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echochild
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Growing in a low humidity climate Thread
#28022596 - 10/29/22 10:03 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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I know this is a long shot, but who else here lives and grows in a low humidity climate? The only real posts I was able to find on this in the search are years old.
I've noticed that I am tending to face issues that growers in more humid climates don't face, or don't face to the same extreme I seem to (considering our cultivation content is ~90% water).
Example: I have a gorilla tent, though its primary purpose is to keep one of my cats out of my grow area (super curious cat that seems to be able to get into damn near anything he wants to investigate).
But... I'm starting to seriously consider getting a humidifier for the tent. I've been trying to balance FAE and rH for months now... and no matter how I dial it, I find myself misting like 2-3x minimum per day, even on my unmodified tub, and worse on the ones with FAE holes (stuffed tight with polyfil for now). And as winter is approaching... as soon as my significant other asks me to turn on the heating, that issue is likely to only get worse.
The only tub where this wasn't an issue managed to create a good mirco climate of its own, but now that we are heading towards flush 2, even with a 4 hour soak/float, I'm back to fighting with FAE vs. rH.
I'm getting ready to investigate water tubs for the PF Tek I'm experimenting with in the hope that will alleviate some of the issues I'm having (but I don't always want to be stuck with PF Tek)... yet my prediction is that I'll be refilling that water multiple times a day anyways.
So... anyone else live in a dry climate and want to share challenges / tips and tricks?
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Screwup
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: echochild] 1
#28022597 - 10/29/22 10:04 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Even in dry climate RH doesn’t matter…does your sub have thousands of glistening beads of water on it? Cool then you’re good.
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echochild
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: Screwup]
#28022602 - 10/29/22 10:11 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Screwup said: Even in dry climate RH doesn’t matter…does your sub have thousands of glistening beads of water on it? Cool then you’re good.
If you are fine with needing to mist multiple times per day, sure If I leave any of my tubs just to sit for more than 6-8 hours... all those beads are gone for me, and I have bruising city starting to form.
Yet, when I was using equipment that seems to get a lot of disapproval here before I discovered shroomery, I had better rH, and didn't need to mist multiple times a day to keep those beads. I did not have bruising city from drying out.
And on the tubs where I have bruising city from drying out... they are even more of a bitch to keep the beads up. If my tent wasn't at it's natural ~40% rH (for being indoors in an air conditioned environment), I wouldn't need to do all that extra work.
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SingularFusion


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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: Screwup]
#28022606 - 10/29/22 10:13 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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I am inclined to agree with Screwup. I live in a stupid alpine country, in winter a lot of heating, as a result, very low RH (as low as like 20%). Cult in unmodified tubs and find it no problem generally
are you running some sort of extraction fan in the tent to exchange the tent air? Have you turned it down/tried a smaller fan? sounds like you are moving too much fresh air into the tent. What species are you growing? If it's cubes they really won't need all that fresh air coming in
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echochild
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: SingularFusion]
#28022612 - 10/29/22 10:17 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Nef said: I am inclined to agree with Screwup. I live in a stupid alpine country, in winter a lot of heating, as a result, very low RH (as low as like 20%). Cult in unmodified tubs and find it no problem generally
are you running some sort of extraction fan in the tent to exchange the tent air? Have you turned it down/tried a smaller fan? sounds like you are moving too much fresh air into the tent. What species are you growing? If it's cubes they really won't need all that fresh air coming in
No fans or fanning at all. To try to keep moisture in the tubs, they are at most cracked with an unsecure seal if they don't have FAE holes.
The monos with FAE holes, they are six 1 inch holes. I packed them with poly in the beginning, and discovered I wasn't packing enough in, so now they are packed tight enough that dislodging the poly would shred it, and still having the same drying out issues.
Edit 1: Sorry, cubes yes.
Edited by echochild (10/29/22 10:27 AM)
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SingularFusion


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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: echochild] 1
#28022666 - 10/29/22 10:57 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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hang on a minute, so you have a grow tent with no air exchange happening between the tent and the room it is in? Like the thing is sealed up tight? and then inside that tent with no air exchange, you then have an unmodified tub with the lid barely cracked and no fans moving the air around inside the tent either, but your tub still dries out? Man that defies physics pretty much you are achieving field capacity when you make the tub in the first place?
