By maintaining your grow room at the right humidity level, you will allow your plants to flourish. Properly sized dehumidification will help ensure that the space can achieve target humidity setpoints. This will keep an optimum environment for plant health which will maximize yields and quality while reducing plant health issues like budrot and powdery mildew.
A typical air conditioner (without reheat) provides the majority of the dehumidification during “lights on”. When the lights go off, there is no longer a heat load that causes the air conditioner to run. Additionally, at colder temperatures and lower humidities, there is a capacity decrease in air conditioners and dehumidifiers. While some aim for aggressive conditions throughout the entire flowering cycle, many only drop to these setpoints during the final weeks of flower.
Due to the high amounts of moisture that plants put off, proper dehumidification is needed in the rooms to prevent condensation on the floors and walls. Standing water is not only a work hazard, but can also provide an environment for mold and other bacteria to grow.
Healthy plants need a supply of carbon dioxide (CO2) just as they need nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, or any other required nutrient. Often, grow rooms will add CO2 to the air so that they can maintain elevated levels of CO2 to benefit plant growth. It is important that there is sufficient airflow above and below the plant canopy so that the CO2 is spread evenly throughout the room.
The process of drying cannabis consists of removing most of the water in the bud by maintaining a humidity level between 45-60% RH. It is important to remove water in a timely manner so that the water activity is low enough to prevent mold and other bacteria from growing in the plant matter.
Quest dehumidifiers can efficiently hit the colder/drier target setpoints commonly used in dry rooms. If conditions are too cold to use refrigerant based dehumidification, Quest has a full line of desiccant dehumidifiers that can be used.
