Growing & Curing in Phoenix, issues

[phxazcraig]

I just wonder if anyone has either 'solved' this, or just come up with the best compromise? I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I have both temperature and humidity issues. I have some control, but basically cannot achieve the recommended targets for both.

Essentially it's just too hot and too dry here. I have a 4x4 grow tent in a bedroom, so air conditioned. The house is set to 77 degrees. IF I leave the grow room door open, I can achieve a tent temperature about 80-84. But then my humidity will drop to about 35% most of the time. (At night when the fan finally shuts off, the tent humidity might spike to 75%.)

Drying and Curing is a nightmare. If I stick my plants inside a big plastic bag while they are hanging, I can get drying time to extend to 3, maybe 4 days. I cannot achieve temps less than about 75-78 degrees, and I have little control over humidity as anytime the A/C comes on, any buildup of humidity in the room is gone. (Humidity can drop below 20% here in the winter.)

I don't know that I can do better than I already am, though I'm hopeful someone somewhere makes a small, reasonably-priced (for home grower) curing chamber. I can say that I still can get a decent yield (18 oz's in a 4x4 tent in soil), and if I put the harvest into jars a bit early (70% rh) and very often burp the jars until humidity drops I get decent-tasting product.

But I'd like to know how best to manage things when I really cannot keep the RH up or the temps down.

 

[AZsunfarmer]

Hey what’s up neighbor. I’m in the Coronado. Same types of problems. I don’t give that many fucks about the temps. I did my first indoor grow in a Pvc box I made that was about 6’x2’x1.75’. Less than ideal but I have no room to grow inside and growing outdoors during summer doesn’t work for me. I basically keep my house at 76 and my bathroom is at the other end and stays around 80. I have a fan in the box pushing air threw the plant and I have a small desk fan that pulls cool air from the outside at the bottom. The hot air naturally rises and get pushed threw the top of the grow box. My temps were in the mid/upper 80’s, these plants are resilient AF and if they are started from seed at these temps it doesn’t seem to be a problem. I kept the fans running 24/7. My indoor humidity in that bathroom was always between 40-60% with no work. You could always add a small humidifier to the box and use a humidity controller to cycle it off and on. I found that as the plant got bigger into flower it created enough humidity for me and when the buds get dense you want to err on the side of lower humidity to prevent mold. A foliar spray with some homemade lacto will help prevent mold growth too. I don’t stress temps and low humidity tho. Having it in the bathroom was advantageous because I just left the exhaust fan on and it pumped the smell out of the room and kept my house from stinking.

as for drying I used an old garage fridge that I used to use for a kegerator. I used a cheap temp controller to keep it at 60 which slowed the drying process to 14 days. I kept the door cracked and a fan on inside the fridge to monitor humidity. If it got too dry I would place a large bowl of water in front of the fan. I was able to keep humidity around 40-60 percent. When I’m not drying I store my harvest in grove bags in there at 60 all the time to keep it fresh.
None of these conditions are perfect but it did the job and the end product is better than the shit I used to buy at Curaleaf.

 

[phxazcraig]

Hey what’s up neighbor. I’m in the Coronado. Same types of problems. I don’t give that many fucks about the temps. I did my first indoor grow in a Pvc box I made that was about 6’x2’x1.75’. Less than ideal but I have no room to grow inside and growing outdoors during summer doesn’t work for me. I basically keep my house at 76 and my bathroom is at the other end and stays around 80. I have a fan in the box pushing air threw the plant and I have a small desk fan that pulls cool air from the outside at the bottom. The hot air naturally rises and get pushed threw the top of the grow box. My temps were in the mid/upper 80’s, these plants are resilient AF and if they are started from seed at these temps it doesn’t seem to be a problem. I kept the fans running 24/7. My indoor humidity in that bathroom was always between 40-60% with no work

What sort of lighting? I'm using a big LED light and a 6-inch exhaust fan right above that. It has a power control, and when I crank it up to a quarter power it puts out plenty of heat. The fan is on a temp controller that shuts down at 77f, goes off at 80F. Even though the fan changes all the air in the tent every minute, the temps in there are in the low 80's. I have a humidifier in there too, but you really can only control humidity in the whole room, if I have the exhaust duct dumping into the same room. But once the A/C comes on, the whole room is emptied and the humidity drops to about the same as the rest of the house. And after February or so the A/C will be running a lot to all the time. Anyway, I just can't see controlling the temperature and humidity in that room - unless I had an A/C just for that room. (Can't do that because of HOA rules.)