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echochild
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: SingularFusion] 1
#28022695 - 10/29/22 11:12 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Nef said: hang on a minute, so you have a grow tent with no air exchange happening between the tent and the room it is in? Like the thing is sealed up tight?
No, it's a gorilla style tent. It can't make a perfect seal, it has zippers and holes that would be for where you would put fans (though I closed those up as tight as I could and when I'm not accessing the tent, the zippers are closed). There is moisture movement without a perfect seal.
and then inside that tent with no air exchange, you then have an unmodified tub with the lid barely cracked and no fans moving the air around inside the tent either,
Yep. And all the PF cakes are bruised to hell from a drying out / rehydrating cycle most of the day. I have tried 3 ft up misting, direct misting, and bottom watering to no avail. Originally I had it sealed to try to keep moisture in, and that worked, but no real pins ever occurred until Baked told me it needed more FAE. So that started with a 1 inch turn on the lid, but they kept drying out, so I kept decreasing the opening, until I'm now at just using an imperfect seal.
but your tub still dries out? Man that defies physics pretty much you are achieving field capacity when you make the tub in the first place?
I have field capacity. When I squeeze the sub, only a few drops come out, just like I have seen people here talk about for the mono's. The mono that I have had the most difficulty with was a 1:1 spawn/sub, which I read here was fine for fast colonization, but the combo of having too little sub and too much FAE from not packing the poly tight enough (and it's not like it wasn't plenty packed the first time) bruised the crap out of the myc and it's barely produced any fruits.
The PF Tek cakes are on a bed of constantly shiny perlite (they are resting on their lids because I was told I originally used too much foil for them to rest on). It's not keeping anything hydrated from what I can tell, because I need to mist that one 3-4x per day. I'm planning to switch to a water tub with the PF Tek cakes I have colonizing right now to test to see if that works better.
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SingularFusion


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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: echochild]
#28022732 - 10/29/22 11:35 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Man I am genuinely stumped as to how that could be possible
I don't cult in a tent, but I sure grow some weed in several of them and pretty much in my neck of the woods, any tent with wet living breathing materials and no exhaust fans gets skyrocketing RH in no time, like literally in a couple of hours it's 70% plus
what is going on with your tent I wonder...
hopefully someone smarter than me will come along
sorry I could not be of more help
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echochild
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: SingularFusion]
#28022762 - 10/29/22 11:52 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Nef said: Man I am genuinely stumped as to how that could be possible
I don't cult in a tent, but I sure grow some weed in several of them and pretty much in my neck of the woods, any tent with wet living breathing materials and no exhaust fans gets skyrocketing RH in no time, like literally in a couple of hours it's 70% plus
what is going on with your tent I wonder...
hopefully someone smarter than me will come along
sorry I could not be of more help 
All good, I appreciate the questions (at least hopefully others won't ask the same ones later).
So I've tried to account for as many factors as I can think of. Temp in my house is always 70 F. I've been trying to fix the FAE, and am planning to ditch the polyfil when these tubs crap out and prolly switch to micropore disks.
The only things I can think that would be issues would be 1. Bacteria? But my tubs look fine aside from massive bruising, that always started near the FAE holes in my monotubs. No weird colors. My first tub died to Trich, but I haven't seen that again yet (or that anyone who has seen pics here has pointed out).
Edit 1: Is it possible to get the same bacterial contamination in multiple monos/PF Teks when all of them were done separately and with different inoculation sources?
2. I live in a desert. As an example, RN the rH outside is 20%. In my house it's currently 39% (which is mainly from my AC). A few weeks ago it was ~50-60%, but as it's getting cooler, the AC isn't running as much, and the house is slowly losing rH (and I can confirm this as my skin dries out here in the winter even when we did not use the heater... really the only reason I'm planning to turn on the heater here this year is because of trying to maintain 70 F for the cubes, because temps at night can drop fast and drastically here).
Other than that I'm stumped. This is with multiple varieties too, so it's not a variety issue that I cn tell.
