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On and Off?

My parents found a plastic cover and said I could use it for my rack. I did. But, theres a problem, it gets too hot. 95F is the highest so far, but it drops down to 70~75 when the lights are off for 30minutes+. My question is can I set the timer so that the lights are off for one hour (12-1PM), another hour (6-7PM) without any distress to my plants? I know a fan would work as well, but I don't really want to spend money on a fan, and would rather do with what I have.

High Temp: 95
Humidity during the day: 70%

Night Temp:70~75
Humidity:90%

The lights are on from 6am~12pm, 1~6pm, 7pm~12am, with the 2 one hour breaks.
So it would be about 16 hours, with breaks.

So is it a crazy plan? Or do you think it'll help. :)

Thanks in advanced.

Edit: Im using the plastic wrap for humidity.
 
Maybe if your attempt is to lower the temps is put in a fan, maybe use frozen water bottles like some people i know do. I don't think the whole interval idea would be a bad one, but perhaps the teperatures would fluctuate too much...
 
A note on frozen water bottles, it´s most effective for small growing spaces. I don´t think water bottles will do much in a whole rack. I suppose it would be okay to turn the lights on and off, but you´d have to see how the plants do, so I would say make a small experiment with some spare plants.

Also, am I getting defective humidity readers, or does my humidity just not go up at night? o.o
 
What are you growing on the rack? Do you need the cover? I wouldn't even try and make it work if it is not absolutely necessary.

xvart.
 
Well I use a very sensitive 30 dollar hygrometer, and my humidity goes up to 100% every night.
 
At 95 degrees, water bottles won't do much for very long.

xvart.
 
I'm growing tropical drosera, pings, and high and low nepenthes. The highland nepenthes are easy ones that can take lowland conditions, such as ventricosa, talangensis, and singalana.
 
Um. You sure you should have the talangensis and singalana in lowland conditions?
 
Thier growin. xP
 
  • #10
Why not get a 4" PC fan, a "ceiling duct starter" (just flat piece of aluminum with a 4" hole and ring in the center) you glue the fan to the flat side and attach a 4" diameter flexible aluminum duct tube to the ring side. Face the fan so it blows air into the tube and place the tube's air output inside the enclosed space. Put the fan end in a window to suck in outside temps. Get the tube and mount (duct starter) at home depot. I got my 4" PC fan at Radio Shack but there are probably cheaper sources.

This air input lowers my grow shelf's temps considerably with the lights on from the high 90s down to about 5 degrees above whatever it is outside. With lights off it gets downright chilly when I open the enclosure and look at the plants late at night. Basically whatever temps it is outside at night is the temps in the grow shelves at night, sometimes I pull the fan out of the window and just have it open a crack cos it's getting too cold.

I have heard of people staggering the light hours however, I don't know how that will work for highland plants who want to get cold in the dark and warm in light.

Be on the watch for your highlanders to grow well initially for a while and then slowly start making smaller leaves or weird leaves. This means they've overstayed their welcome in warm conditions and if you don't move them bad things can start to happen. I didn't do well long term with ventricosa in my lowland setup and had to move it to the HL chamber. I thought that plant was supposed to be "indestructible" but mine was destructible enough! :D
 
  • #11
Oh ill just try a small fan pointing downwards on low. I'm sure my ventricosa will make it!
 
  • #12
Ok, but how long have they been in lowland conditions? I doubt that talangensis will enjoy the lowland conditions after a few months.
 
  • #13
Theyve been in lowland conditions since I got them. The tal doesn't seem to be stressed, and btw, I got a fan. xp
 
  • #14
Hmm, interesting. Talangensis can be picky even in highland or ultrahighland conditions.
 
  • #15
Is 86F too warm for lowland conditions? o_O
 
  • #16
It's not so much the daytime temps that concerns me but the nighttime temps. Mine got daytime temps around 86*F in summer (I liked having mine at 75*F in daytime for 3/4 of the year) but I always got the nights down to 50-60*F at night by hooking the air input duct to the A/C outlet if it was too warm outside to pull in those temps. In winter I could get the temps down to 40*F in the terrarium and the highland plants were happiest in those coolest months. What happiest means is they grew fastest and their pitchers were very large and rigid lasting a very long time, usually hottest summer days killed off the older winter pitchers and then in cool fall temps the new growth and pitchers came back full force.
 
  • #17
The fan is on a timer. Cap was right, the talangensis's growth point burned off, and I doubt it'll make it cause it was just a basal. :'(
 
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