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hydroponics in the southern U.S.
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Posted by ezzirah011 7a (My Page) on Sat, Feb 6, 10 at 17:02
| I am thinking of building a hydroponic growing system in my garage. But I live in Oklahoma, my garage is un-air conditioned (or heated, really). I was reading around online and they say that the water/nutrients needs to be kept at a certain temperature. I was looking at water chillers and they are expensive. So I figured I would ask someone if that was the case? Where I live in the summer time we can have weeks of 100+ degrees...
Thanks! |
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RE: hydroponics in the southern U.S.
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I wouldn't worry to much about water chillers just yet. The good thing about the garage is concrete floors tend to stay cool. First things first, you need to contain the setup with temporary or permanent walls. You need a room inside the garage. There is a couple reasons for this. The main reason is temperature and humidity. You need to be able to maintain a day and night temp. difference of no more than 10 degrees, for optimum plant growth. More good reason are, to keep all the light in and the bugs out. There is a cheap and easy way to build a temporary garage grow room. Get 1" metal piping, black duct tape, a tarp zipper and plastic sheeting from the hardware store. They only have black sheeting, so you can either buy emergency blankets from walmart, for the inside walls or buy white sheeting on the internet. You will be very suprised at how well 6mil poly insulates.
You will need to cool the room in the summer. I can offer three ideas. If you have a window in your garage, get a window air unit to cool your room. You can run ducting from the air unit to your room, or build your room next to the window and cut a hole for the air conditioner. Another option is a portable air conditioner. That's what I use. One more idea is, if you can tap into your home air ducting somehow and run ducting to your room that way. Check out my garage grow room at my website for more ideas. Hope this helps. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Garden
RE: hydroponics in the southern U.S.
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| I got it! I have a couple of small sheds that the last person that lived in my house left here as part of the garage. If I refurbish those and put them in the house, will I still need air conditioning in the shed. You see, I would just set it up in the house, but I have cats that would eat whatever grows :) |
RE: hydroponics in the southern U.S.
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| If you still decide to go with the window unit, check craigslist. They have some really good deals on used units |
RE: hydroponics in the southern U.S.
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I have two cats and they don't seem to be eating any of the plants. However, they do try to eat the goldfish in my aquaponic setup:~)
To answer your question, the air conditioning in your house, should be good enough. All you should need for the shed would be an inline exhaust fan from home depot. It will run around $30-$36 depending on the size of the fan. Mount it up high, where the heat is. You will also need a circulating fan for proper air movement. If you want a visual of the fan, check out one of my growlab videos. It's mounted at the bottom left corner of the room. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Urban Garden
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