Edited by echochild (10/29/22 11:54 AM)
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bakedbeings
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: echochild]
#28022786 - 10/29/22 12:34 PM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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increasing sub to spawn ratio, increasing the overall thickness of your subs, and adding a nice thick top layer, would all help with this issue. but remember that the more sub it must colonize the more bulletproof your spawn must be
if nothing else works theres nothing wrong with sticking a humidifier in your tent. RR ran a humidifier in his cabin during the winter because his heater was drying things out too much. but the purpose of the humidifier should be to bring the tent up to a more acceptable baseline and not to actually hydrate the tubs, unless you want a fucking lake in your house
-------------------- Confused? Well now you can!
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Sporical
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: bakedbeings]
#28022854 - 10/29/22 01:35 PM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
bakedbeings said: increasing sub to spawn ratio, increasing the overall thickness of your subs, and adding a nice thick top layer, would all help with this issue. but remember that the more sub it must colonize the more bulletproof your spawn must be
if nothing else works theres nothing wrong with sticking a humidifier in your tent. RR ran a humidifier in his cabin during the winter because his heater was drying things out too much. but the purpose of the humidifier should be to bring the tent up to a more acceptable baseline and not to actually hydrate the tubs, unless you want a fucking lake in your house

I as well live in a low RH 15-30%. I am baffled by your problem. I as well grow in a tent, before in a closet. I use 1:3 ish ratio 4qts spawn to 650g, 2C of V. So 10 qts total I then mix 2/3 sub with grain. And leave the last 1/3 to case with. At least an inch thick. Then compress!! My monos have 6, 1" holes as well. And I have to keep the lids cracked while pinning.from too much RH. I leave my tubs sealed to colonize for two weeks. Then flip the lid. Till I see pins then I close the lid back up and only open a few times a day for FAE. I don't think you are going to get away from misting/ manually giving FAE. Unless you automate your tent. That being said, Are you running your AC full time? This is a great dehumidifier. As for the tent. Just what baked said. No shame in running a humidifier. In my tent I have it set up like a grow... I keep my RH at 35-50% with a controller and a inline fan to cycle air/ remove humidity. But as Nef said, they never turn on the tent holds its own environment pretty well, unless Im in there and leave the door open then it drops to 20% rh really quick. I would advise sealing your tent zippers with tape, zip tie your vents closed, start with nothing and try to hold and environment, then change it to your liking, stabilize, and automate. I aim for 70° 35%RH and the tubs do the rest Check your surroundings as well, is there a vent blowing on your tent, is it touching an outside wall and getting heat? Ect. Hope this helps maybe your carpet is made out of desiccant 😂🤣.
-------------------- Buy the ticket take the ride.
H.S.T.
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B Traven
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: Sporical]
#28022874 - 10/29/22 01:51 PM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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I live in a climate where there's a couple months of truly cold weather, which means a couple months where the gas furnace is blasting almost all the time. The air gets severely dry, to the point of skin and respiratory issues. We run a humidifier for our own comfort, which seems to do enough for my tubs.
While I think this is somewhat a matter of "if you're comfortable, then so are they," I also think it sounds like there's not enough moisture to start out with.
Cats? Forget it, man. I can't keep those fuckers out of anything. I just let go of it. I've also confirmed that my cats like to eat the little bits of dried mush that they find on the floor of the lab.
-------------------- Beware of advice- even this.
Edited by B Traven (10/29/22 02:10 PM)
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echochild
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: bakedbeings]
#28024045 - 10/30/22 06:37 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
bakedbeings said: increasing sub to spawn ratio, increasing the overall thickness of your subs, and adding a nice thick top layer, would all help with this issue. but remember that the more sub it must colonize the more bulletproof your spawn must be
Agreed, thats what I have been discovering on my own.
My question, the the purpose of the thread is that, in drier climates, should these things be standard practice? I saw other posts in the years past of this forum state similar issues to me to who also stated they lived in dry climates, but I hadn't seen anything consolidated nor that I did not want to necro. I wasn't 100% though if this is a me thing, or something more general.