. You could always add a small humidifier to the box and use a humidity controller to cycle it off and on. I found that as the plant got bigger into flower it created enough humidity for me and when the buds get dense you want to err on the side of lower humidity to prevent mold. A foliar spray with some homemade lacto will help prevent mold growth too. I don’t stress temps and low humidity tho. Having it in the bathroom was advantageous because I just left the exhaust fan on and it pumped the smell out of the room and kept my house from stinking.

Once it gets hot - and the grow tent is in a hot upstairs corner room - I usually have the exhaust duct running out into the hall in order to keep that room down in the 80's in the tent.
Sure wish I had a basement.

as for drying I used an old garage fridge that I used to use for a kegerator. I used a cheap temp controller to keep it at 60 which slowed the drying process to 14 days. I kept the door cracked and a fan on inside the fridge to monitor humidity. If it got too dry I would place a large bowl of water in front of the fan. I was able to keep humidity around 40-60 percent. When I’m not drying I store my harvest in grove bags in there at 60 all the time to keep it fresh.

I have a refrigerator in the garage now, but I don't know how to keep it at 60F. (Plus it has food in it.) I'd like to know more about this though, as I really need to engineer up some sort of curing chamber to handle or pound or two a couple of times a year.

None of these conditions are perfect but it did the job and the end product is better than the shit I used to buy at Curaleaf.

I have to say I've been disappointed with Curaleaf purchases here too. Very dried out. I like to vape buds for taste, and I buy on smell and freshness. Giving Tree has been good about having good, fresh bud. Prices have been up since flu, and more since recreational here though.

Here's a shot of one of the auto's I grew last January. Purple Hulk - aptly named.

 

[DanC520]

I only know how I do it. Guest room converted to lung room. Keep door shut and has separate window ac unit. Humidity only an issue for me as in too much. I only use humidifiers in early veg. After that the plants make enough of their own. If anything too much humidity my issue. So lung room with ac unit and dehumidifier. Have dehumidifier set at 50% and ac unit, shitty older one, is run if getting warmer than I want in tents. I’m in Tucson. So pretty similar conditions.

 

[Newbelinginaz]

I just wonder if anyone has either 'solved' this, or just come up with the best compromise? I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I have both temperature and humidity issues. I have some control, but basically cannot achieve the recommended targets for both.

Essentially it's just too hot and too dry here. I have a 4x4 grow tent in a bedroom, so air conditioned. The house is set to 77 degrees. IF I leave the grow room door open, I can achieve a tent temperature about 80-84. But then my humidity will drop to about 35% most of the time. (At night when the fan finally shuts off, the tent humidity might spike to 75%.)

Drying and Curing is a nightmare. If I stick my plants inside a big plastic bag while they are hanging, I can get drying time to extend to 3, maybe 4 days. I cannot achieve temps less than about 75-78 degrees, and I have little control over humidity as anytime the A/C comes on, any buildup of humidity in the room is gone. (Humidity can drop below 20% here in the winter.)

I don't know that I can do better than I already am, though I'm hopeful someone somewhere makes a small, reasonably-priced (for home grower) curing chamber. I can say that I still can get a decent yield (18 oz's in a 4x4 tent in soil), and if I put the harvest into jars a bit early (70% rh) and very often burp the jars until humidity drops I get decent-tasting product.

But I'd like to know how best to manage things when I really cannot keep the RH up or the temps down.

