long as the temp at night stays at around 55-65 or higher you're good.

As for insulation, it's a good idea especially in the winter. I would say go check your local lowes or home depot and see what all they have in terms of different thin insulations with a radiant barrier on them. I know here its around $80 for a 100' x 25" roll.
 
make a insulated room and turn on light during night instead of  day...   so you lamp will heat up during very cold perido and you plant wont bother too much if it's night of day at that point
 
Polystyrene insulation + heat mat works for me, just dont expect miracles... some varieties are tougher than other.
 
Cya
 
Datil
 
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