I know that when growing food plants here as hobby, I did have to make more considerations than when I lived in a temperate climate, and was wondering if a similar situation was occurring for my mushrooms.
I'm pretty sure a lot of what is happening is that the moisture cycle is sucking humidity out of my grows, into the tent, the tent is imperfectly sealed, which means it instead goes into my house eventually, and then eventually makes its way out my front door.
if nothing else works theres nothing wrong with sticking a humidifier in your tent. RR ran a humidifier in his cabin during the winter because his heater was drying things out too much. but the purpose of the humidifier should be to bring the tent up to a more acceptable baseline and not to actually hydrate the tubs, unless you want a fucking lake in your house
I don't have any desire for an in house swimming pool, sounds like too much work to keep up with IMO And again agreed. I don't think it would be wise to use it to humidify your tubs anyway, at least in my case, because I have a lot of pets. My worry would be my pets contaminating my grows (even with just shed hair / dander in the air carrying comtams, not to even go into air being a contam on its own).
But I hope that maybe I can disrupt the leaching process if my tent's rH is higher than in my house. Hopefully the grows will lose moisture slower, and what moisture is lost in the tent is mainly from the humidifier, which is being constantly replaced.
But in my mind, I'm still curious to hear from other people who live in year round low humidity. Am I just that lone newb grower slowly learning to dial shit in, or is this something new growers in my year round environment experience the same issues?
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echochild
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: Sporical]
#28024056 - 10/30/22 06:56 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Sporical said:
I as well live in a low RH 15-30%. I am baffled by your problem. I as well grow in a tent, before in a closet. I use 1:3 ish ratio 4qts spawn to 650g, 2C of V. So 10 qts total I then mix 2/3 sub with grain. And leave the last 1/3 to case with. At least an inch thick. Then compress!!
Thats about the same that I do, but I didn't do casing layers. I don't remember off the top of my head where I read it, but I remember seeing that casing layers are generally not needed. So I didn't case. But, like Baked and you have said, I think casing is a thing that I will need to do in the future.
My monos have 6, 1" holes as well. And I have to keep the lids cracked while pinning.from too much RH.
Out of curiosity, what is the ambient rH in your home?
I leave my tubs sealed to colonize for two weeks. Then flip the lid. Till I see pins then I close the lid back up and only open a few times a day for FAE. I don't think you are going to get away from misting/ manually giving FAE. Unless you automate your tent.
I have zero issue babying my grows, but for me it just looked worse and worse each time I opened a tub... more and more bruising, less water retained, each time I looked at them. That's not even going into the PF Tek. Those poor babies look like I have repreated thrown them off my roof or something.
While automation is so tempting, a lot of people here say that your Mark One Eyeball is a better measure of what's needed to gauge humidity wise than an rH meter.
That being said, Are you running your AC full time? This is a great dehumidifier.
Did you mean heater? AC's add humidity, not subtract. The only reason my house was at ~50-60% rH a few weeks ago was because the AC was running all the time... as it cools off here and the AC isn't on as much, the rH in my house is dropping pretty fast.
I would advise sealing your tent zippers with tape, zip tie your vents closed, start with nothing and try to hold and environment, then change it to your liking, stabilize, and automate.
This is what I was thinking too, but I lack a fan currently (not to mention a lot of people here don't recommend fans), and with all the issues keeping humidity in the tent as is, wasn't sure it was a good idea baseline.
I aim for 70° 35%RH and the tubs do the rest Check your surroundings as well, is there a vent blowing on your tent, is it touching an outside wall and getting heat? Ect.
I had not thought of that, and did an inspection around my tent. Sadly, none of those check out, but it is a good thought to remember for the future.
Hope this helps maybe your carpet is made out of desiccant 😂🤣.
Damn you desiccant carpets! KHAN!!!
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echochild
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: B Traven]
#28024064 - 10/30/22 07:04 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
B Traven said: I live in a climate where there's a couple months of truly cold weather, which means a couple months where the gas furnace is blasting almost all the time. The air gets severely dry, to the point of skin and respiratory issues. We run a humidifier for our own comfort, which seems to do enough for my tubs.