As a Vally of the Sun dweller and new grower I had humidity issues at first. I could not achieve the perfect humidity the cool kids had. I solved my problem by ignoring it. My seedlings grow great with 25% humidity and with a full tent on watering day it reaches 50% humidity. Since I no longer have a humidity issue I can concentrate on air flow and temperature. I adjusted my airflow until my tent reached 80 temperature and I never turn my vent or fan off during the grow. My seedlings and larger plants are fine with this flow. Because I am a back room grower like you I have to have my vent fan in a sound box to control the noise. I used an old cooler for the sound box and it works great. Our differences are my house temperature is 70 in the winter and 75 in the summer. With these temperatures I can run two lights in the winter but only one in the summer and adjust the amount of plants to the light availiable. This is because each of my lights generate 5 degree temperature rise. Your temperature rise should be tested and air flow/light adjusted to your grow space.

For the two week drying I run a humidifier to reach 60% humidity and ignore temperature. Not the best but it works.

While my yield suffer a bit I know my limitations and it works. But some day I may just spend alot of money and be one of the cool kids.

 

[Whiskydrunk420]

I just wonder if anyone has either 'solved' this, or just come up with the best compromise? I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I have both temperature and humidity issues. I have some control, but basically cannot achieve the recommended targets for both.

Essentially it's just too hot and too dry here. I have a 4x4 grow tent in a bedroom, so air conditioned. The house is set to 77 degrees. IF I leave the grow room door open, I can achieve a tent temperature about 80-84. But then my humidity will drop to about 35% most of the time. (At night when the fan finally shuts off, the tent humidity might spike to 75%.)

Drying and Curing is a nightmare. If I stick my plants inside a big plastic bag while they are hanging, I can get drying time to extend to 3, maybe 4 days. I cannot achieve temps less than about 75-78 degrees, and I have little control over humidity as anytime the A/C comes on, any buildup of humidity in the room is gone. (Humidity can drop below 20% here in the winter.)

I don't know that I can do better than I already am, though I'm hopeful someone somewhere makes a small, reasonably-priced (for home grower) curing chamber. I can say that I still can get a decent yield (18 oz's in a 4x4 tent in soil), and if I put the harvest into jars a bit early (70% rh) and very often burp the jars until humidity drops I get decent-tasting product.

But I'd like to know how best to manage things when I really cannot keep the RH up or the temps dow

I just wonder if anyone has either 'solved' this, or just come up with the best compromise? I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I have both temperature and humidity issues. I have some control, but basically cannot achieve the recommended targets for both.

Essentially it's just too hot and too dry here. I have a 4x4 grow tent in a bedroom, so air conditioned. The house is set to 77 degrees. IF I leave the grow room door open, I can achieve a tent temperature about 80-84. But then my humidity will drop to about 35% most of the time. (At night when the fan finally shuts off, the tent humidity might spike to 75%.)

Drying and Curing is a nightmare. If I stick my plants inside a big plastic bag while they are hanging, I can get drying time to extend to 3, maybe 4 days. I cannot achieve temps less than about 75-78 degrees, and I have little control over humidity as anytime the A/C comes on, any buildup of humidity in the room is gone. (Humidity can drop below 20% here in the winter.)

I don't know that I can do better than I already am, though I'm hopeful someone somewhere makes a small, reasonably-priced (for home grower) curing chamber. I can say that I still can get a decent yield (18 oz's in a 4x4 tent in soil), and if I put the harvest into jars a bit early (70% rh) and very often burp the jars until humidity drops I get decent-tasting product.

But I'd like to know how best to manage things when I really cannot keep the RH up or the temps down.

I have a humidifier outside my tent , just a cheap POS I got from Walmart. That keeps me around 40-50% I usually try to keep my bedroom some what cool , I also dial my light up or down depending on the temp I do the same with my ac infinity fan and it goes out the window. I do good with this method .

 

[Stonemason7767]

I just wonder if anyone has either 'solved' this, or just come up with the best compromise? I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I have both temperature and humidity issues. I have some control, but basically cannot achieve the recommended targets for both.

