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Too Cold or Not?

So i currently grow my peppers down in my basement using T8 shoplights with 6500k bulbs, for the most part they grow very well. But obviously in the colder months the room in my basement has been slightly cooler. Somewhere around 55-60 degrees. Again, no where near freezing but i still feel like its stunting the growth of my plants if not at least slowing it. What would you guys suggest for the temperature in the basement?
 
They will grow slower in that temp range. I've done that the last two years, starting them earlier helps. This year my wife consented to letting me bring my t-8 setup up to the kitchen. Problem solved.
 
I still have plants in the basement, but they are under a hid, which puts off a lot of heat.
 
Temps that low will definitely stunt growth. Shoot you might even notice them putting on smaller leaves. If you want good growth I would shoot for minimal temps to at least be 67F.
 
rghm1u20 said:
I think will help if you can build a kind of tent over them, to keep warm under this tent.
 
+1
 
Tent plus a decent heat mat and temp controller will remedy the situation.  I was in a similar situation and ended up making my tent out of foam board insulation.  
 
  Use a small space heater if possible. Just enough to warm the room by a few degrees. It will speed up growth. Your plants will be fine in those temps but growth will be very slow.
 
Chilies are sub-tropic plants they like it in the 70-80F range.  Below 55 for an extended time and you can kiss em good bye.  Conversely, they dont like it when it gets over 90F.  They still grow but fruiting is really stalled.  Id say space heater is your best bet, a tent is cumbersome and isnt going to increase the temp to the degree you need.  Its not like its gathering the suns warmth all day like one would outside. And you have to make sure it stays away from the lights. Heat mat will help some but theyre really for seedlings, i suppose you could do a heat mat tent combo but why bother when a space heater will work fine. if theres a fan down there put it on the winter setting.  When your under the fan the blades should move clockwise, this will push warm air down from the ceiling.
 
I actually just put a little space heater down there with a small fan to circulate the warm air. Im going to be getting a bigger heater for the entire basement soon enough but for now this will work for my peppers.
 
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