While I think this is somewhat a matter of "if you're comfortable, then so are they," I also think it sounds like there's not enough moisture to start out with.
I've been tempted to start with a little more than field capacity with my next tub, but was also worried about contam. But, as I also stated in the other replies, I wasn't casing, so I may test that first.
My first tub ever went do to Trich like a month and a half ago... and I suspect there is some form of mold in my house anyways that we can't find a source for, because fresh veggies tend to go moldy faster than expected here. I don't know if it's the house, or that we are buying our veggies at an off brand store (Aldi's back in Virginia had great prices like Winco does here, but man if you didn't use those veggies fast, mold city).
Cats? Forget it, man. I can't keep those fuckers out of anything. I just let go of it. I've also confirmed that my cats like to eat the little bits of dried mush that they find on the floor of the lab.
OMG, shroom cats! The tent keeps my little asshole out thankfully pretty well. I wonder if shrooms affect cats in similar ways to how catnip affects them.
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Sporical
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Re: Growing in a low humidity climate Thread [Re: echochild]
#28024388 - 10/30/22 11:54 AM (2 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
echochild said:
Quote:
Sporical said:
I as well live in a low RH 15-30%. I am baffled by your problem. I as well grow in a tent, before in a closet. I use 1:3 ish ratio 4qts spawn to 650g, 2C of V. So 10 qts total I then mix 2/3 sub with grain. And leave the last 1/3 to case with. At least an inch thick. Then compress!!
Thats about the same that I do, but I didn't do casing layers. I don't remember off the top of my head where I read it, but I remember seeing that casing layers are generally not needed. So I didn't case. But, like Baked and you have said, I think casing is a thing that I will need to do in the future.
Technically speaking it's not a casing layer as it is placed before the pins. But yes, add moisture retention.
My monos have 6, 1" holes as well. And I have to keep the lids cracked while pinning.from too much RH.
Out of curiosity, what is the ambient rH in your home?
Currently 18.9%
I leave my tubs sealed to colonize for two weeks. Then flip the lid. Till I see pins then I close the lid back up and only open a few times a day for FAE. I don't think you are going to get away from misting/ manually giving FAE. Unless you automate your tent.
I have zero issue babying my grows, but for me it just looked worse and worse each time I opened a tub... more and more bruising, less water retained, each time I looked at them. That's not even going into the PF Tek. Those poor babies look like I have repreated thrown them off my roof or something.
While automation is so tempting, a lot of people here say that your Mark One Eyeball is a better measure of what's needed to gauge humidity wise than an rH meter.
That being said, Are you running your AC full time? This is a great dehumidifier.
Did you mean heater? AC's add humidity, not subtract. The only reason my house was at ~50-60% rH a few weeks ago was because the AC was running all the time... as it cools off here and the AC isn't on as much, the rH in my house is dropping pretty fast.
No I meant AC. As I understand it cooler air holds less water, thus creating a dehumidifier.look up VPD it is used a lot in pot growing. But facts remain the same. Maybe your thinking of a swamp cooler?
I would advise sealing your tent zippers with tape, zip tie your vents closed, start with nothing and try to hold and environment, then change it to your liking, stabilize, and automate.
This is what I was thinking too, but I lack a fan currently (not to mention a lot of people here don't recommend fans), and with all the issues keeping humidity in the tent as is, wasn't sure it was a good idea baseline.
My fan is used for evacuation of excessive humidity. Not necessarily FAE. As baked and I said, I'm not creating a fruiting tent.I am tring to create a more suitable environment, so my tubs don't "work " as hard. The base line is just how I personally have set up every tent, hard to know if you are fighting yourself, if you don't know the tents natural sealed state.
I aim for 70° 35%RH and the tubs do the rest Check your surroundings as well, is there a vent blowing on your tent, is it touching an outside wall and getting heat? Ect.
I had not thought of that, and did an inspection around my tent. Sadly, none of those check out, but it is a good thought to remember for the future.
Hope this helps maybe your carpet is made out of desiccant 😂🤣.
Damn you desiccant carpets! KHAN!!!
-------------------- Buy the ticket take the ride.
H.S.T.
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