Essentially it's just too hot and too dry here. I have a 4x4 grow tent in a bedroom, so air conditioned. The house is set to 77 degrees. IF I leave the grow room door open, I can achieve a tent temperature about 80-84. But then my humidity will drop to about 35% most of the time. (At night when the fan finally shuts off, the tent humidity might spike to 75%.)

Drying and Curing is a nightmare. If I stick my plants inside a big plastic bag while they are hanging, I can get drying time to extend to 3, maybe 4 days. I cannot achieve temps less than about 75-78 degrees, and I have little control over humidity as anytime the A/C comes on, any buildup of humidity in the room is gone. (Humidity can drop below 20% here in the winter.)

I don't know that I can do better than I already am, though I'm hopeful someone somewhere makes a small, reasonably-priced (for home grower) curing chamber. I can say that I still can get a decent yield (18 oz's in a 4x4 tent in soil), and if I put the harvest into jars a bit early (70% rh) and very often burp the jars until humidity drops I get decent-tasting product.

But I'd like to know how best to manage things when I really cannot keep the RH up or the temps down

 

[CannaDana]

I live in Southern California, which isn't quite as challenging as where you are, but still has its challenges. I'll tell you what I'm doing right now for drying, and it's working well.

I have a room. It is air conditioned. Inside the room, I have a tent in which the bud is drying. Inside the tent I have a portable air conditioner, an oil heater, a humidifier, and a dehumidifier that I have connected to Inkbird controllers. I set the temperature on the controllers to 60 degrees, and the humidity to 60%. Both are set with a tolerance of one degree/percent. So, if the temp gets off by 1 degree too warm, the portable air conditioner comes on. If it's 1 degree too cold, the heater comes on. Likewise with the humidity. When RH reaches 61% the dehumidifier comes on, and when it falls to 59% the humidifier comes on. This forces everything to stay within a narrow range. On days when the air temps are in the 90s, that portable air conditioner is still able to keep temps inside the tent controlled.

I'm double-insulated from the weather in that between the weather and the plants I have the walls of the house, air conditioned inside, then the walls of the tent, and air conditioned inside that, too. That gives me protection from the elements, and the air conditioner, et al., in the tent need only control a very tiny space, which they do well.

I keep the Inkbird controllers outside the tent so I can monitor them. Humidity is on the left, temperature on the right. These controllers were very cheap on Amazon. Note that they are each set at 60 (bottom number) and the actual temp/RH (top number) is able to be maintained less than one degree/percent from the setting.

By the way, when I'm growing, the air conditioner, heater, humidifier, and dehumidifier are outside the tent, just in the general room. They control the room well enough. My exhaust fan inside the tent pulls the air in from the room through the bottom vents, which is enough to keep temps and humidity within growing parameters. I also allow temps and humidity to have bigger swings when growing. And that seems to work just fine, for me.

 

[freezeland2]

I live in Southern California, which isn't quite as challenging as where you are, but still has its challenges. I'll tell you what I'm doing right now for drying, and it's working well.

I have a room. It is air conditioned. Inside the room, I have a tent in which the bud is drying. Inside the tent I have a portable air conditioner, an oil heater, a humidifier, and a dehumidifier that I have connected to Inkbird controllers. I set the temperature on the controllers to 60 degrees, and the humidity to 60%. If it gets off by 1 degree to warm, the portable air conditioner comes on. If it's 1 degree too cold, the heater comes on. Likewise with the humidity. When RH reaches 61% the dehumidifier comes on, and when it falls to 59% the humidifier comes on. This forces everything to stay within a narrow range.

I'm double-insulated from the weather, in that I have the walls of the house, air conditioned inside, then the walls of the tent, and air conditioned inside that, too. That gives me protection from the elements, and the air conditioner, et al., in the tent must only control a very tiny space, which they do well.View attachment 1242239
View attachment 1242240

What humidifier are you using? Likewise for dehumidifier. I can’t seem to find ones that auto restart after power is interrupted. Did you modify their circuitry?

 

[KaltKaiser]

I got a old wine fridge off offers up for 80 bucks and I repaired it. It goes from like 40 to 64 degrees Fahrenheit. It's perfect, I get 14 day dry and it maintains humidity pretty well. Only issue is space, so I wet cut the colas down to mainly bud and frosty sugar leaves then stick them on the racks and they turn out amazing. I'm out of avondale so I understand the dry hot air, and shitty tap water lol

 

[CannaDana]

What humidifier are you using? Likewise for dehumidifier. I can’t seem to find ones that auto restart after power is interrupted. Did you modify their circuitry?

LOL! No, I didn't modify any circuitry. I'm a 66-year old woman without electrical knowledge, so I'm not getting into that. I bought things that just work with the controllers.

These are the controllers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N56KEU6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

This is the humidifier: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O0WOO74/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And the dehumidifier is by IdealAir, and is like this one but is smaller: https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-Air-De...9Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

 

[freezeland2]

LOL! No, I didn't modify any circuitry. I'm a 66-year old woman without electrical knowledge, so I'm not getting into that. I bought things that just work with the controllers.

These are the controllers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N56KEU6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

This is the humidifier: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00O0WOO74/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And the dehumidifier is by IdealAir, and is like this one but is smaller: https://www.amazon.com/Ideal-Air-Dehumidifier-Portable-Dehumidistat-Included/dp/B01MTVHB2O/ref=sr_1_4_sspa?crid=2GCOXFDALYLQK&keywords=ideal+air+dehumidifier&qid=1651847460&sprefix=idealair+de,aps,515&sr=8-4-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzSFBaUjhKOVZSNjM1JmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzg0MTY3MzkzREpDUkw5UDZKRCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzg0NTUxMzk1SjFZVVNXQk8yNCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

Thanks. I have a few of each of those controllers. My heater is auto on with power restoration. I have a Hisense dehumidifier and homemedics humidifier. Both those need their power button pushed to on if power is interrupted. I gave up trying to run them on inkbirds because of it.

 

[MacroLogos]

I just wonder if anyone has either 'solved' this, or just come up with the best compromise? I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and I have both temperature and humidity issues. I have some control, but basically cannot achieve the recommended targets for both.

Essentially it's just too hot and too dry here. I have a 4x4 grow tent in a bedroom, so air conditioned. The house is set to 77 degrees. IF I leave the grow room door open, I can achieve a tent temperature about 80-84. But then my humidity will drop to about 35% most of the time. (At night when the fan finally shuts off, the tent humidity might spike to 75%.)

Drying and Curing is a nightmare. If I stick my plants inside a big plastic bag while they are hanging, I can get drying time to extend to 3, maybe 4 days. I cannot achieve temps less than about 75-78 degrees, and I have little control over humidity as anytime the A/C comes on, any buildup of humidity in the room is gone. (Humidity can drop below 20% here in the winter.)

I don't know that I can do better than I already am, though I'm hopeful someone somewhere makes a small, reasonably-priced (for home grower) curing chamber. I can say that I still can get a decent yield (18 oz's in a 4x4 tent in soil), and if I put the harvest into jars a bit early (70% rh) and very often burp the jars until humidity drops I get decent-tasting product.

But I'd like to know how best to manage things when I really cannot keep the RH up or the temps down.

You have a very different setup than I do, I am using an evaporative cooler and a dual vent fan system (x2 AC Inf. T6s) for a 4x4x7 tent, in an uninsulated outdoor space in Casa Grande... so it's a *very* different setup and a bit high maintenance. ;-)

That said, in your situation, I'd buy a good reptial fogger with good humidity control and a large water reservoir because it will likely run all the time due to the AC dehumidifying the air. I'm not sure if any reptile foggers have an external probe for temp/RH, but if so, I'd run the fogger outside of the tent (with the probe inside) and inject humidity into a run of ductwork attached to an intake fan. You want the air to enter the tent at ideal temp/RH, not try and rehumidify the air after it's in the tent if possible.

That would give the tent some pretty stable humidity control.

If reptial foggers only have embeded sensors, it can be run in the tent and would absolutly help... but it will be a bit looser on control. You'll have to settle for keeping things *near* optimal conditions, because you won't have as much precision.